The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants Review – An Adventurous Helping of Giggle-Provoking Silliness
Could those early viewers who laughed through the first SpongeBob adventures have predicted the series enduring for a 25 years, following experiencing the most surreal of plotlines? Such staying power is partly due to its wide-ranging appeal, tickling the sense of humor of grown-ups – perhaps even those now grown students – as well as the youngest viewers. Although it may not feature anything quite as surprising as a certain memorable David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 film, this latest movie thinks nothing of having Clancy Brown talk like a pirate while handing out payments to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems everything can still in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.
An Established Zany Vibe
Starting with a festive short featuring Paramount's other long-running family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob movie soon finds a recognizably silly rhythm. Its storyline serves as a PG-rated exploration on the advantages and disadvantages of maturity. This version of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now measures a specific height, a fact that excites him as it at last allows him to ride his dream rollercoaster. (An early, psychedelic gag: our overexcitable hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) However, as in the best contemporary American cartoons, the true rollercoaster is the corkscrew plotting.
The Adventure for Pirate Credentials
SpongeBob's mission to obtain the legendary pirate license that will declare him a “big guy” leads him into a showdown with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ever-present Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ship introduces a grander scope, the film's visual style remains a delightful mix of digital animation and hand-crafted components, consistently showcasing pleasing, properly animated visuals.
Whether its freewheeling humor will resonate when the lights come up is debatable, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.
Notable moments feature SpongeBob squeezing himself into an air conditioner 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 younger audience: our hero being subjected to endless dishwashing.
The Verdict
In the end, Search for SquarePants is a solid addition to the series – and arguably the most humorous pirate-themed movie recently, encompassing a hearty Davy Jones gag and a saltily innuendo-laden catchphrase for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's certain: those original fans will likely be snickering all over again.
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.