What is it about penguins? It might be time to make them the official mascot of planet Earth; it seems that there's nothing humans won't watch penguins do. Of course, we have the success of
"March of the Penguins" to blame. More children's movie than documentary, 2005's award-winner brought our flippered friends to the fore and paved the way for the startling success of the otherwise absurd
"Happy Feet". While that animated crowd-pleaser was essentially "Footloose" for the Antarctic set, it proved that flightless waterfowl are a box office draw. So it should be no surprise that "Surf's Up" is about surfing penguins. The surprise is that it's a pretty amusing movie.
Immediately distancing itself from previous entries in the recent penguin catalog, "Surf's Up" is presented as a documentary. The filmmakers and animators have great fun with that well-worn handheld style - particularly during the opening sequence which traces the roots of penguin surfing (my favorite is the penguin-with-surfboard hieroglyph). This one stroke of inspiration makes "Surf's" feel unique, despite the fact that it's essentially "Happy Feet" with surfing. The directors Ash Brannon and Chris Buck even go so far as to use their own voices as the behind-the-camera "interviewers".
There's not much to the script (by Lisa Addario, Christian Darren, Don Rhymer and Joe Syracuse): young penguin Cody Maverick dreams to ride the big waves, travels to the ultimate surfing competition and learns from reclusive master "Big Z". While this could have been a rehash of so many other animated (and non-animated) films, where "Surf's" succeeds is in its use of vocal improvisation. Typically, in animated films, voice actors record their dialogue individually, but "Surf's" filmmakers allowed the actors some room to improvise in the same booth. This technique gave way to some refreshingly vivid moments, particularly between young Cody (Shia LaBeouf) and "Z" (Jeff Bridges).
Mr. Bridges has effectively created an evolution of his mythic "The Dude" character from "The Big Lebowski", only in penguin form (I half expected him to start chugging White Russians). And the now ubiquitous Shia LaBeouf, as he's done before, turns in some fine work. The young actor shows impressive vocal range. Rounding out the cast are Zooey Deschanel, as Cody's love interest, and Jon Heder as a stoner chicken (hardly a stretch). James Woods is less effective in a gratingly obvious Don King riff and Mario Cantone plays up the "Broadway Danny Rose" shtick as talent scout Mikey Abromowitz. There are also cameos from real surfing legends (Kelly Slater and Rob Machado voice their penguin-selves).
Computer animation has advanced so far that it's almost rote to say that the film looks gorgeous. Aside from the fun use of depth of field for the documentary shots, the real achievement here is the photorealistic rendering of the waves. It's to the credit of the filmmakers that you occasionally forget you're watching penguins (no, really), and you might actually get caught up in the winning-isn't-everything message. In the end "Surf's Up" is still a movie about surfing penguins, but who says you can't learn anything from that. I'm not sure what's next for our flightless southern friends. Can Broadway be far behind?
