More animated penguins

The penguins continue to roll out of the underbellies of CGI animation studios. Apparently, in the movie world, penguins are as hot as the flaming wreck that is Lindsay Lohan’s career. Sony Pictures Animation thinks that their newest movie, Surf’s Up, will be the “coolest” penguin adventure yet.

The movie follows a young penguin named Cody Maverick from Shiverpool, Antarctica (I couldn’t make it up if I tried) who is trying to become the next best surfer. Cody (voiced by Shia LaBeouf) snags a ride on a whale that takes him to the biggest penguin surfing event of the year. Along the way, lessons about being loyal to your friends, discovering that winning isn’t everything, and trying to “nuzzle some beak” from the most penguin-tastic female lifeguard follow Cody on his way to super penguin surfer stardom.

The best part of the movie is the concept that they use to follow the budding penguin surfer. It is animated, but played off as a documentary. An anima-mockumentary, if you will. The directors of the film did an interesting and sometimes very funny job of giving the audience the feeling of watching a documentary. The camera would shake as though held by hand. At night, lights would awkwardly follow characters through the dark jungle. Sometimes characters would even look confusedly at the cameras following them. Even dramatic moments would be captured exactly as a Discovery Channel documentary would. Shots looking at the moon or sidelong, slow-motion profiling of the characters all hint at the larger joke. Noticing these subtleties and nuances and comparing them to actual documentaries is a great way to keep adults interested–kids won’t get or notice it, but it added to my own enjoyment of the movie.

On Cody’s adventure, he comes across some funny and exceedingly annoying characters. Jeff Bridges plays Geek, Cody’s surfing instructor and surrogate father. Bridges’ performance as the burnout surfer dude is funny. He has some lines reminiscent of his seminal film The Big Lebowski (“Oh c’mon man!”). John Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) continues his career of annoyance by playing a dim-witted chicken redundantly named Chicken Joe. Joe meets Cody on the whale that ferries the two to the surfing destination (really, where else would you meet a surfing chicken?) and serves from then on as his best friend. Zooey Deschanel does her part as the penguin-licious lifeguard who falls beak over flipper for our hero.

The most confusing part of the movie comes when the whale arrives at Pen Gu Island, the site of the surfing event. It appears that every member of the island is a penguin complete with tropical-island tattoos and bro-surfer accents. Now, call me crazy, but a movie based on surfing in which almost every character happens to be a typically cold-weathered bird makes little sense. Why not a warm-weather bird like a seagull or a flamingo? Penguins are the new “it” bird when it comes to children’s movies, though, so logical inconsistencies aside, it still makes sense.

The actual animation of Surf’s Up is beautiful. Grandiose sunsets, clear turquoise water and sandy beaches littered with lush trees all shown in perfect detail create an impressive visual palette.

The joy that Surf’s Up‘s filmmakers have for surfing and why surfers do the crazy things they do is very apparent, even if it is a mockumentary. It will make you want to go find a tropical beach to get some surfing lessons, though penguins probably won’t make the best coaches.