The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants Review – An Adventurous Helping of Snicker-Inducing Fun
Would the early viewers who chuckled through the first SpongeBob adventures have predicted the series enduring for a 25 years, even after absorbing the most surreal of narrative twists? This staying power is partly due to its wide-ranging appeal, amusing the sense of humor of grown-ups – perhaps even those now grown students – as well as the very young viewers. While it may not feature anything as unexpected as the legendary David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 movie, this latest movie has no qualms about making Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while handing out payments to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems anything can still in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.
An Established Goofy Vibe
Starting with a festive short featuring Paramount's other weathered family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob movie quickly finds a recognizably goofy rhythm. Its storyline serves as a PG-rated treatise on the pros and cons of growing up. This version of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now stands a specific height, a fact that thrills him as it finally allows him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An initial, trippy laugh: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) However, as in the finest contemporary American animation, the real rollercoaster is the corkscrew narrative.
The Quest for Pirate Proof
SpongeBob's mission to secure the legendary pirate license that will declare him a “big guy” leads him into conflict with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the suddenly ever-present Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ghost ship adds a larger scale, the movie's aesthetic remains a delightful mix of digimation and hand-crafted components, consistently showcasing pleasing, authentically animated effects.
If its freewheeling humor will linger when the lights come up is up for discussion, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.
Notable scenes feature SpongeBob squeezing himself into an AC unit and coming out inexplicably squarer than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a penalty guaranteed to resonate with the six-year-old crowd: our hero being subjected to endless dishwashing.
The Verdict
Ultimately, Search for SquarePants stands as a reliable entry to the series – and arguably the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie recently, including a robust Davy Jones gag and a saltily suggestive saying for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's clear: those early students will probably be snickering anew.
Coming to Theaters: The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants arrives on 19 December in the US, December 20th in Ireland, and December 26th in Australia and the UK.
