🔗 Share this article

Could those early viewers who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob adventures have predicted the series persisting for a quarter-century, even after experiencing the most surreal of plotlines? This staying power is partly attributed to its wide-ranging charm, amusing the funny bones of grown-ups – perhaps even those now grown students – alongside the youngest viewers. While it may not feature anything as unexpected as a certain memorable David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 movie, this fourth feature has no qualms about having Clancy Brown talk like a pirate while handing out royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems anything remains possible in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.

A Familiar Zany Vibe

Kicking off with a festive short starring Paramount's alternative weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob film soon finds a recognizably silly groove. Its script acts as a PG-rated treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of maturity. This iteration of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now measures a specific height, a fact that thrills him as it finally allows him to experience his fantasy coaster. (An early, trippy laugh: our enthusiastic hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) However, as in the finest modern American animation, the true rollercoaster is the twisting plotting.

The Quest for Swashbuckling Proof

SpongeBob's quest to obtain the fabled swashbuckler certificate that will declare him a “big guy” leads him into a showdown with the spectral Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the suddenly ubiquitous Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ghost ship introduces a larger scale, the movie's visual style remains a delightful bricolage of digital animation and hand-crafted components, forever highlighting satisfying, properly cartoonish effects.

If its spitballing humor will linger when the lights come up is debatable, but it's a strong SpongeBob movie.

Memorable scenes feature SpongeBob squeezing himself into an AC unit and emerging somehow more rectangular than ever; a cameo from a pair of chattering novelty false teeth; and a punishment guaranteed to delight the six-year-old crowd: our hero being forced into endless dishwashing.

The Verdict

In the end, Search for SquarePants stands as a solid addition to the franchise – and perhaps the most humorous pirate-themed movie in years, encompassing a hearty Davy Jones gag and a cheekily innuendo-laden saying for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's certain: those original students will likely be chuckling all over again.

Coming to Theaters: 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.