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Would the original fans who chuckled through the initial SpongeBob escapades have envisioned the franchise persisting for a 25 years, following experiencing the most lysergic of narrative twists? This staying power is partly due to its wide-ranging appeal, tickling the sense of humor of adults – possibly even those former students – alongside the very young viewers. While it can't claim anything quite as surprising as a certain legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 film, this latest movie thinks nothing of making a veteran voice actor speak as a pirate while handing out royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems everything remains possible in the whimsical world of Bikini Bottom.

A Familiar Goofy Groove

Kicking off with a holiday short starring Paramount's alternative long-running family favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob movie soon finds a comfortably goofy groove. Its storyline serves as a family-friendly treatise on the pros and cons of maturity. This iteration of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now stands 36 clams high, a fact that thrills him as it at last allows him to ride his dream rollercoaster. (An early, trippy gag: our overexcitable hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, like the finest modern American cartoons, the real rollercoaster is the corkscrew narrative.

The Quest for Pirate Credentials

SpongeBob's mission to secure the fabled swashbuckler certificate that will prove him a “big guy” leads him into conflict with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the suddenly ubiquitous Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ghost ship adds a larger scale, the film's aesthetic remains a delightful bricolage of digital animation and hand-turned elements, consistently showcasing satisfying, properly cartoonish visuals.

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

Notable scenes feature SpongeBob squeezing himself into an air conditioner and emerging somehow squarer 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 stands as a solid entry to the series – and arguably the most humorous pirate-themed movie recently, including a hearty Davy Jones joke and a cheekily innuendo-laden saying for SpongeBob's pal Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” It's clear: those original students will probably be chuckling anew.

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