SpongeBob's Latest: Search for SquarePants Film Critique – A Swashbuckling Helping of Snicker-Inducing Fun
Could those original fans who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob escapades have envisioned the series enduring for a 25 years, even after absorbing the most lysergic of plotlines? Such staying power is partly attributed to its broad appeal, amusing the funny bones of grown-ups – perhaps even those now grown students – alongside the very young viewers. Although it may not feature anything as unexpected as the memorable David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 movie, this latest movie thinks nothing of making a veteran voice actor speak as a pirate while dispensing payments to music icons like Barbra Streisand. This proves anything can still in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.
A Familiar Zany Groove
Starting with a holiday short starring Paramount's other long-running babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob movie soon finds a recognizably silly groove. Its script serves as a PG-rated treatise on the pros and cons of growing up. This iteration of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now measures 36 clams high, a detail that excites him as it at last qualifies him to experience his fantasy coaster. (An early, psychedelic gag: our overexcitable hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) However, as in the best contemporary American cartoons, the real thrill ride 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 a showdown with the spectral Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ubiquitous Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ghost ship adds a larger scale, the movie's visual style remains a charming bricolage of digital animation and hand-turned components, consistently highlighting satisfying, properly cartoonish effects.
If its freewheeling humor will resonate when the lights come up is up for discussion, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.
Notable scenes include SpongeBob squeezing himself into an air conditioner and emerging inexplicably squarer than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment guaranteed to delight the six-year-old crowd: our hero being subjected to endless dishwashing.
The Verdict
Ultimately, Search for SquarePants is a reliable entry to the series – and perhaps the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, encompassing a robust Davy Jones gag and a cheekily innuendo-laden catchphrase for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's certain: those early fans will probably be chuckling anew.
Coming to Theaters: The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants debuts on 19 December in the US, 20 December in Ireland, and December 26th in Australia and the UK.
