Surf's Up
Sony/Columbia Pictures
Release Date: June 8, 2007
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Zooey Deschanel, Diedrich Bader, Jeff Bridges, Jon Heder
By Sean Chavel
"Surf's Up" imagines animated penguins as surfers. Where did all the penguin movies come from anyway? By the time we reach the end of this decade, there will be enough penguin movies to take up an entire shelf at the video store. It's all likely because some studio crackpots in suits decided penguin movies were in style and that more of them should be made.
It all started with the surprise hit "March of the Penguins" which also followed with "Farce of the Penguins," and then there was last fall's animated overkill "Happy Feet." And now we got more animated overkill with "Surf's Up" which strains to be hip. For example, a once-upon-a-time hit song by the Gin Blossoms is on the soundtrack. Are the kids in the audience rocking out yet? And I wonder, did the studio suits buy the music rights first and then worry later about how they were going to plug in the music into the film.
The makers of this movie think they've got an inspired gimmick by "shooting" the story in a quasi-documentary style. Penguins are constantly being interviewed in front of a camera. The scripted dialogue is made to sound like ad-libs – bless the screenwriters for trying to write penguin characters that sound like reality TV residents. So yes, this is the first animated movie as a mock documentary and the attempt recalls the rock group misfits of "This Is Spinal Tap." If this were a fifteen minute short, "Surf's Up" would be really neat. But the amusement around this gimmick fades after awhile.
Let's get one thing over with. Little kids are going to like this movie. Parents can safely take their kids to this movie as a babysitting tool. It's got a glossy look, the penguin characters got that modern day cartoon attitude, it's got the word 'dude,' and it's also got some tubular scenes of penguins riding waves. As for the adult audience, the story is too much of a retread and the lessons are elementary. If you are an adult and you've seen enough movies in your day, then you'll know what I mean.
Upstart Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf) is out to win the gold in competitive surfing, but early on, he learns that he's got a tough competitor in Tank (Diedrich Bader). He's going to have to learn the Zen of surfing, you know, learn the patience necessary so he can be the best. Washed-up Big Z (Jeff Bridges), once considered the world's best penguin surfer, tries to teach the kid a few things about waves, and about life.
Most of the characters are recycled right off the shelf, but it's Bridges that will entertain his older fans most, as he's kind of doing a variation on his Big Lebowski character, and he's drawn like "The Dude Lebowski" too with potbelly sloth. As the rest of the penguin cast is jumping and jiving around, it's Big Z who brings laid back cool to this movie. Also amusing: James Woods doing the sea otter version of Don King, with the big white hair and rambunctious mouth.
This sort of stuff passes the time. Of anything, a scene of Cody tobogganing down a hollowed volcano has the most zany action of any sequence. But everything, in story terms, comes down to the big contest. How does Cody manage to out-surf Tank? Well, let's just say he has faired better after befriending Chicken Joe (voiced by Jon Heder of "Napolean Dynamite"). For the record, he's the only chicken I counted in this movie.
