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Title: Surf's Up
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Parents, there are some mild curse words and a sexuel inuendo or two, but otherwise it's a safe family film.. Recommended for ages 8 and up. |
Penguins are just cool. Whether they are sitting on eggs, singing and dancing, or, in the case of this movie, surfing through rocks and waves, penguins just can't seem to do anything wrong these days. I admit, I wasn't looking forward to seeing "Surf's Up." The idea of watching a movie about surfing penguins seemed to have as much entertainment potential as the idea that involves the singing and dancing mouse who has his own theme park, ho ho. I did see "Surf's Up" though, see it I did. Partially because it was an original idea. Call me crazy, but after getting a third helping of overacting pirates, swinging spiders, and gambling thieves (who have yet to wise up and hire a money manager) going through the motions, I was all ready for something original. Even if the movie in question was only marginally original.
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Yet something strange happened during my viewing of "Surf's Up:" I found myself smiling a lot. Why was I smiling? Here was a true life story about a penguin who wants to move out of the North Pole, away from his fat brother and ignorant mother, leave his fish sorting job behind (a job that seems more useless then the thankless job of making sure jack-in-the-boxes work), and prove himself to be a great surfer. The penguin who wants to leave is one named Cody Maverick, the small egg of the family. His brother is the size of Michael Moore, his mother acts like Tea Leoni (though is not voiced by her), and his dad is never seen because he was eaten by a killer shark. This is all documented by a film crew, who want to capture the life story of a penguin making his aim for the surfing dream.
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It's kind of like an animated "Hoop Dreams," though two hours appears to be missing from this film. The documentary crew followed Cody for about three months of his life, capturing all his intimate moments on camera. Cody brags and boasts about his ambitions to be the number one surfer in the world, yet when he remembers the rough childhood he had, the cameras catch his reaction on camera. Cody fondly remembers meeting his idol Big Z, who was the surfing champion until an accident happened during a competition, resulting in Z's death. We get the feeling Cody never really got over the death. I know how he feels, I never really got over the unexpected death of Gene Siskel. Anyway, Cody is entering the competition now, with his best friend Chicken Joe, and his new rival Tank.
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All the while he falls in love with the lovely Lani, who I assume looks a little provocative for a children's movie, but maybe this is where the MPAA's PG rating comes in. Being a documentary film and all, many of the shots look grainy and there are scratches on the print sometimes. Documentaries use different cameras with a different brand of film, so it's easy to see why the movie might not look as clear as some of the recent summer blockbusters. You also get the sense that the camera crew are not as experienced in making movies as most people are. The camera constantly shakes a bit, sometimes the microphones show up in the shot when the action gets hectic, but otherwise you can feel the film crews enthusiasm to make this movie as good as it could be.
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Sadly, I heard that the film crew totally forgot to get the use of the animals real voices for use in the movie, and so Hollywood actors such as Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Jon Heder, and James Woods were called in to dub over the animals. Granted, with the exception that the animals sound familiar, the dubbing is perfect, and I doubt many kids will notice anything is off. I didn't initially know why I enjoyed this movie so much. Part of me chalked up my enjoyment of the movie coming off a long, rough week. This could be true, but I think it's more then that. I bad movie tends to worsen a bad mood for me. A good movie helps lift me up from it.
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"Surf's Up" caught me off guard because it's such a charming film. I admit it's a bit predictable for a documentary, but it's also more uplifted then "An Inconvenient Truth" is. After the movie was done I snapped my fingers in frustration: I never learned to surf, and I don't have a beach to go to periodically. Oh well, there's always a trip to New Jersey that can fix that. At the moment, this is the front runner for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
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