One of the reasons for the surprising longevity of the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise is in its main character’s very sponginess. Along with most other characters that reside in Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) is stretched and molded, cut up, sliced, diced and exploded ad infinitum, a Gumby of the sea whose malleability is exploited for Buster Keaton-esque comic delirium.

The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants is the most ridiculous and funniest SpongeBob film since the first silver screen adaptation in 2004. SpongeBob and Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke) are flattened, molded, blended, squeezed through tubes and sucked into the underworld. Written by Matt Lieberman and Pam Brady, the latter whose collective credits include Hot Rod, South Park, and Team America, the film utilizes SpongeBob’s malleability as a defining through line.

The Search for SquarePants is SpongeBob’s Funniest Adventure in More Than 20 Years

When the film opens, SpongeBob is delighted to find out that he has grown half a clam to the towering height of thirty-six clams. The revelation is huge news for Bikini Bottom’s favorite fry cook, as SpongeBob has been desperate to be seen as a “Big Guy” so that he can ride the Shipwreck roller coaster at Captain Booty Beard’s Fun Park. The growth spurt is so noticeable, apparently, that Patrick initially confuses his best friend for his grandmother, and Sandy (Carolyn Lawrence) assumes he’s bought new shoes.

But, at the fun park, SpongeBob immediately gets cold feet when he sees the wildly dangerous twists and turns and drops he’d have to endure. In a panic, he makes up a lie: he can’t go on the ride because he promised Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) that he would ride it with him. And so the two pals head to the Krusty Krab, which somehow leads to the staunch capitalist expounding on his supposed days as a pirate captain. That’s right: Mr. Krabs is a Certified Swashbuckler. No, really, he has a certificate praising his fortified intestines, his panache, his moxie and a whole slew of other requirements to be considered a Big Guy.

Well, SpongeBob wants to be seen as a Big Guy, too, and after a series of auspicious twists and turns in the basement of the restaurant, he and Patrick find Mr. Krabs’ treasure trove of Pirate treasures. Suddenly, a windpipe appears luring SpongeBob to blow it, which he is told will help him become said Big Guy. But when he does, a neon green and blue whirlpool appears, with The Flying Dutchman (Star Wars‘ Mark Hamill) emerging from the slimy depths. His goal? To find an innocent, big-hearted dope from which he can steal a soul and break his own curse. Mr. SquarePants is the perfect candidate.

SpongeBob naively accepts the offer to join the Dutchman’s crew, and is soon followed by Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob’s pet snail Gary, and Squidward (Rodger Bumpass), who is blackmailed with the threat of being demoted to the acne-inducing job of fry cook should he refuse. Director Derek Drymon (Hotel Transylvania: Transformania) keeps things going at a breakneck speed, with jokes both verbal and visual flying in at an unbelievable clip. One particularly good runner is a play on the term “shitting bricks,” where each character, in fear, squeezes so hard a literal brick falls out of their pants. “You dropped your lucky brick, Patrick.” “I don’t have a lucky brick.”

That SpongeBob’s entire character’s motivation in this, his sixth film adventure, is to ride a roller coaster, underscores the type of high-stakes low-stakes straddle which makes the character so enjoyable. And SpongeBob is not the only character that gets the clay-like treatment of the body; in the underworld, the Dutchman and his sidekick Barb cannot believe the depths of his and Patrick’s stupidity, their faces melted by utter shock. Though, coincidentally, the murderous army of sword-wielding skeletons on their trail collapse in bone-breaking laughter, so who’s laughing now?

The animation is similarly a visual cornucopia: particularly in the underworld, there’s no shortage of resplendent creatures. Massive squids, sharp-toothed sirens and Sauron-esque rope monsters are just some of the bizarro creatures SpongeBob and company must get past, especially when climbing the video-game like fortress that is Challenge Cove.

Sure, the film has some lessons to dole out about accepting yourself for both your strengths and weaknesses (and how those weaknesses are actually strengths, given the right circumstances), but, really, The Search for SquarePants is just a raucously good time punctuated by a bevy of butt jokes. In a film that gets mileage simply out of the escalating desperation with which SpongeBob blinks his eye, how complicated does its messaging need to be? We all need a really good laugh, and Drymon and company deliver.