🔗 Share this article

Could those early viewers who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob adventures have predicted the franchise persisting for a 25 years, even after experiencing the most lysergic of plotlines? This longevity is in part due to its broad appeal, amusing the sense of humor of adults – possibly even those former students – alongside the youngest viewers. Although it may not feature anything as surprising as the memorable David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 movie, this fourth feature has no qualms about making Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while dispensing royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems everything remains possible in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Goofy Groove

Starting with a holiday short featuring Paramount's alternative long-running family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob movie quickly settles into a comfortably silly groove. Its storyline serves as a PG-rated treatise on the pros and cons of growing up. 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 fantasy coaster. (An early, trippy laugh: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, as in the best modern American cartoons, the true thrill ride is the twisting narrative.

The Adventure for Swashbuckling Proof

SpongeBob's mission to secure the fabled pirate license that will declare him a “big guy” brings him into a showdown with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ubiquitous Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ship introduces a larger scale, the film's visual style remains a delightful bricolage of digimation and hand-crafted elements, forever showcasing pleasing, properly cartoonish visuals.

If its spitballing silliness will resonate after the credits is up for discussion, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.

Memorable scenes include SpongeBob wedging himself into an air conditioner and emerging inexplicably squarer than before; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a penalty sure to resonate with the younger audience: our hero being forced into endless dishwashing.

The Verdict

Ultimately, Search for SquarePants is a solid addition to the series – and perhaps the funniest Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, encompassing a hearty Davy Jones gag and a cheekily suggestive saying for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's clear: those original fans will likely be chuckling anew.

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.