Review: 'The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants' is more of the same from your favorite rectangular cartoon hero
There’s a handy shorthand to determine whether you will like “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants”: Have you liked “SpongeBob SquarePants” over the years?
If the answer is yes, then you’ll probably like this latest movie in the cartoon franchise, because it delivers the same level of offbeat gags and manic pacing that you used to get in 11-minute bites. If not, find your fun elsewhere.
In this feature-length cartoon, the eager and innocent SpongeBob (voiced by Tom Kenny) wakes up and see that he is now officially 36 clams tall — which means he’s finally a “big guy,” and can ride on the scariest roller coaster in Bikini Bottom’s biggest amusement park. Once he gets there with his best buddy Patrick Star (voiced by Bill Fagerbakke), SpongeBob chickens out and runs back to his boss, Mr. Krabs (voiced by Clancy Brown, who also makes a live-action appearance in the prologue).
Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob there are other ways to prove one’s bravery — and when SpongeBob runs into the most fearsome ghost in the ocean, The Flying Dutchman (voiced by Mark Hamill), the little sponge thinks this his way to prove his “big guy” status. The Dutchman has his own motive for pushing SpongeBob along: He needs an innocent soul to help lift the curse that has kept The Dutchman a ghostly prisoner for centuries.
That’s the story, such as it is, that director Derek Drymon (a veteran of the TV show) and writers Pam Brady and Matt Lieberman present here. Thankfully, these filmmakers know the gags are the important part, and there are enough of those to keep kids and some adults laughing.
One thing “The SpongeBob Movie: The Search for SquarePants” confirms is the scene-saving status of voice actor Fagerbakke, whose deadpan readings of the dead-brained starfish can squeeze a laugh out of pretty much anything. Patrick has always been great, but in this movie, he’s a star.
——
‘The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants’
★★1/2
Opens Friday, December 19, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG for rude humor, action and some scary images. Running time: 89 minutes, plus a 7-minute short, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Chrome Alone 2 - Lost in New Jersey.”