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Would the original fans who chuckled through the first SpongeBob escapades have envisioned the series persisting for a 25 years, following absorbing the most lysergic of narrative twists? This longevity is in part attributed to its wide-ranging charm, amusing the sense of humor of grown-ups – perhaps even those former students – as well as the very young viewers. Although it may not feature anything as surprising as a certain legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 film, this fourth feature thinks nothing of making a veteran voice actor talk like a pirate while handing out payments to stars like Barbra Streisand. It seems anything can still in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Goofy Groove

Starting with a holiday short featuring Paramount's alternative weathered family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob film soon settles into a comfortably silly groove. Its storyline serves as a family-friendly 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 excites him as it at last qualifies him to ride his dream rollercoaster. (An early, psychedelic gag: our enthusiastic hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, as in the finest contemporary American cartoons, the true rollercoaster is the corkscrew plotting.

The Adventure for Pirate Proof

SpongeBob's mission 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 currently ubiquitous Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ghost ship adds a larger scale, the movie's visual style remains a delightful bricolage of digital animation and hand-turned components, consistently highlighting satisfying, authentically animated visuals.

If its freewheeling silliness will resonate after the credits is debatable, but it's a strong SpongeBob movie.

Memorable scenes include SpongeBob squeezing himself into an AC unit and coming out somehow more rectangular than ever; a cameo from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a penalty guaranteed to resonate with the six-year-old audience: our hero being subjected to never-ending dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Search for SquarePants stands as a reliable addition to the franchise – and arguably the funniest pirate-themed movie recently, encompassing a hearty Davy Jones gag and a cheekily suggestive catchphrase for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is clear: those early students will likely be snickering all over again.

Coming to Theaters: The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants debuts on 19 December in the US, December 20th in Ireland, and 26 December in Australia and the UK.