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Would the original fans who laughed through the first SpongeBob escapades have envisioned the franchise persisting for a 25 years, following absorbing the most surreal of plotlines? Such longevity is partly due to its broad charm, tickling the sense of humor of grown-ups – perhaps even those former students – as well as the very young viewers. Although it may not feature anything quite as surprising as a certain memorable David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 film, this fourth feature thinks nothing of making Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while dispensing payments to stars like Barbra Streisand. This proves everything remains possible in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Zany Groove

Kicking off with a holiday short featuring Paramount's other weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob movie quickly finds a comfortably goofy groove. Its storyline acts as a family-friendly treatise on the pros and cons of maturity. This iteration of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now measures 36 clams high, a fact that excites him as it finally allows him to experience his fantasy coaster. (An initial, psychedelic laugh: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, as in the best modern American cartoons, the real rollercoaster is the twisting narrative.

The Quest for Swashbuckling Credentials

SpongeBob's mission to secure the fabled swashbuckler certificate that will declare him a “big guy” leads him into a showdown with the spectral Flying Dutchman, voiced by the suddenly ubiquitous Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ship introduces a larger scale, the film's aesthetic remains a charming bricolage of digital animation and hand-crafted elements, consistently highlighting pleasing, authentically cartoonish effects.

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

Memorable moments feature SpongeBob squeezing himself into an air conditioner and coming out somehow squarer than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment sure to resonate with the six-year-old crowd: our hero being forced into never-ending dishwashing.

The Verdict

Ultimately, Search for SquarePants is a solid entry to the franchise – and perhaps the funniest Pirates of the Caribbean movie in years, including a hearty Davy Jones joke and a saltily suggestive catchphrase for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's clear: those early students will likely be snickering all over again.

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