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Could those original fans who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob adventures have envisioned the franchise persisting for a 25 years, following absorbing the most surreal of narrative twists? This staying power is in part due to its broad charm, amusing the funny bones of grown-ups – possibly even those former students – alongside the youngest viewers. While it may not feature anything as surprising as the legendary David Hasselhoff appearance in the 2004 movie, this fourth feature has no qualms about making Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while handing out royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. This proves anything can still in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Zany Vibe

Starting with a festive short featuring Paramount's other long-running babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new SpongeBob movie soon settles into a recognizably goofy groove. Its storyline acts as a PG-rated treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of maturity. This iteration of SpongeBob (again voiced by Tom Kenny) now stands 36 clams high, a detail that excites him as it at last qualifies him to experience his fantasy coaster. (An early, trippy laugh: our enthusiastic hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) However, like the finest modern American cartoons, the true rollercoaster is the corkscrew narrative.

The Adventure for Pirate Proof

SpongeBob's mission to secure the legendary pirate license that will prove him a “big guy” leads him into a showdown with the spectral Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ever-present Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ship adds a larger scale, the movie's visual style remains a charming bricolage of digimation and hand-crafted components, consistently highlighting satisfying, properly cartoonish visuals.

If its freewheeling humor will linger when the lights come up is up for discussion, but it's a strong SpongeBob movie.

Memorable scenes include SpongeBob wedging himself into an AC unit and coming out inexplicably squarer than before; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a punishment guaranteed to delight the six-year-old audience: our hero being forced into endless dishwashing.

The Verdict

In the end, Search for SquarePants stands as a solid entry to the franchise – and perhaps the most humorous pirate-themed movie recently, including a robust Davy Jones gag and a saltily suggestive saying for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is clear: those original fans will likely be snickering all over again.

Coming to Theaters: 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.