The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants review swashbuckling, snicker-inducing silliness

"Could the students who snickered their way through those first SpongeBob adventures have foreseen the franchise persisting 25 years on, even after metabolising the most lysergic pharmaceuticals? Such longevity is partly down to extra-commercial considerations, in that the series has a capacity for tickling adults' funny bones possibly even those now fully grown students as well as the very young. Though it can't claim anything quite as unexpected as the David Hasselhoff cameo in 2004's The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie not so much a high bar as an unforgettably wonky one feature four thinks nothing of making Clancy Brown talk like a pirate while handing royalty cheques to Barbra Streisand and Yello. Anything can still happen in Bikini Bottom."

"Preceded by a festive short for Paramount's other weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob film soon settles into a familiarly goofy groove, its script a PG-rated treatise on the pros and cons of growth."

"This SpongeBob (once more voiced by Tom Kenny) is now 36 clams high, a source of particular excitement as this will allow him to ride the rollercoaster of his dreams. (One early, trippy laugh: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) As in the best contemporary American animation, though, the corkscrew plotting is the real rollercoaster. SB's quest to obtain the fabled swashbuckler certificate that will prove him a big guy brings him into conflict with the Flying Dutchman, voiced by the suddenly ubiquitous Mark Hamill."

The new SpongeBob film balances anarchic slapstick with sentimental themes of growing up. SpongeBob, now 36 clams high, pursues a swashbuckler certificate so he can ride his dream rollercoaster, confronting the Flying Dutchman (voiced by Mark Hamill). The film mixes digital and hand-made animation, foregrounding exaggerated cartoon effects — from being squarer after wedging into an AC unit to chattering false teeth and endless washing-up punishments — and features playful cameos and cultural nods. The script is PG-rated, targeting children with visual gags while offering surreal, adult-appealing humor. Its comfortably loopy tone lets improbable events and celebrity cameos feel natural in Bikini Bottom.

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