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Could those original fans who chuckled through the first SpongeBob adventures have envisioned the franchise enduring for a quarter-century, following experiencing the most surreal of plotlines? This longevity is in part due to its wide-ranging appeal, tickling the funny bones of adults – perhaps even those now grown students – alongside the very young viewers. Although it can't claim anything as unexpected as the legendary David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 film, this fourth feature thinks nothing of having a veteran voice actor talk like a pirate while dispensing royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. It seems everything remains possible in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.

An Established Zany Vibe

Starting with a holiday short featuring Paramount's other weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob film quickly finds a comfortably goofy groove. Its storyline acts as a family-friendly treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of growing up. This iteration of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now stands 36 clams high, a fact that thrills him as it finally allows him to ride his fantasy coaster. (An early, trippy laugh: our enthusiastic hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, as in the finest modern American cartoons, the true rollercoaster is the twisting plotting.

The Adventure for Swashbuckling Credentials

SpongeBob's quest to obtain the legendary pirate license that will prove him a “big guy” brings him into a showdown with the spectral Flying Dutchman, brought to life by the suddenly ubiquitous Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ship introduces a larger scale, the movie's visual style remains a delightful bricolage of digimation and hand-turned components, forever highlighting satisfying, authentically cartoonish visuals.

If its spitballing silliness will linger after the credits is up for discussion, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.

Notable moments include SpongeBob squeezing himself into an air conditioner and emerging somehow squarer than before; a cameo from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a penalty sure to delight the younger audience: our hero being subjected to endless dishwashing.

The Verdict

In the end, Search for SquarePants stands as a reliable addition to the series – and perhaps the funniest pirate-themed movie in years, including a robust Davy Jones joke and a saltily innuendo-laden catchphrase for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is clear: those early fans will probably be snickering anew.

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