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Would the original fans who chuckled through the first SpongeBob escapades have envisioned the series enduring for a quarter-century, following experiencing the most lysergic of plotlines? This staying power is in part due to its wide-ranging charm, amusing the funny bones of grown-ups – possibly even those now grown students – alongside the very young viewers. Although it can't claim anything as unexpected as a certain memorable David Hasselhoff cameo in the 2004 film, this latest movie thinks nothing of making Clancy Brown speak as a pirate while handing out royalty cheques to music icons like Barbra Streisand. This proves everything can still in the zany world of Bikini Bottom.

A Familiar Goofy Vibe

Starting with a holiday short featuring Paramount's alternative weathered babysitters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest SpongeBob movie soon settles into a comfortably goofy rhythm. Its storyline acts as a family-friendly treatise on the advantages and disadvantages of maturity. This iteration of SpongeBob (again brought to life by Tom Kenny) now stands 36 clams high, a fact that excites him as it at last allows him to experience his dream rollercoaster. (An early, psychedelic gag: our enthusiastic hero's imagined loop-the-loops.) Yet, as in the best modern American cartoons, the real rollercoaster is the corkscrew plotting.

The Adventure for Pirate Credentials

SpongeBob's quest to secure the fabled pirate license that will prove him a “big guy” leads him into conflict with the ghostly Flying Dutchman, voiced by the currently ubiquitous Mark Hamill. While the Dutchman's ship introduces a grander scope, the movie's aesthetic remains a delightful bricolage of digimation and hand-crafted elements, consistently showcasing satisfying, authentically cartoonish effects.

If its spitballing humor will resonate after the credits is debatable, but it's a solid SpongeBob movie.

Notable scenes feature SpongeBob wedging himself into an AC unit and emerging inexplicably more rectangular than ever; a brief appearance from a pair of chattering joke-shop false teeth; and a penalty sure to resonate with the six-year-old audience: our hero being subjected to endless dishwashing.

The Verdict

Ultimately, Search for SquarePants is a reliable addition to the series – and perhaps the funniest Pirates of the Caribbean movie recently, encompassing a robust Davy Jones gag and a cheekily suggestive catchphrase for SpongeBob's friend Patrick: “The best guys are big guys.” One thing is certain: those early fans will probably be snickering all over again.

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.