SpongeBob's Latest: Search for SquarePants Review – An Adventurous Helping of Giggle-Provoking Silliness

Would the early viewers who laughed through the initial SpongeBob adventures have envisioned the series enduring for a quarter-century, even after absorbing the most lysergic of narrative twists? Such longevity is partly attributed to its wide-ranging charm, amusing the funny bones of grown-ups – possibly even those now grown students – as well as the very young viewers. While it may not feature anything as unexpected as a certain legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 movie, this latest movie thinks nothing of making a veteran voice actor talk like a pirate while dispensing payments to stars like Barbra Streisand. It seems everything remains possible in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Goofy Groove

Kicking off with a festive short featuring Paramount's alternative weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob film soon finds a comfortably goofy rhythm. Its script acts as a PG-rated treatise on the pros and cons of maturity. This iteration of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now stands a specific height, a detail that thrills him as it at last qualifies him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An initial, psychedelic gag: our enthusiastic hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) However, like the best modern American cartoons, the real rollercoaster is the corkscrew plotting.

The Adventure for Swashbuckling Proof

SpongeBob's mission to obtain the fabled swashbuckler certificate that will prove him a “big guy” brings him into a showdown with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, voiced by the suddenly ever-present Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ship adds a larger scale, the movie's visual style remains a delightful bricolage of digimation and hand-turned elements, consistently highlighting satisfying, properly animated effects.

Whether its spitballing silliness will resonate after the credits is debatable, but it's a strong SpongeBob movie.

Memorable scenes include SpongeBob wedging himself into an AC unit and coming out inexplicably squarer than before; a cameo from a pair of chattering novelty false teeth; and a penalty guaranteed to delight the younger crowd: our hero being subjected to endless dishwashing.

The Verdict

In the end, Search for SquarePants is a reliable entry to the series – and arguably the most humorous pirate-themed movie recently, including a robust Davy Jones gag and a saltily suggestive catchphrase for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's clear: those original students 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 December 26th in Australia and the UK.