🔗 Share this article

Would the early viewers who laughed through the first SpongeBob adventures have envisioned the franchise enduring for a quarter-century, following experiencing the most surreal of narrative twists? Such staying power is in part attributed to its broad charm, amusing the sense of humor of grown-ups – possibly even those now grown students – alongside the very young viewers. Although it may not feature anything quite as unexpected as the memorable David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 movie, this latest movie has no qualms about making Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while dispensing payments to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems anything remains possible in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

A Familiar Goofy Groove

Starting with a holiday short featuring Paramount's other long-running family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob movie soon finds a comfortably goofy groove. Its storyline acts as a family-friendly treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of maturity. This iteration of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now stands 36 clams high, a fact that thrills him as it at last qualifies him to ride his dream rollercoaster. (An early, trippy gag: our enthusiastic hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) Yet, like the best modern American cartoons, the real rollercoaster is the twisting plotting.

The Adventure for Swashbuckling Credentials

SpongeBob's quest to secure the fabled swashbuckler certificate that will declare him a “big guy” brings him into a showdown with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the currently ever-present Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ship introduces a grander scope, the movie's aesthetic remains a delightful bricolage of digital animation and hand-turned elements, forever showcasing satisfying, authentically cartoonish effects.

If its freewheeling silliness will linger after the credits is up for discussion, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.

Notable scenes feature SpongeBob wedging himself into an AC unit and emerging inexplicably more rectangular than ever; a cameo from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a penalty sure to delight the six-year-old audience: our hero being subjected to never-ending dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, Search for SquarePants is a reliable addition to the series – and perhaps the funniest Pirates of the Caribbean movie recently, including a hearty Davy Jones joke and a saltily innuendo-laden saying for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is certain: those original fans will likely be chuckling anew.

Coming to Theaters: The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants arrives on 19 December in the US, December 20th in Ireland, and 26 December in Australia and the UK.