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Would the original fans who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob adventures have predicted the franchise persisting for a 25 years, even after experiencing the most lysergic of narrative twists? Such staying power is partly due to its wide-ranging appeal, amusing 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 the legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 movie, this latest movie thinks nothing of making a veteran voice actor talk like a pirate while handing out royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. This proves everything can still in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Goofy Vibe

Kicking off with a holiday short featuring Paramount's alternative long-running babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob movie soon finds a recognizably goofy rhythm. Its script acts as a family-friendly treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of maturity. This iteration of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now measures 36 clams high, a fact that thrills him as it finally qualifies him to experience his dream rollercoaster. (An early, psychedelic gag: our overexcitable hero's fantasized loop-the-loops.) However, as in the finest modern American cartoons, the real thrill ride is the twisting plotting.

The Quest for Pirate Credentials

SpongeBob's mission to obtain the legendary swashbuckler certificate that will prove him a “big guy” leads him into a showdown with the spectral Flying Dutchman, voiced by the suddenly ever-present Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ship adds a larger scale, the movie's visual style remains a delightful mix of digimation and hand-crafted components, consistently highlighting satisfying, authentically cartoonish effects.

Whether its freewheeling silliness will resonate when the lights come up is up for discussion, but it's a strong SpongeBob movie.

Memorable scenes include SpongeBob wedging himself into an air conditioner and coming out somehow more rectangular than before; a cameo from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment guaranteed to resonate with the six-year-old crowd: our hero being subjected to never-ending dishwashing.

The Verdict

In the end, Search for SquarePants stands as a solid addition to the series – and arguably the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, encompassing a hearty Davy Jones joke and a cheekily suggestive catchphrase for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is clear: those original students will likely be chuckling all over again.

Release Dates: 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.