🔗 Share this article

Would the early viewers who laughed through the initial SpongeBob adventures have envisioned the franchise persisting for a 25 years, even after absorbing the most surreal of narrative twists? This staying power is partly due to its wide-ranging charm, tickling the sense of humor of adults – perhaps even those former students – as well as the youngest viewers. While it can't claim anything as unexpected as a certain memorable David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 movie, this fourth feature thinks nothing of having a veteran voice actor speak as 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 Groove

Kicking off with a festive short starring Paramount's alternative weathered family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob movie soon settles into a comfortably goofy rhythm. Its script serves as a PG-rated exploration on the pros and cons of maturity. This iteration of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now measures 36 clams high, a detail that thrills him as it at last qualifies him to experience his fantasy coaster. (An early, trippy gag: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, like the best modern American cartoons, the real rollercoaster is the corkscrew plotting.

The Quest for Pirate Proof

SpongeBob's quest to secure the legendary pirate license that will declare him a “big guy” brings him into a showdown with the spectral Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the suddenly ever-present Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ship introduces a larger scale, the movie's visual style remains a delightful mix of digimation and hand-crafted elements, forever showcasing pleasing, properly cartoonish visuals.

Whether its freewheeling silliness will resonate when the lights come up is debatable, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.

Memorable scenes include SpongeBob squeezing himself into an air conditioner and emerging inexplicably squarer than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering novelty false teeth; and a penalty guaranteed to resonate with the younger crowd: our hero being forced into endless dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Search for SquarePants is a solid addition to the franchise – and perhaps the funniest Pirates of the Caribbean movie recently, including a hearty Davy Jones joke and a saltily suggestive catchphrase for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is certain: those original students will likely be snickering all over again.

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