SpongeBob's Latest: Search for SquarePants Review – An Adventurous Dose of Snicker-Inducing Silliness
Would the early viewers who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob adventures have predicted the franchise enduring for a quarter-century, even after absorbing the most surreal of plotlines? This staying power is partly due to its wide-ranging appeal, amusing the funny bones of grown-ups – possibly even those now grown students – alongside the youngest viewers. Although it can't claim anything quite as surprising as a certain legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 movie, this fourth feature thinks nothing of having a veteran voice actor talk like a pirate while dispensing royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. This proves anything remains possible in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.
A Familiar Zany Groove
Kicking off with a holiday short starring Paramount's other weathered family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob movie quickly settles into a comfortably goofy groove. Its script serves as a family-friendly treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of growing up. This iteration of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now stands 36 clams high, a fact that thrills him as it at last allows him to experience his dream rollercoaster. (An initial, trippy laugh: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) However, like the best modern American cartoons, the true rollercoaster is the corkscrew plotting.
The Quest for Pirate Credentials
SpongeBob's quest to secure the fabled pirate license that will prove him a “big guy” leads him into conflict with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the currently ubiquitous Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ship introduces a larger scale, the film's aesthetic remains a charming bricolage of digimation and hand-turned components, forever highlighting pleasing, authentically animated visuals.
Whether its spitballing silliness will linger when the lights come up is up for discussion, but it's a strong SpongeBob movie.
Notable scenes include SpongeBob wedging himself into an air conditioner and emerging somehow more rectangular than before; a cameo from a pair of chattering novelty false teeth; and a punishment sure to delight the younger crowd: our hero being forced into never-ending dishwashing.
The Verdict
In the end, Search for SquarePants stands as a solid entry to the series – and arguably the funniest Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, including a robust Davy Jones gag and a saltily innuendo-laden catchphrase for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is clear: those original fans will likely be snickering all over again.
Coming to Theaters: The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants debuts on December 19th in the US, December 20th in Ireland, and 26 December in Australia and the UK.
