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

Could those original fans who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob escapades have predicted the series enduring for a quarter-century, following experiencing the most lysergic of plotlines? Such longevity is in part attributed to its broad appeal, amusing the funny bones of grown-ups – perhaps even those former students – as well as the very young viewers. While it can't claim anything as unexpected as the memorable David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 film, this latest movie has no qualms about making a veteran voice actor speak as a pirate while dispensing royalty cheques to stars like Barbra Streisand. It seems everything remains possible in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Zany Groove

Starting with a holiday short featuring Paramount's alternative long-running babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob film soon finds a comfortably goofy rhythm. Its storyline acts as a PG-rated exploration on the advantages and disadvantages of growing up. This iteration 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 fantasy coaster. (An initial, psychedelic laugh: our enthusiastic hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) Yet, as in the finest modern American cartoons, the real rollercoaster is the corkscrew plotting.

The Quest for Swashbuckling Proof

SpongeBob's quest to secure the fabled swashbuckler certificate that will declare him a “big guy” brings him into a showdown with the spectral Flying Dutchman, voiced by the suddenly ubiquitous Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ship introduces a grander scope, the movie's aesthetic remains a charming bricolage of digital animation and hand-crafted components, consistently highlighting pleasing, authentically cartoonish visuals.

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

Memorable moments feature SpongeBob wedging himself into an air conditioner and emerging inexplicably more rectangular than before; a cameo 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 never-ending dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Search for SquarePants stands as a reliable addition to the series – and arguably the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, including a hearty Davy Jones gag and a saltily innuendo-laden saying for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is clear: those early fans will probably be chuckling all over again.

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