It’s been too long since we’ve had a new film about the hero of Bikini Bottom, and THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS is the perfect holiday present from the fine folks who have been animating him since 1999. This time out, SpongeBob longs to be a swashbuckler and finds himself caught up in a fiendish plan to end a centuries-long curse. Symbolism abounds in a film that is very silly in places, but never stupid. Au contraire, it’s a sharp gloss on the power of laughter, the perils of smooth jazz, and the vital importance of always telling the truth.
In this adventure, SpongeBob, who lives in a pineapple under the sea, has finally achieved his dream of being 36 clams high. Now officially a Big Boy, he is tall enough to head to Captain Bootybeard’s Fun Park and ride the Shipwreck, a roller coaster of daunting proportions. And speed. Yet, once he and best friend Patrick Starr (Bill Fagerbakke), a dim and sensitive starfish, are confronted with the death-defying physics of the ride, SpongeBob realizes that he may be a taller, but he is not ready to face several Gs of pressure and maybe the loss of his lunch. Retreating to his place of employment, the Krusty Krab (home of the Krabby Patty), he is entranced to discover that his portly middle-aged boss, Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown), is a certified swashbuckler, and SpongeBob determines to obtain his own certificate in order to buckle his swash and bravely ride that roller coaster of doom straight to glory.
Alas for our hero, The Flying Dutchman (Mark Hamill) decides that only SpongeBob has a heart pure enough to break the curse that has kept him ocean-bound for 500 years. Tempted with dreams of amusement park glory with the swashbuckling certification the Dutchman promises, SpongeBob falls for the Dutchman’s oily patter, and follows him to the Underworld on a quest to win that certificate, ride the roller coaster without fear, and achieve true Big Boy-dom.
There is not much in the way of backstory here, not that it matters once the story takes off, the which it does with giddy abandon only slightly less ebullient than that of SpongeBob himself. Mr. Krabs, fearful of losing his ace fry cook forever, sets off in pursuit with sarcastically reluctant cashier Squidward (Rodger Bumpass) and Bob’s preternaturally intelligent pet, Gary the Snail (in pirate earrings) in tow, traversing the mystic portal and the slime river to rescue SpongeBob before the Dutchman can do his worst. They all encounter monsters and random eyeballs on the path (or is it a road) that leads them through one test after another that reference Homer, Dante, and 80s horror films among others. Pop culture is ribbed, along with the business of show business, and, in a wonderful touch, the dominant green and pink from one of this season’s blockbusters is taken back with extreme prejudice.
SpongeBob giggles his way through peril in a script rife with driven whimsy and an irresistible cleverness about intestinal fortitude, moxie, and panache. Lots of panache as his friendship with Patrick is tested, and the Dutchman’s hench-pirate, Barb (Regina King) struggles with being the smartest creature on the Dutchman’s ghost ship. Pratfalls to word play to irony define characters with wit and craft as of the protagonists experience actual character growth. The only thing that would make it better would be more from series regulars, the evil Plankton (Mr. Lawrence) and Texas squirrel/ brilliant inventor, Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence). A trip to the Goofy Goober ice cream parlor would also have hit the spot. IYKYK.
SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SPONGEBOB is the type of kid-friendly film that doesn’t leave out the adults in the audience who may be craving something lighthearted in a season that tends to bring out the awards-conscious serious films. It’s never precious and neither is our hero, a naive and good-hearted soul that I may or may not have at some point compared to the archetypal holy fool. Using animation to its fullest potential even when it slips into live action, it respects its audience of all ages as it unleashes a hellzapopping jaunt into the filmmaker’s piquant imagination, making for a landscape of jelly hooks, bull clams, and impetuous decision-making as backdrop to a rollicking adventure full of emotional resonance and more butt jokes than you can shake a hornpipe at.
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