🔗 Share this article

Could those original fans who chuckled through the first SpongeBob adventures have predicted the franchise persisting for a 25 years, even after absorbing the most surreal of plotlines? Such staying power is in part due to its wide-ranging appeal, amusing the funny bones of adults – possibly even those now grown students – alongside the very young viewers. While it may not feature anything quite as unexpected as a certain legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 movie, this latest movie has no qualms about having Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while dispensing payments to music icons like Barbra Streisand. This proves anything remains possible in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Zany Groove

Starting with a holiday short starring Paramount's other weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob movie soon settles into a comfortably silly groove. Its storyline serves as a family-friendly exploration on the pros and cons of growing up. This iteration of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now stands a specific height, a detail that thrills him as it finally allows him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An initial, trippy gag: our enthusiastic hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) However, like the finest modern American animation, the real rollercoaster is the twisting narrative.

The Quest for Pirate Credentials

SpongeBob's mission to obtain the fabled swashbuckler certificate that will declare him a “big guy” leads him into conflict with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the currently ubiquitous Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ghost ship adds a grander scope, the movie's visual style remains a charming mix of digimation and hand-turned components, consistently highlighting pleasing, properly animated effects.

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

Notable moments include SpongeBob squeezing himself into an air conditioner and emerging inexplicably more rectangular than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a penalty guaranteed to resonate with the six-year-old crowd: our hero being forced into never-ending dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, Search for SquarePants stands as a solid entry to the series – and arguably the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, encompassing a robust Davy Jones gag and a saltily suggestive saying for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's clear: those original students will probably be chuckling anew.

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