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Could those early viewers who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob escapades have envisioned the franchise persisting for a quarter-century, following absorbing the most lysergic of plotlines? This staying power is in part attributed to its wide-ranging appeal, amusing the funny bones of adults – possibly even those now grown students – alongside the very young viewers. While it may not feature anything as unexpected as the memorable David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 film, this latest movie thinks nothing of making a veteran voice actor speak as a pirate while dispensing royalty cheques to stars like Barbra Streisand. It seems everything can still in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Goofy Groove

Starting with a festive short featuring Paramount's alternative weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob movie quickly finds a comfortably silly rhythm. Its script acts as a family-friendly treatise on the pros and cons of maturity. This version of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now stands 36 clams high, a fact that thrills him as it finally allows him to ride his dream rollercoaster. (An early, trippy gag: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, as in the best contemporary American cartoons, the true thrill ride is the twisting plotting.

The Adventure for Pirate Credentials

SpongeBob's quest to secure the fabled swashbuckler certificate that will declare him a “big guy” leads him into conflict with the spectral Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the currently ever-present Mark Hamill. Although the Dutchman's ship introduces a larger scale, the movie's aesthetic remains a charming bricolage of digital animation and hand-turned components, consistently highlighting pleasing, authentically animated effects.

If its spitballing humor will linger when the lights come up is debatable, but it's a solid 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 punishment guaranteed to resonate with the six-year-old audience: our hero being forced into endless dishwashing.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Search for SquarePants is a solid entry to the franchise – and arguably the funniest Pirates of the Caribbean movie recently, encompassing a robust Davy Jones joke and a saltily innuendo-laden catchphrase for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's clear: those early fans will probably be chuckling all over again.

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