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Would the original fans who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob escapades have predicted the franchise persisting for a quarter-century, following experiencing the most lysergic of narrative twists? This staying power is partly due to its wide-ranging appeal, tickling the funny bones of adults – perhaps even those now grown students – alongside the very young viewers. While it may not feature anything as unexpected as the legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 film, this fourth feature thinks nothing of making Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while handing out royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems everything can still in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Zany Vibe

Starting with a holiday short featuring Paramount's other long-running family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob film quickly finds a recognizably silly groove. Its storyline serves as a family-friendly treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of growing up. This iteration of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now measures a specific height, a detail that excites him as it finally qualifies him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An initial, psychedelic gag: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, like the finest modern American animation, the real thrill ride is the twisting narrative.

The Quest for Swashbuckling Credentials

SpongeBob's quest to secure the legendary swashbuckler certificate that will prove him a “big guy” brings him into a showdown with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ever-present Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ship introduces a larger scale, the movie's aesthetic remains a charming mix of digimation and hand-crafted components, consistently highlighting pleasing, authentically animated visuals.

Whether 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 ever; a cameo from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment guaranteed to resonate with the younger audience: our hero being subjected to endless dishwashing.

The Verdict

In the end, Search for SquarePants is a solid entry to the franchise – and arguably the most humorous Pirates of the Caribbean movie recently, including a robust Davy Jones joke and a saltily suggestive saying for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is certain: those original students will likely be chuckling anew.

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