Absolutely Fantastic

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Blistering performances.

First of all Thanks a lot to "Sony Pictures Animation" for great effort in this film. Why? Cause people Watch it and think sec by sec of this movie. Not only for kids but also for adults it has some great points.For the people who likes to surf and want to know some good points about surfing , i say this is the place for your motivation and skills.I watched it like 6 times.For it's great animation makes me feel the movie.The movie itself is an advise.And, of course, Our next gen. kids will be amazed by 2007's lifestyle. Shows a great difference between 90's and 21 century. Grapics and songs were very nice. Really watchable with your family.Don't go on my words. Check it out by yourself.

SURF'S UPI liked this, but was still a little disappointed.The movie is about a penguin who does not want to be an everyday normal penguin. His dream is to become a world champion surfer like his hero Big Z... so he leaves the comfort of his home and family to chase his dream and enters the biggest surfing contest.I quite liked the way this film was made. It was shot like a documentary. It felt like there was a camera crew just following this penguin as he goes on his adventure. There were interviews and other "real life" reactions from all the animals around. It was a really nice angle to take.I thought a lot of it was very predictable which was a shame. There were not many surprises in the movie, although there was one twist that I was not expecting that was good.The voice work was very good. Shia LaBeouf was the voice of Cody... the runaway penguin. Jeff Bridges was the voice of Big Z... the world champion surfer. Other voices were provided by Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder & James Woods.My favourite character was Chicken Joe. He was so funny and by far the best character. He could have easily had his own movie.The animation was very well done. It is amazing how good it is these days... but I do still miss the drawn animation.I thought the story was quite slow in places and was hoping for a little more. It was entertaining, but I thought compared to other kids films this one was quite forgetful. There was not a lot in it that would stick in my mind.I will give this film 6 out of 10."Dude, she's totally into you! She called you crap!"For more reviews, please like my Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ordinary-Person-Movie- Reviews/456572047728204?ref=hl

There are some computer animated films from the past few years which I've known about for a while but still haven't seen, and that was the case with "Surf's Up" until this month, three years and a few months after it came into theatres. I knew it was a movie about surfing penguins, and I had never seen anything like that before, though that obviously didn't mean I was guaranteed to like it. I knew this Sony Pictures Animation effort did not have the amazing reputation which many Pixar movies have, but it did seem to be fairly popular, so I figured it would be another charming piece of CGI animation for the family, like most of the other ones I've seen through the years. Fortunately, I wasn't proved wrong when I watched it.Cody Maverick is a teenage rockhopper penguin who has lived in Shiverpool, Antarctica his entire life and is currently being followed by a documentary film crew. He loves surfing, and his idol is Zeke "Big Z" Topanga, a penguin who was once a surfing champion but is now believed to be dead. Cody doesn't get encouragement from other residents of Shiverpool, and that includes his brother, Glen, who is much bigger than him. However, the ambitious penguin still remembers when he got to meet Big Z once in his childhood, and the words of encouragement he got from the champion surfer, so the young penguin is still determined to be like his idol. When surf talent scout Mikey Abromowitz comes to Shiverpool searching for participants for the Big Z Memorial Surf-Off on the tropical Pen Gu Island, it takes some struggle, but Cody manages to convince him that he is worthy. He travels on a whale with Mikey and a dimwitted but friendly rooster named Chicken Joe, and the documentary crew follows. After arriving on the island, Cody soon meets Tank "The Shredder" Evans, a large, arrogant penguin who is the current surfing champion and will be hard to compete with!Viewers can expect these CGI films to be very pleasing to the eye, and this one is no exception, with the characters and backgrounds, showing a CGI version of Antarctica and then a tropical island with beaches and a jungle interior. I'll admit some of the backgrounds look primitive for 2007, looking more like painted backgrounds than computer-generated ones, but this is only a very minor flaw. I laughed at lot while watching the film, during scenes such as the sibling rivalry between Cody and Glen around the beginning, Chicken Joe getting captured by a tribe of penguins and not realizing what they really want him for, and so many others, so the humour in "Surf's Up" also works. The characters are generally well crafted, and while Shia LaBeouf may not do the greatest job providing the voice of Cody, his performance is acceptable, and there are better voice-overs provided here, including Jeff Bridges as Big Z and Jon Heder as Chicken Joe. The story is a well written and overall entertaining one with some touching moments, and it's better than it may look near the beginning. This particular film from Sony Pictures Animation has not impressed as many viewers as many other CGI films have in the past fifteen years (such as many of Pixar's features, and perhaps certain efforts from DreamWorks Animation and Blue Sky Studios as well), but it seems to have received more praise than criticism, which I can understand after watching it myself. While it's not absolutely stunning from start to finish, it's mostly very entertaining for several reasons and is bound to leave viewers in a good mood, as animated family films like this should. "Surf's Up" is rated PG, so it isn't exactly squeaky clean, but even as a film that is marketed as family fare, it certainly could be dirtier, and I think many kids could still really enjoy it. There are lots of computer animated family features out there and this kind of film has lots of fans, so if you like this very popular kind of animation, I wouldn't suggest skipping this film.

Almost a year after the release of Happy Feet, this film also starring penguins came out, and I was quite keen to see it after seeing a trailer, so I did when I got my chance. Basically it is played out as a documentary, with slightly wobbly cameras and "stock footage", focusing on rock-hopper penguin Cody Maverick (Shia ) from Shiverpool in Antarctica. He is determined to become the new champion at the "Big Z Memorial Surf Off" competition on Pen Gu Island, both for his personal pride, and to honour his hero from childhood, the now supposedly deceased Zeke 'Big Z' Topanga (Jeff Bridges). He gets the support from his new friends, lifeguard Lani Aliikai (Zooey Deschanel) and fellow surfing enthusiast Chicken Joe (Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder), and he has a rival in egotistical champion Tank 'The Shredder' Evans (Diedrich Bader). When Cody gets himself washed up by a big wipe out where he ends up near a jungle where Lani takes him to her friend 'Geek', who seems to know a lot about surfing and the boards to use. As time goes by Cody realises that 'Geek' is in fact Big Z still living and a little chubbier, hiding from the surfing world and feeling like he can't come back. After creating the perfect surf board and learning some new tricks with the help of Big Z, Cody seems ready to take part in the competition and go against Tank, originally Big Z's rival. Cody starts having a strong bond with Lani, but he wasn't able to convince Big Z to come back and face the people he seems to have abandoned, but he sneaks his way back to watch Cody. In the end, Cody sacrifices becoming the new champion of the waves to help Chicken Joe to win against Tank, and Big Z does come back to reveal he is alive, and Cody and Lani are happy together. Also starring James Woods as Reggie Belafonte, Mario Cantone as Mikey Abromowitz, Kelly Slater as Kelly, Rob Machado as Rob, Sal Masekela as SPEN Announcer, Ash Brannon as Filmmaker, Chris Buck as Filmmaker, Brian Posehn as Glen Maverick and Dana Belben as Edna Maverick. The casting is really good, with LaBeouf as a great lead character, Bridges, Deschanel and Heder as great support, and it boasts some really cool animation effects, but it is the documentary feel that is quite original, so a fun family computer animated comedy. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year. Good!