SpongeBob's Latest: Search for SquarePants Film Critique – An Adventurous Dose of Snicker-Inducing Fun
Would the original fans who chuckled through the first SpongeBob escapades have envisioned the franchise enduring for a quarter-century, even after experiencing the most lysergic of narrative twists? This longevity is partly due to its wide-ranging charm, tickling the funny bones of adults – perhaps even those now grown students – alongside the very young viewers. Although it may not feature anything quite as surprising as a certain legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 film, this latest movie has no qualms about making Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while dispensing royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems anything can still in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.
A Familiar Goofy Groove
Kicking off with a holiday short starring Paramount's alternative long-running babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob movie quickly finds a comfortably silly rhythm. Its script serves as a family-friendly treatise on the pros and cons of maturity. This version of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now stands a specific height, a detail that excites him as it at last allows him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An initial, psychedelic laugh: our overexcitable hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) However, as in the finest contemporary American cartoons, the real thrill ride is the corkscrew narrative.
The Quest for Pirate Credentials
SpongeBob's quest to secure the legendary swashbuckler certificate that will declare him a “big guy” brings him into a showdown with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the currently ubiquitous Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ghost ship introduces a larger scale, the movie's aesthetic remains a delightful mix of digital animation and hand-crafted components, forever highlighting pleasing, properly cartoonish visuals.
If its freewheeling silliness will linger after the credits is debatable, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.
Notable moments feature SpongeBob squeezing himself into an AC unit and coming out inexplicably more rectangular than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment sure to delight the six-year-old crowd: our hero being forced into never-ending dishwashing.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, Search for SquarePants is a solid entry to the series – and arguably the funniest Pirates of the Caribbean movie recently, including a hearty Davy Jones gag and a cheekily innuendo-laden saying for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is clear: those early students will likely be chuckling all over again.
Coming to Theaters: The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants arrives on 19 December in the US, December 20th in Ireland, and 26 December in Australia and the UK.
