SpongeBob's Latest: Search for SquarePants Film Critique – A Swashbuckling Dose of Snicker-Inducing Fun

Would the original fans who laughed through the first SpongeBob escapades have predicted the franchise persisting for a quarter-century, even after absorbing the most lysergic of plotlines? Such staying power is partly due to its wide-ranging appeal, tickling the sense of humor of adults – perhaps even those former students – as well as the very young viewers. While it can't claim anything as surprising as the legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 movie, this latest movie thinks nothing of making a veteran voice actor talk like a pirate while dispensing payments to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems everything can still in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Goofy Groove

Kicking off with a holiday short starring Paramount's alternative weathered family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob movie soon settles into a recognizably silly groove. Its storyline serves as a PG-rated treatise on the pros and cons of maturity. This iteration of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now stands 36 clams high, a detail that thrills him as it finally qualifies him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An initial, psychedelic gag: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, as in the best modern American animation, the true thrill ride is the corkscrew narrative.

The Adventure for Swashbuckling Proof

SpongeBob's mission to secure the legendary pirate license that will prove him a “big guy” brings him into conflict with the spectral Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ubiquitous Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ship adds a larger scale, the movie's aesthetic remains a charming bricolage of digital animation and hand-turned elements, consistently showcasing pleasing, properly cartoonish effects.

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

Notable scenes include SpongeBob wedging himself into an air conditioner and emerging inexplicably squarer than before; a cameo from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment sure to delight the six-year-old crowd: our hero being forced into never-ending dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Search for SquarePants stands as a solid addition to the franchise – and arguably the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, encompassing a hearty Davy Jones joke and a saltily innuendo-laden saying for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is certain: those original fans 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.