🔗 Share this article

Would the early viewers who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob escapades have envisioned the series enduring for a 25 years, following absorbing the most lysergic of narrative twists? This staying power is partly due to its broad appeal, amusing the sense of humor of grown-ups – perhaps even those now grown students – alongside the very young viewers. While it may not feature anything quite as surprising as a certain memorable David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 film, this fourth feature has no qualms about making Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while handing out 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 other long-running family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob film soon settles into a recognizably goofy 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 a specific height, a detail that excites him as it finally allows him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An initial, trippy laugh: our enthusiastic hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, like the finest modern American cartoons, the true rollercoaster is the corkscrew narrative.

The Adventure for Pirate Proof

SpongeBob's mission to obtain the fabled pirate license that will prove him a “big guy” leads him into a showdown with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the suddenly ubiquitous Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ship adds a larger scale, the film's visual style remains a charming bricolage of digimation and hand-turned elements, forever highlighting satisfying, properly cartoonish visuals.

If its freewheeling humor will linger after the credits is up for discussion, but it's a strong SpongeBob movie.

Notable moments include SpongeBob wedging himself into an AC unit and emerging somehow squarer than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment sure to resonate with the younger crowd: our hero being subjected to never-ending dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, Search for SquarePants stands as a reliable entry to the franchise – and perhaps the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, encompassing a robust Davy Jones joke and a cheekily innuendo-laden catchphrase for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is clear: those early fans will likely be snickering anew.

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