Hang six Summer 2007.
This story follows a teenage rock hopper penguin named Cody Maverick from his hometown of Shiverpool, Antarctica, where all of the other penguins think he's nothing but a surfing fool, to the "Big Z Memorial Surf Off" on Pen Gu Island. Young Cody is determined to win the most important competition in the world of penguin surfing in honor of "Big Z," a deceased surfing legend whom he has idolized since childhood. But the waves in Pen Gu are different than in Shiverpool, and the competition is steep. The current champ, egotistical Tank Evans, isn't just about to let this little penguin knock him from first place without a fight. When Cody wipes out and encounters Geek, a recluse aging former surfer, living in the jungle, he learns some important lessons about life and surfing, and even teaches Geek a thing or two.
Genre(s): Animation, Comedy, Family, Sport
Runtime: 85 minutes
Rating: 7.0/10 (18,117 votes)
Release Date: 2 June 2007
Country: USA
Languages: English
Company: Sony Pictures Animation
Sound: SDDS, Dolby Digital, DTS
Director(s): Ash Brannon, Chris Buck
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Producer(s):
Lydia Bottegoni - co-producer
Christopher Jenkins - producer
Andrea Miloro - animation executive producer
Writer(s):
Don Rhymer - (screenplay) and
Ash Brannon - (screenplay) &
Chris Buck - (screenplay) &
Christopher Jenkins - (screenplay)
Christopher Jenkins - (story) and
Christian Darren - (story)
Lisa Addario - writer
Joe Syracuse - writer
Cast:
Shia LaBeouf - Cody Maverick (voice)
Jeff Bridges - Zeke 'Big Z' Topanga / 'Geek' (voice)
Zooey Deschanel - Lani Aliikai (voice)
Jon Heder - Chicken Joe (voice)
James Woods - Reggie Belafonte (voice)
Diedrich Bader - Tank 'The Shredder' Evans (voice)
Mario Cantone - Mikey Abromowitz (voice)
Kelly Slater - Kelly (voice)
Rob Machado - Rob (voice)
Sal Masekela - SPEN Announcer (voice)
Music: Mychael Danna
Lydia Bottegoni - co-producer
Christopher Jenkins - producer
Andrea Miloro - animation executive producer
Writer(s):
Don Rhymer - (screenplay) and
Ash Brannon - (screenplay) &
Chris Buck - (screenplay) &
Christopher Jenkins - (screenplay)
Christopher Jenkins - (story) and
Christian Darren - (story)
Lisa Addario - writer
Joe Syracuse - writer
Cast:
Shia LaBeouf - Cody Maverick (voice)
Jeff Bridges - Zeke 'Big Z' Topanga / 'Geek' (voice)
Zooey Deschanel - Lani Aliikai (voice)
Jon Heder - Chicken Joe (voice)
James Woods - Reggie Belafonte (voice)
Diedrich Bader - Tank 'The Shredder' Evans (voice)
Mario Cantone - Mikey Abromowitz (voice)
Kelly Slater - Kelly (voice)
Rob Machado - Rob (voice)
Sal Masekela - SPEN Announcer (voice)
Music: Mychael Danna
Posted on: March 27, 2008
August 9th, 2008
What do you do if you are in the animation business and are not Pixar?Pixar sets the bar for general cleverness, and specific cleverness indimensional perspectives and narrative structure. Well, It takes adecade and some risky management bets to build that dimensional skillbecause it requires a corporate culture. But narrative cleverness justrequires a single person or small team with sufficient strengths toexecute.
So if you are the Dreamworks crowd — famous for being risk averse andcheap — you simply buy some humor and use it to cover sentimentaldevices which are known to work. That allows you to sneak some meananti-Eisner humor in there.
But what if you are a new shop with a bankroll big enough to do all theordinary things well enough. And you are given a charter to take risks?You take risks in the narrative form and try to outclever Pixar. I seethat they tried hard here and in my opinion they succeeded.
They took an ordinary worn-out plot and placed a couple folds on it.That plot: have the courage to be yourself (dejected, gifted man iscounseled to come back to enjoy himself). It uses the usual Yodaadvice: Just be, relaxing into yourself and excel, do not strive.
One layer is the inherent dichotomy of any sport, but particularlysurfing. The value of the sport is in the doing. Its unique so far as Iknow in its attunement with the dynamics of nature. Sailing has some ofthis, but is essentially about leveraging technology. Surfing isimmediate, solitary and — so far as the surfer is concerned —completely without intermediate technology.
The strangeness comes in with it being packaged as a spectator sport.The path is obvious and also followed by basketball: the sport as atoken for a role you can adopt: an attitude, a being. It captures acollection of urges. Its a puzzle. No one that truly is a surfer wouldwatch it as a competitive sport. This is used in the narrative tocreate tension. Great fun is made of the promotion of the sport forspectators and particularly the pumping up of personality cults. Butthe narrative under exploits precisely this: we watch. Its no accidentthat the surfer in question is played by "The Dude."
The second fold makes the first one work. This is a fake documentary,with two layers. One is outtake sort of stuff where the participantsspeak to the film crew. The other — seamlessly mixed — is thedocumentary. And that is seamlessly mixed into the story we would seeif this were an ordinary cartoon.
See how clever? See how easy it is to do?
Still, this rewards the watcher, even if you feel conflicted afterwatching some one else surf on painted water.
Ted's Evaluation — 3 of 3: Worth watching.
October 4th, 2008
Surf's Up is a pretty interesting film in some ways. It's an animatedfaux-documentary about surfing fowl. Penguins, to be specific. And, forthe most part, it works well.
Although it doesn't stick entirely to creating the illusion of adocumentary, it stays true enough that it's amusing how the film usesthe format well, especially the editorial technique of documentary, toadd its jokes and to develop background and character. Fortunately, thefilm isn't all talking heads and the characters drawn are amusing andwell crafted, especially considering that this is a children's film.Another thing about the film–it's gorgeous. The animation, especiallythe water animation is quite convincing at times and the direction doesa great job of creating a faux-documentary aesthetic, complete withshaky hand-held cameras, mounted cams and even using faux-stockfootage, treated to look like vintage film.
The main character, Cody, is an ambition penguin desiring to makesomething of himself in the surfing world and some of the underlyingstory regarding his growing up without a father is pretty well done,especially as he encounters Geek. Secondary characters are fairly onenote, but amusing enough, including the spaced out Chicken Joe. I thinkthat some of the secondary stories running through the film, likeChicken Joe's escapades with the "wild" penguins, are less interestingand Ronnie, the love interest, seems to exist more as a convenientstory foil rather than as a carefully crafted character, but the corestory of Cody and Geek is pretty good.
I wouldn't go so far as to say that Surf's Up is a particularlyambitious film, but it's a pleasing and entertaining film from start tofinish that does well within its ambitions. Children will probably bedelighted and this one is good enough that adults will likely findwatching it with children enjoyable enough. It's good. 7/10.
October 14th, 2008
I personally am in love with this film. The first person documentaryfilms are a huge target with me. Of course, I love penguins (whodoesn't) but I love that this story is about Cody yet at the same timeabout Zeek as well and his returning to normal life. The lessonslearned in this movie are invaluable life lessons that everyone canrelate to, such as the wanting to be a a winner and famous and havingeveryone know who you are. At the same time, it hits all types ofpeople whether funny, dorky, popular, thick-headed, "loserish", andeven stressed. Overall, I loved this movie, it is one of my favorites.4 and 7/8 starts of 5 if you ask me!
October 20th, 2008
What is it about the strange behaviour of penguins in cartoon films? In'Happy Feet' we find that they like to dance to show tunes. In 'ThePebble and The Penguin' we discover they can fly. In 'Madagascar' theysecretly hatch plots to take over ships. And in 'Surf's up', theyorganise a surfing contest on a tropical island. WHEN WILL THE MADNESSSTOP?! I suppose there is 'March Of The Penguins' if you want to see adocumentary about these birds in their natural environment, but howmany kids would want to sit through that? Lets hope that these weirdinterpretations of ornithology don't warp their fragile little minds.
Joking aside, I could care less about accuracy or lack thereof inmovies if the actual film was entertaining enough. In Surf's Up, thebrilliant wave effects aside, it isn't. You're gonna hear a lot ofstupid jokes that aren't funny, you'll meet stereotypical charactersyou won't give a flying fig for and you'll have to contend with a plotwhich is so predictable it's like betting on Liverpool, Arsenal,Chelsea or Man U to win the title. The kids will love it, but anydiscerning adult will want to make their excuses and hide behind thesofa.
Whatever happened to the glory days of Toy Story and Shrek? 10 yearsalong the line we have the likes of Ant Bully, Open Season and nowthis. Where did we go wrong? I dare say, maybe if they took as muchtime over the script as they did the animation, it would be a differentstory (pun not intended). So can we go back to the basics of startingwith sympathetic heroes in a believable world, or are we doomed tosecond-rate productions where the high points are gags aboutregurgitated food and penguin urine? Well? 4/10