Could those original fans who chuckled through the first SpongeBob escapades have predicted the series enduring for a 25 years, following absorbing the most lysergic of plotlines? This staying power is in part attributed to its broad appeal, amusing the funny bones of adults – perhaps even those now grown students – as well as the youngest viewers. Although it may not feature anything quite as unexpected as the legendary David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 movie, this latest movie has no qualms about making a veteran voice actor speak as a pirate while dispensing royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. This proves everything can still in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.
Kicking off with a holiday short starring Paramount's other weathered family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob movie quickly finds a comfortably goofy rhythm. Its script serves as a PG-rated treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of growing up. This iteration of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now measures a specific height, a detail that excites him as it at last qualifies him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An initial, psychedelic laugh: our enthusiastic hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) However, as in the finest contemporary American cartoons, the real rollercoaster is the twisting narrative.
SpongeBob's quest to obtain the legendary swashbuckler certificate that will prove him a “big guy” brings him into conflict with the spectral Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the suddenly ubiquitous Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ship introduces a larger scale, the movie's visual style remains a charming 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 up for discussion, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.
Memorable moments include SpongeBob squeezing himself into an AC unit and emerging somehow more rectangular than ever; a cameo from a pair of chattering novelty false teeth; and a punishment sure to resonate with the six-year-old crowd: our hero being forced into never-ending dishwashing.
In the end, Search for SquarePants stands as a solid addition to the series – and arguably the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, including a robust Davy Jones gag and a cheekily suggestive saying for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's certain: those original fans will probably be snickering all over again.
Release Dates: The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants arrives on 19 December in the US, 20 December in Ireland, and 26 December in Australia and the UK.
