🔗 Share this article

Would the early viewers who chuckled through the first SpongeBob escapades have predicted the series enduring for a 25 years, following experiencing the most surreal of plotlines? This longevity is in part attributed to its broad appeal, tickling the funny bones of grown-ups – possibly even those former students – alongside the very young viewers. Although it can't claim anything as unexpected as a certain memorable David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 film, this latest movie has no qualms about making Clancy Brown talk like a pirate while dispensing payments to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems anything remains possible in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Goofy Vibe

Kicking off with a festive short starring Paramount's other weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob film quickly settles into a comfortably goofy groove. Its storyline serves as a PG-rated exploration on the pros and cons of growing up. This iteration of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now stands 36 clams high, a fact that thrills him as it at last allows him to ride his dream rollercoaster. (An early, trippy laugh: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, like the finest contemporary American cartoons, the real thrill ride is the twisting plotting.

The Adventure for Swashbuckling Credentials

SpongeBob's mission to secure the legendary swashbuckler certificate that will prove him a “big guy” leads him into a showdown with the spectral Flying Dutchman, voiced by the suddenly ubiquitous Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ghost ship adds a larger scale, the film's aesthetic remains a charming bricolage of digimation and hand-crafted elements, consistently highlighting pleasing, properly cartoonish visuals.

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

Notable scenes feature SpongeBob squeezing himself into an AC unit and coming out somehow more rectangular than before; a cameo from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment sure to resonate with the six-year-old audience: our hero being subjected to never-ending dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Search for SquarePants stands as a solid entry to the series – and perhaps the funniest Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, encompassing a hearty Davy Jones gag and a cheekily innuendo-laden saying for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's clear: those early students will likely be chuckling all over again.

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