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I remember, back in December, when I saw the first trailer for Surf’s Up. I groaned and shook my head and put both my hands over my eyes. I may have said, “lalalalalalalala,” too, because I just couldn’t bear the thought of yet another penguin movie. Haven’t we had enough of the penguins already? I mean, after March of the Penguins and Happy Feet and Farce of the Penguins, I have a hard time dragging myself to the penguin tank at the zoo—because I’m just so sick of penguins. But, hey…the kids love the penguins, and the kids make their parents take them to the penguin movies. And buy penguin-movie-related merchandise. And buy penguin movie DVDs. And thus…more penguin movies. But there have been so many of them lately that penguins have become a running joke among film critics.
And it is for precisely that reason that I can’t believe I’m about to say this—but I actually liked this penguin movie.
Surf’s Up is an animated documentary that follows Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf), a surfing penguin from Shiverpool in Antarctica, on his quest to compete in the Big Z Memorial Surf Off on the tropical island of Pen Gu.
Cody lost his father at a young age, but after meeting surfing champ Big Z (Jeff Bridges), Cody was inspired to be a surfer, too. And he’s still working toward his goal of being a surfing champ—despite the fact that everyone else in Shiverpool (especially his brother, Glen, voiced by Brian Posehn) thinks he’s crazy. But one day, he’s discovered by a surfing talent scout, and he’s taken to Pen Gu, where he meets Chicken Joe (Jon Heder), a surfing chicken from Sheboygan, and Lani (Zooey Deschanel), a cute lifeguard.
The waves are much bigger on Pen Gu than they were back in Shiverpool, though, so Cody faces a new challenge. He also has to face Tank (Diedrich Bader), the infamous surfing champion, who wants to win his 10th title.
With its imaginative story and its cast full of lovable characters, Surf’s Up is so entertaining that I’m even willing to overlook the fact that it’s about penguins. The Karate Kid-like story with a fake-documentary twist is actually surprisingly creative (especially since the writers weren’t creative enough to come up with any animals other than penguins). And the writing is funny. This is a fun animated movie that’s enjoyable for the whole family—and it will have parents laughing just as hard as (if not harder than) the kids. At times, in fact, the humor is quite adult (I was pretty surprised to hear Cody call Tank a “pecker face”—despite the fact that they’re birds)—but the kids won’t mind sitting through a few grown-up jokes that they won’t get. They’ll just love the penguins with the cool hair styles and the silly chicken and the rockin’ soundtrack (which features everyone from Pearl Jam to Green Day). Parents, meanwhile, will be able to appreciate the darker jokes—as well as the spectacular animation that’s so life-like, it’ll make you want to book a trip to the islands and sign up for surfing lessons.
Thanks to the great cast of voices, the fun story, and the breathtaking animation, Surf’s Up is an animated movie that you won’t mind taking the kids to see. Catch a wave to your local theater to check it out.
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