DVD Review: Surf’s Up

The tale of a penguin that just wants to hang ten is told in a rather unconventional way as far as animated films are done these days. This and a great turn by the vocal cast made this one a bit more interesting for me.

Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf) is a penguin that hero worships a legendary penguin surfer called Big Z. Cody has always wanted to follow in the legend’s footsteps since Z disappeared at sea during a big match and is presumed dead.

One day a frazzled sea bird named Mikey (Mario Cantone) shows up at Cody’s ice floe and is looking for surfers to compete in the Big Z Memorial Tournament sponsored by Reggie Belafonte (James Woods), Z’s crooked promoter sporting a Don King hairstyle. He’s joined in the competition by the perennially baked Chicken Joe (Jon Heder). Cody arrives and blows his big chance against Tank Evans (Diedrich Bader), Z’s conceited successor. He’s about to pack up and head home in defeat when the Lani (Zooey Deschanel), the pretty lifeguard that pulled him from the drink, takes him to a zoned out surfer called the Geek (Jeff Bridges) for his spiritual training. Cody again decides to take up his board and take to the waves, but will he win the competition or die trying? The cinema has been flocking with penguin movies since the success of March of the Penguins. I guess you could call this animated feature the Surf of the Penguins. The filmmakers decided to take a different tact in telling the tale of this budding surfer. They treat the film as a documentary and interview the characters. So you have moments where the characters are treating the camera as a confessional as in some of the reality shows that are popular today. The voice work is inspired and all the performers do well. There are even some cute kid penguins for the kiddoes to associate with. That being said there are also some seemingly adult characters. I thought that the Chicken Joe character might’ve been a bit much since he seemed to be “stoned” all the time and that kind of “habit” is really out of place in a kid’s film. So you might want to consider that when picking this one up for the kiddies. Otherwise I though the film was done in an interesting documentary style and did offer family entertainment, if you’re tolerant towards the possibility that the chicken was a bit baked (although I guess you could tell the kids that he’s just stupid).

Surf’s Up is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. A fullscreen version is available separately. Special features include a commentary by directors Ash Brannon and Chris Buck and producer Chris Jenkins. Lost scenes are 3 minutes of deleted scenes with an optional introduction by Brannon, Buck, and Jenkins. Actually they already introduce the three scenes, but if you choose the optional introductions it adds an introduction before the introduced scenes. There’s also a 2-minute behind-the-scenes session with actresses Jane Krakowski and Mindy Sterling whose characters are only seen in the deleted scenes above. “Arnold’s Zurfinary” is a 4-minute chat about surfing lingo hosted by one of the kid penguins. The 17 minute “All Together Now: Surf’s Up Voice Session” interviews Brannon, Buck, Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, John Heder, Mario Cantone, Diedrich Bader, professional surfers Kelly Slater and Rob Machado, sports commentator Sal Masekela (all have voice roles in the film), Dana L. Belben (who went from script coordinator to voicing Cody’s mom), and the voices of the adorable kid penguins, Reed Buck (“Arnold”), Reese Elowe (“Kate”), and Jack P. Ranjo (“Smudge”). The “Not a Drop of Real Water Section” has three featurettes within. The 7 minute “Surf Cam” discusses how the filmmakers got that handheld feel for the film, the 12 minute “Making Waves” is how they accomplished the wave effects, and the 4 minute “Storyboard to Surfboard” highlights two storyboards and the final scenes. The 3-minute “Meet the Penguins” introduces the kids to the cast. “The Secret Spot” contains three games for the kids as well. The 5 minute “Progression Reels” shows how the various stages of some scenes. There are also galleries for characters and locations, a music video by Lauryn Hill for “Lose Myself,” previews, and DVD-ROM features under “Surf the Web.” There’s a separate section for the Oscar winning “The ChubbChubbs” (5 minutes) as well as the brand new sequel “The ChubbChubbs save Xmas” (5 minutes). I thought that Surf’s Up was a cute film and has the potential to entertain the whole family - minding that you give the character Chicken Joe a little leeway since he seems to be a stoner. The film is shot in an interesting style as far as animated features go and this doe add an intriguing edge to the film.