SpongeBob's Latest: Search for SquarePants Review – An Adventurous Helping of Giggle-Provoking Silliness
Could those original fans who laughed through the first SpongeBob escapades have envisioned the series enduring for a 25 years, even after absorbing the most surreal of plotlines? Such longevity is in part due to its wide-ranging charm, amusing the funny bones of grown-ups – possibly even those now grown students – alongside the youngest viewers. While it may not feature anything as surprising as the legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 film, this latest movie has no qualms about having Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while handing out payments to stars like Barbra Streisand. This proves anything can still in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.
An Established Zany Groove
Kicking off with a holiday short featuring Paramount's other weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob film soon settles into a recognizably goofy groove. Its script acts as a family-friendly treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of growing up. This iteration of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now measures a specific height, a fact that excites him as it at last allows him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An early, psychedelic gag: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, as in the best contemporary American cartoons, the real thrill ride is the corkscrew plotting.
The Quest for Pirate Proof
SpongeBob's mission to secure the legendary swashbuckler certificate that will declare him a “big guy” leads him into a showdown with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the suddenly ubiquitous Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ghost ship introduces a grander scope, the film's aesthetic remains a charming bricolage of digimation and hand-turned components, forever showcasing pleasing, authentically animated effects.
If its freewheeling humor will resonate after the credits is debatable, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.
Memorable moments include SpongeBob squeezing himself into an air conditioner and emerging inexplicably more rectangular than before; a cameo from a pair of chattering novelty false teeth; and a punishment sure to delight the six-year-old audience: our hero being forced into endless dishwashing.
Final Thoughts
In the end, Search for SquarePants stands as a reliable addition to the franchise – and perhaps the funniest Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, including a hearty Davy Jones joke and a cheekily suggestive catchphrase for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's certain: those early fans 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 26 December in Australia and the UK.
