Maxance Vincent
Few people know the indelible impact SpongeBob SquarePants had on my childhood, a show I would religiously watch on (the now-defunct) VRAK TV at 7 am sharp before going to school, and at 4 pm at my elementary school’s library every single day of the week. The trend would essentially continue until I transitioned from elementary to secondary school. Yet, the joyous memories I carried with this series lasted a lifetime, even after the tragic passing of its creator, Stephen Hillenburg.
Instead of reflecting on his legacy and thinking about why SpongeBob became such an icon within popular culture, Paramount milked the IP dry until the show had lost all of its formal and comedic juice, going so far as to produce horrendous spinoffs for both film and television that essentially painted a grim future for a sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea. And after two terrible Netflix offshoots centered around Sandy Cheeks and Plankton, I began to reckon on the idea that SpongeBob SquarePants would never feel the same to me, as an adult. However, my delusional mind simply reaffirmed that, “No, the show’s bad now, and has been so after Hillenburg’s initial departure following the success of the first film.”
After all, Hillenburg wanted to end the show shortly after The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie released, but why would Paramount do that, considering that it’s now their most prized commodity for children’s entertainment, moreso than Dora the Explorer and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? As a result, here we are, with a fourth mainline movie of a transmedia franchise that shows no signs of stopping with The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants. And it indicated a dour experience, especially if anyone saw Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie or Plankton: The Movie, which recently came out.
Yet, within its first few minutes, director Derek Drymon, alongside writers Pam Brady and Matt Lieberman, brings us back to the heyday of the titular character (voiced by Tom Kenny), albeit with stereoscopic animation, just like the last few movies. It’s a classic SpongeBob story executed with incredible verve and genuinely funny visual (and verbal) comedy that would, in every metric, make Stephen Hillenburg proud. As far as I’m concerned, this is the SpongeBob I grew up watching, and, for a momentary occasion in my life, brought me back to the days when I was obsessed with the show and its colorful bunch of characters populating the ever-imaginative world of Bikini Bottom.
Sadly, this is less of an ensemble piece than the last three installments of SpongeBob’s filmic adventures, and many characters we’ve come to expect to show up in the movies only appear through blink-and-you ’ll-miss-it cameos. The film is essentially concentrated on another journey of self-actualization for SpongeBob, as he’s desperate to prove to his boss, Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown), that he is a “Big Guy,” after being scared of riding a rollercoaster that’s essentially a massive deathtrap with more liability suits coming for the makers of such a terrifying concoction than the one featured in James Wong’s Final Destination 3.
Mr. Krabs believes SpongeBob isn’t brave enough to accomplish anything, despite his taller stature, which leads him to discover a swashbuckler certificate that the Krusty Krab owner proudly brandishes as one of his most significant accomplishments. SpongeBob is convinced that he can do the same and blows a horn to summon the ghost of the Flying Dutchman (Mark Hamill), who will lead him on a challenge path to obtain the same certificate as Mr. Krabs, with his best friend, Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke), tagging along. However, what SpongeBob doesn’t know is that The Flying Dutchman is essentially using him to complete a path he cannot, for his curse to be reversed, once he gets to the end of the many trials he has to accomplish within the Underworld.
Knowing this is sure to be dangerous, Mr. Krabs, Squidward Tentacles (Rodger Bumpass), and Gary go after him, and the movie is essentially composed of A and B stories that eventually intersect in a climax that, yes, goes to the real world. That part is the film’s weakest, even if it’s now par for the course for every SpongeBob film to include at least one section in our world. In this segment, the visual language from cinematographer Peter Lyons Collister is incredibly televisual, even as some moments are deliberately chintzy and play with the artifice of cinema. It creates a bevy of visual jokes during the climactic confrontation between its animated and live-action characters, but none of them hold a candle to when, twenty-one years ago (damn, I feel old), SpongeBob and Patrick enlisted the help of David Hasselhoff to get back into Bikini Bottom.
That said, there’s much fun to be had in this vibrantly animated and expressive fourth outing, which retains what worked so well in Hillenburg’s original iteration of the character and fundamentally understands why children are still drawn to the characters, even after almost 30 years on air. The animation is a genuine highlight, with the heart of its comedy still lying in the incredible visual gags on display, with an edge we haven’t seen from the character in ages. Hillenburg wasn’t afraid to break boundaries in for a children’s program, often inserting humor that only adults could actively grasp, either through visual references that children won’t understand (i.e., Nosferatu) or layering a joke in two levels, with a punchline that kids would find funny, yet possessing a deeper meaning that only older viewers could truly pick up (Sailor Mouth being a great example of this).
He also wasn’t afraid to fill his episodes with surreal images that would push the limits of acceptable “stretching and squashing,” which Drymon frequently tips the hat to inside the Underworld, a place where kooky creatures will make SpongeBob a braver individual after his quest to become a swashbuckler is complete. Younger children may get a tad scared, but SpongeBob in his greatest hour was precisely that, which makes the spinoff films feel more ridiculous in comparison. There are so many great bits, including a staggering fourth-wall break that’s precisely the kind of comedy we’d frequently see from Hillenburg, often targeting the parents their kids dragged to watch SpongeBob rather than the target audience itself.
A preference for visual over verbal jokes is always welcomed, though there are some genuinely stupid dialogue exchanges that, again, recall the show at its peak and made me laugh harder than most family offerings I saw this year. There’s an unbridled sense of joy between SpongeBob and Patrick’s friendship that it becomes hard to remain cynical when the current captains of the ship can still find new ways to make us laugh through tried and true bits that seemingly never age? It seems easy, but it’s actually a Herculean feat to make me laugh when I know this world in the back of my hand, which hasn’t been at its best for a (very) long time. Mark Hamill’s vocal talents as the film’s villain lend themselves quite well, even if one can occasionally miss Brian Doyle-Murray’s presence, who voiced The Flying Dutchman in the television series.
Still, if there was anyone to replace him, it’s certainly the guy who brought us the best vocal iteration of the Joker, which Hamill slightly winks at on certain occasions. It makes the experience more playful, and a welcome return to the big screen for a character that, against all odds, continues to stand the test of time. We know Paramount will milk SpongeBob forever, but if they at least make the same effort they did for The Search for SquarePants, perhaps the future of a franchise that will outlive us all may be safe.
SCORE: ★★★1/2
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