The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants Film Critique – A Swashbuckling Helping of Giggle-Provoking Silliness
Would the original fans who laughed through the first SpongeBob adventures have predicted the series enduring for a quarter-century, even after absorbing the most surreal of narrative twists? This staying power is in part attributed to its broad appeal, tickling the funny bones of adults – perhaps even those now grown students – alongside the youngest viewers. While it may not feature anything as surprising as a certain legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 film, this latest movie thinks nothing of having a veteran voice actor talk like a pirate while handing out royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. This proves everything remains possible in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.
A Familiar Zany Groove
Kicking off with a festive short featuring Paramount's alternative weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob film soon settles into a comfortably goofy groove. Its script acts as a family-friendly treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of growing up. This iteration of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now measures 36 clams high, a fact that thrills him as it at last qualifies him to experience his dream rollercoaster. (An initial, trippy gag: our enthusiastic hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) However, as in the finest contemporary American cartoons, the real rollercoaster is the corkscrew plotting.
The Quest for Pirate Proof
SpongeBob's mission to obtain the legendary swashbuckler certificate that will prove him a “big guy” brings him into a showdown with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, voiced by the suddenly ubiquitous Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ghost ship introduces a grander scope, the film's visual style remains a charming bricolage of digital animation and hand-turned components, consistently showcasing pleasing, authentically cartoonish effects.
Whether its freewheeling silliness will resonate when the lights come up is debatable, but it's a strong SpongeBob movie.
Memorable scenes include SpongeBob wedging himself into an AC unit and emerging somehow more rectangular than before; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a penalty guaranteed to resonate with the younger audience: our hero being subjected to never-ending dishwashing.
The Verdict
Ultimately, Search for SquarePants stands as a reliable entry to the franchise – and arguably the funniest pirate-themed movie in years, encompassing a robust Davy Jones joke and a saltily innuendo-laden saying for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is clear: those original fans will likely be chuckling all over again.
Release Dates: The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants arrives on December 19th in the US, December 20th in Ireland, and December 26th in Australia and the UK.
