DVD Reviews: 'Surf's Up'
DVD Reviews: 'Surf's Up'

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Published: October 12, 2007

"Surf's Up”

"Surf's Up” got a deal rawer than a penguin's dinner. The film had the bad luck of being the second computer-generated penguin film in a year, following the inferior but massively successful "Happy Feet.” So "Surf's Up” wiped out at the box office, but it's a complete gas: a mock-documentary about young penguin Cody Maverick's quest to become a champion surfer. At times, it looks uncannily like a classic Bruce Brown surf doc, except with flightless waterfowl on long boards.

The key to the artistic success of "Surf's Up” is an uncommon voice-looping technique: the actors, including Shia LaBeouf, Jon Heder, Zooey Deschanel, Brian Posehn, James Woods and the superb Jeff Bridges, worked together in the studio instead of recording their parts separately as it is done in most CG films. There is chemistry and interaction here that often feels improvised, as if this were a true documentary. The interaction between LaBeouf and Bridges, riffing on a version of his performance as The Dude from "The Big Lebowski,” is positively classic.

The documentary elements will probably sail over younger viewers' heads like a perfect wave, but the interview segments evoke the same magical realism among older viewers as Nick Park's "Creature Comforts” did. "Surf's Up” is as fun as a day at the beach. And besides, which is more interesting: watching a bunch of birds dancing or watching them hang six on a pipeline?

— George Lang