🔗 Share this article

Could those original fans who chuckled through the first SpongeBob escapades have predicted the franchise persisting for a quarter-century, even after experiencing the most surreal of plotlines? This staying power is in part due to its wide-ranging charm, amusing the sense of humor of grown-ups – perhaps even those now grown students – alongside the youngest viewers. Although it can't claim anything quite as surprising as a certain memorable David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 film, this latest movie has no qualms about having Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while dispensing payments to stars like Barbra Streisand. This proves anything can still in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

A Familiar Zany Groove

Kicking off with a festive short featuring Paramount's other long-running family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob film quickly finds a recognizably goofy groove. Its script acts as a family-friendly treatise on the pros and cons of maturity. This version of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now measures a specific height, a detail that thrills him as it at last qualifies him to ride his dream rollercoaster. (An early, trippy laugh: our overexcitable hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) Yet, like the finest modern American cartoons, the true rollercoaster is the corkscrew plotting.

The Quest for Pirate Proof

SpongeBob's mission 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 currently ever-present Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ghost ship introduces a grander scope, the movie's visual style remains a delightful mix of digimation and hand-turned components, consistently highlighting pleasing, authentically cartoonish visuals.

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

Memorable moments include SpongeBob squeezing himself into an AC unit and emerging somehow more rectangular than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a penalty sure to resonate with the younger crowd: our hero being subjected to endless dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Search for SquarePants stands as a reliable addition to the series – and perhaps the funniest Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, including a robust Davy Jones gag and a saltily innuendo-laden saying for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is certain: those original fans will probably be chuckling all over again.

Release Dates: 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.