 " The Sponge Who Could Fly " was written by Paul Tibbitt , Kent Osborne and Merriwether Williams , with Andrew Overtoom serving as animation director . Tibbitt and Osborne also functioned as storyboard directors , and Carson Kugler , Caleb Meurer , and William Reiss worked as storyboard artists . The episode originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on March 21 , 2003 , with a TV @-@ Y7 parental rating . " The Sponge Who Could Fly " was one of the few episodes of the third season that aired during the production of the series ' 2004 feature film . In 2002 , series creator Stephen Hillenburg , with his crew , halted production of the show to work on the film , resulting in few airings of new episodes . Nickelodeon announced nine " as @-@ yet @-@ unaired " episodes would be shown . During the break in TV production , " The Sponge Who Could Fly " first aired during a two @-@ hour " Sponge " -a @-@ thon , while the other eight were broadcast subsequently . 
