SpongeBob's Latest: Search for SquarePants Review – A Swashbuckling Dose of Giggle-Provoking Silliness

Would the original fans who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob escapades have envisioned the franchise enduring for a quarter-century, following experiencing the most lysergic of narrative twists? This staying power is partly due to its wide-ranging charm, tickling the sense of humor of grown-ups – possibly even those now grown students – as well as the very young viewers. Although it can't claim anything quite as unexpected as the legendary David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 movie, this fourth feature has no qualms about making Clancy Brown talk like a pirate while handing out royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems everything can still in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Zany Groove

Kicking off with a holiday short starring Paramount's other long-running family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob film quickly finds a comfortably goofy rhythm. Its storyline acts as a PG-rated exploration on the pros and cons of growing up. This version of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now stands 36 clams high, a fact that excites him as it finally qualifies him to experience his fantasy coaster. (An initial, psychedelic gag: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, as in the finest modern American animation, the real rollercoaster is the twisting narrative.

The Quest for Swashbuckling Credentials

SpongeBob's mission to secure the legendary pirate license that will prove him a “big guy” leads him into conflict with the spectral Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ubiquitous Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ghost ship introduces a grander scope, the movie's visual style remains a delightful bricolage of digimation and hand-crafted elements, consistently highlighting pleasing, properly cartoonish visuals.

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

Memorable scenes feature SpongeBob squeezing himself into an AC unit and emerging inexplicably squarer than before; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a penalty guaranteed to delight the six-year-old crowd: our hero being forced into endless dishwashing.

The Verdict

In the end, Search for SquarePants stands as a reliable entry to the series – and arguably the funniest Pirates of the Caribbean movie recently, encompassing a robust Davy Jones gag and a saltily innuendo-laden saying for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's clear: those early fans will likely be chuckling anew.

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