SpongeBob's Latest: Search for SquarePants Film Critique – A Swashbuckling Helping of Snicker-Inducing Silliness
Could those early viewers who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob escapades have predicted the series enduring for a quarter-century, following experiencing the most surreal of plotlines? This staying power is in part due to its wide-ranging charm, tickling the funny bones of adults – perhaps even those now grown students – alongside the youngest viewers. Although it can't claim anything as surprising as the legendary David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 film, this latest movie 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 whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.
A Familiar Zany Groove
Starting with a holiday short starring Paramount's alternative weathered family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob film quickly settles into a comfortably goofy rhythm. Its script acts as a family-friendly treatise on the pros and cons of growing up. This version of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now measures 36 clams high, a detail that excites him as it finally allows him to ride his dream rollercoaster. (An early, trippy laugh: our overexcitable hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) However, like the finest contemporary American animation, the real rollercoaster is the twisting plotting.
The Quest for Pirate Credentials
SpongeBob's quest to obtain the legendary swashbuckler certificate that will declare him a “big guy” leads him into conflict with the spectral Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the suddenly ever-present Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ship introduces a larger scale, the movie's visual style remains a charming mix of digimation and hand-turned components, forever highlighting pleasing, properly cartoonish visuals.
If its spitballing humor will linger when the lights come up is debatable, but it's a strong SpongeBob movie.
Notable scenes feature SpongeBob wedging 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 resonate with the younger crowd: our hero being forced into never-ending dishwashing.
The Verdict
In the end, Search for SquarePants stands as a reliable entry to the franchise – and arguably the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie recently, encompassing a robust Davy Jones gag and a saltily innuendo-laden catchphrase for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is certain: those original students will likely be snickering anew.
Release Dates: The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants arrives on 19 December in the US, 20 December in Ireland, and 26 December in Australia and the UK.
