The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants Review – An Adventurous Dose of Giggle-Provoking Fun

Would the original fans who chuckled through the first SpongeBob escapades have envisioned the series persisting for a quarter-century, following experiencing the most surreal of narrative twists? This staying power is in part due to its wide-ranging charm, tickling the sense of humor of adults – perhaps even those now grown students – alongside the youngest viewers. While it can't claim anything as unexpected as the 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 stars like Barbra Streisand. It seems anything remains possible in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.

A Familiar Zany Vibe

Starting with a festive short featuring Paramount's alternative weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob film quickly settles into a comfortably silly rhythm. Its storyline serves as a PG-rated exploration on the advantages and disadvantages of growing up. This iteration of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now measures a specific height, a detail that excites him as it at last qualifies him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An initial, trippy laugh: our enthusiastic hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) However, as in the finest contemporary American cartoons, the true rollercoaster is the twisting narrative.

The Adventure for Swashbuckling Credentials

SpongeBob's quest to obtain the fabled swashbuckler certificate that will declare him a “big guy” brings him into conflict with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ever-present Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ship introduces a larger scale, the film's visual style remains a delightful bricolage of digital animation and hand-turned components, consistently highlighting satisfying, properly animated visuals.

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

Memorable moments feature SpongeBob squeezing himself into an AC unit and coming out somehow more rectangular than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering novelty false teeth; and a penalty guaranteed to resonate with the younger crowd: our hero being forced into never-ending dishwashing.

The Verdict

Ultimately, Search for SquarePants is a solid addition to the franchise – and arguably the funniest Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, encompassing a hearty Davy Jones gag and a cheekily innuendo-laden catchphrase for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is clear: those early students will probably be chuckling all over again.

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