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Would the original fans who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob adventures have predicted the franchise persisting for a 25 years, following absorbing the most surreal of plotlines? This longevity is in part due to its wide-ranging charm, amusing the sense of humor of grown-ups – possibly even those former students – as well as the youngest viewers. While it may not feature anything quite as surprising as a certain legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 film, this fourth feature thinks nothing of making a veteran voice actor speak as a pirate while dispensing royalty cheques to stars like Barbra Streisand. This proves everything remains possible in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Goofy Groove

Starting with a holiday short starring Paramount's alternative weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob movie quickly finds a comfortably silly rhythm. Its storyline serves as a PG-rated treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of maturity. This version of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now measures 36 clams high, a fact that excites him as it at last allows him to experience his dream rollercoaster. (An initial, psychedelic gag: our overexcitable hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) However, as in the finest modern American cartoons, the true thrill ride is the corkscrew narrative.

The Adventure for Swashbuckling Credentials

SpongeBob's mission to obtain the fabled swashbuckler certificate that will prove him a “big guy” leads him into a showdown with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ever-present Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ghost ship introduces a grander scope, the film's aesthetic remains a delightful bricolage of digital animation and hand-turned components, consistently showcasing pleasing, properly cartoonish effects.

Whether its spitballing silliness will linger when the lights come up is debatable, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.

Memorable scenes feature SpongeBob squeezing himself into an AC unit and emerging inexplicably more rectangular than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment guaranteed to delight the six-year-old audience: our hero being forced into never-ending dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Search for SquarePants is a reliable addition to the series – and perhaps the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie recently, 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 early students will probably be snickering anew.

Coming to Theaters: 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.