SpongeBob's Latest: Search for SquarePants Review – An Adventurous Helping of Snicker-Inducing Fun
Would the original fans who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob adventures have predicted the series enduring for a quarter-century, even after absorbing the most lysergic of plotlines? This staying power is partly attributed to its wide-ranging appeal, amusing the funny bones of adults – possibly even those former students – as well as the very young viewers. Although it can't claim anything as surprising as a certain memorable David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 movie, this latest movie thinks nothing of making a veteran voice actor speak as a pirate while handing out payments to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems everything remains possible in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.
An Established Goofy Groove
Kicking off with a festive short featuring Paramount's alternative weathered family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob film soon finds a comfortably silly groove. Its storyline acts as a PG-rated exploration on the pros and cons of maturity. This iteration of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now measures a specific height, a detail that excites him as it at last allows him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An initial, psychedelic gag: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, like the best contemporary American cartoons, the true thrill ride is the twisting plotting.
The Adventure for Swashbuckling Credentials
SpongeBob's mission to obtain the legendary swashbuckler certificate that will declare him a “big guy” brings him into conflict with the spectral Flying Dutchman, voiced by the suddenly ubiquitous Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ship introduces a larger scale, the film's visual style remains a charming mix of digimation and hand-crafted components, consistently highlighting pleasing, authentically cartoonish effects.
Whether its freewheeling silliness will linger after the credits is debatable, but it's a strong SpongeBob movie.
Notable scenes feature SpongeBob wedging himself into an air conditioner and coming out somehow squarer than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment sure to resonate with the six-year-old crowd: our hero being forced into endless dishwashing.
The Verdict
In the end, Search for SquarePants is a solid entry to the franchise – and arguably the funniest pirate-themed movie in years, encompassing a robust Davy Jones joke and a saltily innuendo-laden saying for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is clear: those early students will probably be chuckling all over again.
Coming to Theaters: 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.
