SpongeBob's Latest: Search for SquarePants Review – An Adventurous Dose of Snicker-Inducing Silliness
Could those early viewers who laughed through the first SpongeBob escapades have predicted the series persisting for a quarter-century, following absorbing the most surreal of narrative twists? Such longevity is in part due to its broad appeal, tickling the sense of humor of grown-ups – perhaps even those former students – as well as the youngest viewers. Although it can't claim anything quite as surprising as the memorable David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 movie, this latest movie thinks nothing of making Clancy Brown talk like a pirate while dispensing royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems everything can still in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.
A Familiar Zany Groove
Starting with a holiday short starring Paramount's other long-running babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob film quickly finds a comfortably silly rhythm. Its script serves as a PG-rated treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of maturity. This iteration of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now stands a specific height, a fact that thrills him as it at last allows him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An early, trippy gag: our overexcitable hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) Yet, like the best contemporary American cartoons, the true thrill ride is the twisting narrative.
The Quest for Pirate Proof
SpongeBob's mission to secure the legendary pirate license that will prove him a “big guy” leads him into conflict with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ever-present Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ship adds a larger scale, the film's aesthetic remains a delightful bricolage of digimation and hand-turned components, consistently showcasing satisfying, authentically animated effects.
If its freewheeling silliness will linger after the credits is up for discussion, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.
Notable scenes feature SpongeBob squeezing himself into an AC unit and emerging somehow squarer than before; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment guaranteed to delight the younger audience: our hero being forced into endless dishwashing.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, Search for SquarePants stands as a reliable addition to the franchise – and perhaps the funniest Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, encompassing a robust Davy Jones gag and a saltily suggestive saying for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is clear: those original students will likely be chuckling anew.
Coming to Theaters: The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants debuts on 19 December in the US, 20 December in Ireland, and 26 December in Australia and the UK.