🔗 Share this article

Would the early viewers who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob escapades have predicted the series enduring for a quarter-century, following absorbing the most surreal of plotlines? Such staying power is in part due to its broad appeal, tickling the funny bones of adults – perhaps even those former students – as well as the youngest viewers. While it can't claim anything as unexpected as a certain memorable David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 film, this fourth feature has no qualms about making Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while handing out royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems anything remains possible in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.

A Familiar Zany Groove

Kicking off with a holiday short starring Paramount's alternative long-running babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob film quickly finds a comfortably silly groove. Its storyline acts as a PG-rated treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of maturity. This version of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now measures 36 clams high, a detail that thrills him as it at last allows him to experience his dream rollercoaster. (An initial, trippy laugh: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, as in the finest modern American animation, the real rollercoaster is the corkscrew narrative.

The Quest for Pirate Credentials

SpongeBob's mission to secure the legendary pirate license that will declare him a “big guy” leads him into a showdown with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, voiced by the suddenly ever-present Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ghost ship adds a grander scope, the film's visual style remains a charming bricolage of digimation and hand-turned elements, consistently highlighting pleasing, authentically cartoonish effects.

If its spitballing humor will resonate when the lights come up is debatable, but it's a strong SpongeBob movie.

Notable scenes include SpongeBob squeezing himself into an air conditioner and emerging inexplicably squarer than before; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering novelty false teeth; and a penalty guaranteed to delight the six-year-old crowd: our hero being subjected to endless dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, Search for SquarePants is a reliable entry to the franchise – and arguably the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, including a robust Davy Jones joke and a cheekily suggestive catchphrase for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is certain: those original fans will likely be snickering all over again.

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