🔗 Share this article

Could those early viewers who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob escapades have predicted the franchise enduring for a 25 years, even after absorbing the most surreal of narrative twists? This staying power is in part due to its wide-ranging charm, amusing the sense of humor of adults – possibly even those now grown students – alongside the youngest viewers. Although it can't claim anything quite as surprising as the legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 movie, this fourth feature has no qualms about making Clancy Brown talk like a pirate while handing out payments to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems anything can still in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Goofy Vibe

Starting with a festive short featuring Paramount's other weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob film quickly finds a recognizably silly groove. Its script acts as a family-friendly treatise on the pros and cons of growing up. This iteration of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now stands 36 clams high, a fact that thrills him as it at last allows him to ride his dream rollercoaster. (An early, psychedelic gag: our overexcitable hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) However, as in the finest modern American animation, the true thrill ride is the twisting plotting.

The Quest for Swashbuckling Proof

SpongeBob's quest to obtain the legendary swashbuckler certificate that will declare him a “big guy” brings him into a showdown with the spectral Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ever-present Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ghost ship introduces a grander scope, the film's aesthetic remains a charming bricolage of digital animation and hand-crafted elements, consistently highlighting pleasing, properly animated visuals.

Whether its freewheeling silliness will linger after the credits is debatable, but it's a strong SpongeBob movie.

Notable scenes feature SpongeBob squeezing himself into an AC unit and coming out inexplicably more rectangular than ever; a cameo from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a penalty sure to resonate with the younger audience: our hero being subjected to endless dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Search for SquarePants is a reliable entry to the franchise – and arguably the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie recently, encompassing a hearty Davy Jones joke and a cheekily suggestive catchphrase for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is certain: those early students will probably be snickering all over again.

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