The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants Review – An Adventurous Dose of Snicker-Inducing Silliness
Could those original fans who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob escapades have envisioned the series enduring for a 25 years, even after experiencing the most lysergic of plotlines? This longevity is partly attributed to its wide-ranging charm, tickling the sense of humor of grown-ups – possibly even those former students – alongside the very young viewers. While it may not feature anything as surprising as a certain legendary David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 movie, this latest movie thinks nothing of making a veteran voice actor speak as a pirate while dispensing royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems anything can still in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.
An Established Goofy Groove
Starting with a holiday short featuring Paramount's other long-running family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob film soon 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 stands 36 clams high, a fact that thrills him as it finally qualifies him to experience his fantasy coaster. (An initial, trippy gag: our enthusiastic hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, like the best modern American cartoons, the true rollercoaster is the corkscrew plotting.
The Adventure for Pirate Credentials
SpongeBob's quest to secure the legendary swashbuckler certificate that will prove him a “big guy” brings him into conflict with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ubiquitous Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ghost ship adds a larger scale, the movie's visual style remains a charming bricolage of digimation and hand-turned components, forever showcasing satisfying, properly cartoonish effects.
If its spitballing humor will linger when the lights come up is debatable, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.
Memorable moments include SpongeBob squeezing himself into an AC unit and emerging somehow squarer than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering novelty false teeth; and a punishment sure to delight the six-year-old crowd: our hero being forced into endless dishwashing.
The Verdict
In the end, Search for SquarePants is a reliable entry to the series – and perhaps the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, including a robust Davy Jones joke and a cheekily suggestive saying for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is clear: those early students will probably be snickering all over again.
Coming to Theaters: The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants debuts on 19 December in the US, 20 December in Ireland, and 26 December in Australia and the UK.
