The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants Review – A Swashbuckling Helping of Giggle-Provoking Silliness

Could those early viewers who laughed through the initial SpongeBob adventures have envisioned the series enduring for a quarter-century, following absorbing the most lysergic of plotlines? Such staying power is in part attributed to its wide-ranging appeal, tickling the funny bones of grown-ups – perhaps even those former students – alongside the youngest viewers. While it can't claim anything as unexpected as a certain memorable David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 film, this latest movie thinks nothing of making Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while handing out royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. This proves everything can still in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Goofy Groove

Starting with a holiday short featuring Paramount's alternative weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob film quickly finds a comfortably silly groove. Its storyline acts as a family-friendly exploration on the pros and cons of growing up. This iteration of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now measures a specific height, a detail that thrills him as it at last allows him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An early, trippy gag: our overexcitable hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) However, like the finest modern American animation, the true thrill ride is the twisting plotting.

The Adventure for Pirate Credentials

SpongeBob's quest to secure the fabled swashbuckler certificate that will prove him a “big guy” leads him into conflict with the spectral Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the suddenly ubiquitous Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ghost ship introduces a grander scope, the movie's visual style remains a delightful bricolage of digimation and hand-crafted components, consistently highlighting satisfying, properly cartoonish effects.

If its spitballing humor will linger after the credits is debatable, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.

Memorable moments feature SpongeBob squeezing 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 penalty sure to resonate with the six-year-old audience: our hero being forced into endless dishwashing.

The Verdict

Ultimately, Search for SquarePants stands as a reliable addition to the series – and perhaps the funniest pirate-themed movie in years, encompassing a robust Davy Jones gag and a cheekily innuendo-laden saying for SpongeBob's pal 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 December 19th in the US, December 20th in Ireland, and December 26th in Australia and the UK.