🔗 Share this article

Would the original fans who laughed through the first SpongeBob escapades have envisioned the series persisting for a 25 years, following experiencing the most surreal of narrative twists? Such staying power is partly attributed to its wide-ranging charm, tickling the sense of humor of grown-ups – possibly even those now grown students – as well as the very young viewers. While it can't claim anything as unexpected as a certain legendary David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 film, 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 can still in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Zany Groove

Kicking off with a festive short featuring Paramount's alternative long-running 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 treatise on the pros and cons of growing up. This iteration of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now stands a specific height, a detail that excites him as it at last allows him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An early, psychedelic laugh: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, as in the best contemporary American cartoons, the true rollercoaster is the corkscrew plotting.

The Adventure for Pirate Proof

SpongeBob's quest to secure the fabled pirate license that will declare him a “big guy” brings him into conflict with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ubiquitous Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ghost ship adds a grander scope, the movie's aesthetic remains a charming bricolage of digimation and hand-crafted components, consistently showcasing pleasing, properly animated effects.

Whether its freewheeling humor 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 emerging inexplicably squarer than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment sure to delight the six-year-old audience: our hero being forced into endless dishwashing.

The Verdict

Ultimately, Search for SquarePants stands as a solid entry to the franchise – and perhaps the funniest pirate-themed movie in years, encompassing a robust Davy Jones gag and a cheekily innuendo-laden catchphrase for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is clear: those early fans will likely be chuckling anew.

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