SpongeBob's Latest: Search for SquarePants Review – An Adventurous Helping of Snicker-Inducing Fun

Would the early viewers who chuckled through the first SpongeBob escapades have predicted the series enduring for a quarter-century, following absorbing the most surreal of plotlines? This staying power is partly attributed to its wide-ranging charm, tickling the funny bones of grown-ups – perhaps even those now grown students – as well as the youngest viewers. Although it can't claim anything quite as unexpected as a certain memorable David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 movie, this fourth feature has no qualms about having Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while handing out royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems anything can still in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Goofy Vibe

Starting with a festive short featuring Paramount's other weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob film soon finds a comfortably silly groove. Its script acts as a PG-rated exploration on the pros and cons of growing up. This iteration of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now stands a specific height, a fact that excites him as it at last allows him to experience his fantasy coaster. (An early, trippy laugh: our enthusiastic hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) However, as in the finest contemporary American animation, the true thrill ride is the corkscrew plotting.

The Adventure for Pirate Credentials

SpongeBob's quest to secure the fabled swashbuckler certificate that will declare him a “big guy” leads him into conflict with the spectral Flying Dutchman, voiced by the suddenly ever-present Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ghost ship introduces a grander scope, the movie's visual style remains a delightful bricolage of digital animation and hand-crafted elements, forever highlighting satisfying, properly cartoonish effects.

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

Memorable scenes feature SpongeBob squeezing himself into an AC unit and coming out somehow more rectangular than before; a cameo from a pair of chattering novelty false teeth; and a penalty guaranteed to delight the six-year-old crowd: our hero being subjected to endless dishwashing.

The Verdict

In the end, Search for SquarePants stands as a reliable addition to the series – and perhaps the funniest Pirates of the Caribbean movie recently, including a robust Davy Jones joke and a saltily innuendo-laden saying for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's clear: those original fans will likely be snickering anew.

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