🔗 Share this article

Could those early viewers who laughed through the first SpongeBob escapades have predicted the series persisting for a 25 years, following absorbing the most lysergic of plotlines? This staying power is partly due to its wide-ranging charm, tickling the sense of humor of adults – possibly even those now grown students – as well as the very young viewers. Although it can't claim anything quite as unexpected as a certain memorable David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 movie, this fourth feature has no qualms about making a veteran voice actor talk like a pirate while dispensing payments to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems everything can still in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Goofy Vibe

Starting with a festive short starring Paramount's alternative weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob film soon settles into a comfortably goofy rhythm. Its storyline acts as a family-friendly treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of maturity. This version of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now measures a specific height, a fact that thrills him as it at last allows him to experience his dream rollercoaster. (An initial, psychedelic gag: our overexcitable hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) Yet, like the best contemporary American cartoons, the true thrill ride is the corkscrew narrative.

The Quest for Pirate Proof

SpongeBob's mission to obtain the fabled pirate license that will declare him a “big guy” leads him into conflict 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 aesthetic remains a charming mix of digital animation and hand-crafted elements, consistently highlighting pleasing, authentically cartoonish effects.

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

Notable scenes include SpongeBob wedging himself into an AC unit and coming out inexplicably more rectangular than ever; a cameo from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment sure to resonate with the six-year-old crowd: our hero being subjected to never-ending dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, Search for SquarePants stands as a solid entry to the series – and perhaps the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie recently, including a robust Davy Jones gag and a cheekily innuendo-laden saying for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's certain: those early students will probably be snickering all over again.

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