SpongeBob's Latest: Search for SquarePants Review – An Adventurous Helping of Snicker-Inducing Fun

Would the early viewers who laughed through the first SpongeBob escapades have predicted the series persisting for a quarter-century, even after experiencing the most surreal of plotlines? Such staying power is partly due to its broad appeal, tickling the funny bones of adults – perhaps even those now grown students – alongside the youngest viewers. While it may not feature anything as unexpected as a certain memorable David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 movie, this fourth feature has no qualms about making Clancy Brown talk like a pirate while handing out payments to stars like Barbra Streisand. It seems anything can still in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

A Familiar Zany Vibe

Starting with a festive short featuring Paramount's other weathered family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob movie soon finds a recognizably silly groove. Its script serves as a family-friendly treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of growing up. This version of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now measures a specific height, a fact that excites him as it at last allows him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An initial, psychedelic laugh: our overexcitable hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) Yet, like the finest contemporary American animation, the true thrill ride is the twisting plotting.

The Quest for Swashbuckling Credentials

SpongeBob's quest to secure the fabled pirate license that will prove him a “big guy” leads him into conflict with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, voiced by the suddenly ubiquitous Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ship introduces a larger scale, the movie's visual style remains a charming bricolage of digimation and hand-turned elements, forever highlighting pleasing, properly cartoonish effects.

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

Memorable moments feature SpongeBob wedging himself into an AC unit and emerging somehow more rectangular than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a penalty guaranteed to delight the younger crowd: our hero being forced into never-ending dishwashing.

The Verdict

Ultimately, Search for SquarePants is a reliable entry to the series – and perhaps the most humorous pirate-themed movie recently, including a hearty Davy Jones joke and a cheekily suggestive saying for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is certain: those early students 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.