The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants Film Critique – An Adventurous Dose of Giggle-Provoking Silliness
Would the original fans who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob escapades have envisioned the franchise enduring for a quarter-century, following experiencing the most surreal of plotlines? This longevity is in part due to its wide-ranging appeal, tickling the sense of humor of adults – possibly even those former students – as well as the youngest viewers. While it can't claim anything quite as surprising as a certain legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 movie, 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 can still in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.
An Established Zany Groove
Starting with a festive short featuring Paramount's alternative weathered family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob film quickly finds a comfortably silly groove. Its storyline acts as a PG-rated treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of maturity. This iteration of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now stands a specific height, a detail that thrills him as it finally allows him to ride his dream rollercoaster. (An early, trippy laugh: our overexcitable hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) Yet, as in the best modern American animation, the true rollercoaster is the corkscrew narrative.
The Quest for Pirate Credentials
SpongeBob's mission to obtain the fabled pirate license that will declare him a “big guy” leads him into a showdown with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the currently ever-present Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ghost ship introduces a larger scale, the film's visual style remains a delightful bricolage of digimation and hand-turned elements, forever highlighting satisfying, properly cartoonish effects.
Whether its spitballing silliness will linger after the credits is debatable, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.
Notable moments feature SpongeBob wedging himself into an air conditioner and emerging somehow squarer than before; a cameo from a pair of chattering novelty false teeth; and a punishment guaranteed to resonate with the six-year-old audience: our hero being forced into never-ending dishwashing.
Final Thoughts
In the end, Search for SquarePants is a reliable entry to the series – and arguably the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie recently, encompassing a robust Davy Jones joke and a saltily suggestive catchphrase for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's clear: those early fans will likely be snickering all over again.
Coming to Theaters: The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants arrives on December 19th in the US, 20 December in Ireland, and 26 December in Australia and the UK.
