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

Would the original fans who laughed through the initial SpongeBob adventures have envisioned the franchise persisting for a quarter-century, following absorbing the most lysergic of narrative twists? This longevity is in part attributed to its broad appeal, amusing the sense of humor of adults – perhaps even those now grown students – alongside the youngest viewers. Although it may not feature anything as surprising as a certain legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 film, this latest movie thinks nothing of making a veteran voice actor speak as a pirate while dispensing payments to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems everything can still in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Zany Groove

Kicking off with a festive short featuring Paramount's alternative long-running family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob film quickly finds a comfortably silly rhythm. Its script acts as a family-friendly treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of maturity. This version of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now stands 36 clams high, a fact that excites him as it finally allows him to experience his dream rollercoaster. (An initial, psychedelic laugh: our enthusiastic hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) However, like the finest modern American animation, the true rollercoaster is the corkscrew plotting.

The Quest for Pirate Proof

SpongeBob's quest to secure the legendary swashbuckler certificate that will prove him a “big guy” brings him into a showdown with the spectral Flying Dutchman, voiced by the suddenly ubiquitous Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ghost ship introduces a larger scale, the film's visual style remains a delightful bricolage of digital animation and hand-crafted components, consistently showcasing pleasing, properly cartoonish visuals.

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

Notable moments feature SpongeBob wedging himself into an AC unit and coming out inexplicably more rectangular than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment guaranteed to resonate with the six-year-old crowd: our hero being subjected to endless dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

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

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