SpongeBob's Latest: Search for SquarePants Review – A Swashbuckling Dose of Snicker-Inducing Silliness

Would the original fans who chuckled through the first SpongeBob escapades have envisioned the series enduring for a 25 years, following absorbing the most surreal of plotlines? This longevity is partly due to its wide-ranging charm, tickling the funny bones of grown-ups – possibly even those now grown students – alongside the very young viewers. While it may not feature anything quite as unexpected as the legendary David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 movie, this latest movie thinks nothing of making a veteran voice actor speak as a pirate while dispensing payments to music icons like Barbra Streisand. This proves anything remains possible in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Zany Groove

Starting with a festive short featuring Paramount's other long-running family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob movie soon settles into a comfortably goofy rhythm. Its script serves as a family-friendly exploration on the advantages and disadvantages of growing up. This version of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now stands 36 clams high, a detail that excites him as it at last allows him to experience his dream rollercoaster. (An initial, trippy gag: our overexcitable hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) However, as in the finest modern American cartoons, the real rollercoaster is the corkscrew narrative.

The Adventure for Swashbuckling Proof

SpongeBob's quest to secure the legendary swashbuckler certificate that will declare him a “big guy” brings him into a showdown with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ubiquitous Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ship adds a larger scale, the movie's visual style remains a charming mix of digimation and hand-turned components, consistently highlighting pleasing, properly animated effects.

Whether its freewheeling silliness will linger when the lights come up is up for discussion, but it's a strong SpongeBob movie.

Memorable scenes feature SpongeBob squeezing himself into an air conditioner and coming out inexplicably squarer than before; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment sure to delight the six-year-old crowd: our hero being subjected to endless dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, Search for SquarePants is a solid entry to the franchise – and perhaps the funniest pirate-themed movie in years, encompassing a hearty Davy Jones gag and a cheekily 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.

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