🔗 Share this article

Would the early viewers who laughed through the first SpongeBob adventures have predicted the franchise enduring for a quarter-century, even after absorbing the most lysergic of narrative twists? This longevity is in part due to its wide-ranging appeal, amusing the sense of humor of grown-ups – perhaps even those now grown students – alongside the very young viewers. Although it may not feature anything as surprising as a certain memorable David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 movie, this latest movie has no qualms about making Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while dispensing royalty cheques to stars like Barbra Streisand. It seems anything can still in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Zany Groove

Starting with a festive short featuring Paramount's alternative weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob film quickly finds a comfortably silly groove. Its storyline acts as a PG-rated treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of growing up. This iteration of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now measures a specific height, a detail that thrills him as it finally qualifies him to experience his dream rollercoaster. (An early, psychedelic gag: our overexcitable hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) However, as in the best modern American cartoons, the real rollercoaster is the twisting narrative.

The Quest for Swashbuckling Credentials

SpongeBob's mission to secure the fabled pirate license that will prove him a “big guy” leads him into conflict with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ever-present Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ship adds a larger scale, the film's aesthetic remains a delightful bricolage of digimation and hand-turned elements, consistently highlighting pleasing, properly animated effects.

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

Notable scenes feature SpongeBob wedging himself into an air conditioner and coming out inexplicably more rectangular than before; a cameo from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment sure to delight the younger crowd: our hero being subjected to endless dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Search for SquarePants is a reliable addition to the series – and arguably the funniest pirate-themed movie in years, including a robust Davy Jones gag and a cheekily suggestive saying for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's clear: those original students will probably be chuckling all over again.

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