The trouble begins when Plankton, the scheming owner of the Chum Bucket, builds a new machine called the Duplicatotron 3000 to churn out a robot army and conquer the world — only to realize too late that its obedience switch is stuck on "Don't Obey." His own creations promptly boot him out and seize the Chum Bucket for themselves, leaving Bikini Bottom overrun with rogue machines.
Meanwhile, SpongeBob and Patrick, playing with toy robots, wish aloud for real ones, and Patrick's "magic wishing shell" seems to grant it. SpongeBob wakes to a trashed house and a fax from Mr. Krabs, who promises a golden spatula for every batch of shiny objects collected. Outside, he runs into a sulking Plankton, who spins a web of lies about the robots appearing from nowhere and throwing him out. Taken in by the tiny villain, SpongeBob sets off on a sprawling quest — gathering golden spatulas, trading shiny objects to Mr. Krabs, clearing out the robots, hunting down Patrick's stolen socks, and scheming to get Plankton back into the Chum Bucket — all while bungee jumping, blowing bubbles, mastering new bubble moves from Bubble Buddy, and even adventuring through dreams along the way.