SpongeBob's Latest: Search for SquarePants Review – A Swashbuckling Helping of Snicker-Inducing Silliness
Would the original fans who laughed through the first SpongeBob escapades have predicted the franchise persisting for a 25 years, even after experiencing the most surreal of narrative twists? This longevity is partly due to its broad appeal, tickling the funny bones of adults – perhaps even those now grown students – as well as the youngest viewers. While it can't claim anything as unexpected as a certain legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 movie, this fourth feature thinks nothing of having Clancy Brown talk like a pirate while handing out payments to music icons like Barbra Streisand. This proves anything can still in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.
A Familiar Goofy Vibe
Kicking off with a festive short starring Paramount's other long-running family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob film quickly finds a recognizably goofy groove. Its script acts as a PG-rated treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of maturity. This iteration of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now measures a specific height, a detail that thrills him as it finally qualifies him to experience his fantasy coaster. (An initial, trippy laugh: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) However, as in the best contemporary American cartoons, the real thrill ride is the corkscrew narrative.
The Quest for Swashbuckling Proof
SpongeBob's mission to obtain the fabled pirate license that will declare him a “big guy” leads him into conflict with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the currently ever-present Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ghost ship adds a grander scope, the film's aesthetic remains a delightful bricolage of digital animation and hand-turned components, forever highlighting satisfying, properly animated effects.
If its freewheeling humor will resonate when the lights come up is debatable, but it's a strong SpongeBob movie.
Notable scenes include SpongeBob wedging himself into an AC unit and emerging somehow more rectangular than before; a cameo from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment sure to resonate with the six-year-old crowd: our hero being subjected to endless dishwashing.
Final Thoughts
In the end, Search for SquarePants is a reliable entry to the series – and perhaps the funniest pirate-themed movie recently, encompassing a hearty Davy Jones joke and a cheekily suggestive saying for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is clear: those original students will likely be snickering anew.
Coming to Theaters: The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants arrives on 19 December in the US, 20 December in Ireland, and December 26th in Australia and the UK.
