Surf's Up (2007)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Directors:

Ash Brannon
Chris Buck

Writers:

Don Rhymer (screenplay) and
Ash Brannon (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

8 June 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Family | Sport

Tagline:

Hang six Summer 2007.

Plot:

A behind-the-scenes look at the annual Penguin World Surfing Championship, and its newest participant, up-and-comer Cody Maverick.

Plot Keywords:

Surfing | Penguin | Island | Competition | Chicken

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 15 nominations

Cast

Shia LaBeouf	...	Cody Maverick (voice)
Jeff Bridges	...	Zeke 'Big Z' Topanga / 'Geek' (voice)
Zooey Deschanel	...	Lani Aliikai (voice)
Jon Heder	...	Chicken Joe (voice)
James Woods	...	Reggie Belafonte (voice)
Diedrich Bader	...	Tank 'The Shredder' Evans (voice)
Mario Cantone	...	Mikey Abromowitz (voice)
Kelly Slater	...	Kelly (voice)
Rob Machado	...	Rob (voice)
Sal Masekela	...	SPEN Announcer (voice)
Ash Brannon	...	Filmmaker (voice)
Chris Buck	...	Filmmaker (voice)
Brian Posehn	...	Glen Maverick (voice)
Dana Belben	...	Edna Maverick (voice) (as Dana L. Belben)
Reed Buck	...	Arnold (voice)

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS (8 channels) | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Singapore:G | UK:PG | Ireland:G | South Africa:A | Canada:G (all jurisdictions) | USA:PG (certificate #41481) | Malaysia:U | Portugal:M/6 (original version) | Portugal:M/4 (dubbed version) | Mexico:AA | Germany:o.Al. | Argentina:Atp | Chile:TE | South Korea:All | Switzerland:0 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:0 (canton of Vaud) | Netherlands:AL | Brazil:Livre | Taiwan:GP | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | Norway:A | Denmark:A | Australia:G | Italy:T

Company:

Sony Pictures Animation

Trivia:

The title's translation in Russian is "Catch the Wave!", in many other languages it's "Kings of the Waves".

Goofs:

Continuity: After the argument with Big Z, Cody rips his big Z necklace off and during his walk to the line up its clearly seen that he's no longer wearing it, However in the long shot of the line up, you can see that Cody has the necklace on..and then in the following closeup its gone again.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Filmmaker: Quiet on the set. And we're rolling. Cody Maverick interview, take one.
Cody Maverick: So why are you guys here to interview me?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Dinner for Five: (#4.9)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

Hawaiian War Chant (Ta-Hu-Wa-Hu-Wai)

Hang 7

It's not the funniest animated movie you've ever seen -- most of the jokes are amusing, rather than laugh-out-loud -- but it does the job.

Sometimes the humor just seems to be "it's penguins doing human things -- get it?"

But it's fast-moving, colorful, and the voice cast is good. (Fortunately, they didn't give Jon Heder too much to do, so he wasn't out of his depth.)

Shia LeBeouf was very good (esp. considering how young he is). Several of us thought it was Bruce Willis doing the character of Cody. Snappy and smart. I liked Mario Cantone as the snarky sandpiper.

The animation is so deft you can actually see subtle emotions play over the faces of these birds. The waves sometimes look real, not animation.

There's a lot of stuff about surfing. Seemed like one of those old surfing documentaries sometimes. I didn't know if the kids could follow all that -- but the 3 little girls sitting in front of me pronounced the movie "fantastic" afterwards, so I guess it did its job.