Surf's Up (film)


Surf's Up is a 2007 American computer-animated mockumentary comedy film directed by Ash Brannon and Chris Buck. It features the voices of Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, Mario Cantone, James Woods, and Diedrich Bader among others. In production since 2002 at Sony Pictures Animation, it was the studio's second theatrical feature film. The film premiered in the United States on June 8, 2007, and was distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is a parody of surfing documentaries, such as The Endless Summer and Riding Giants, with parts of the plot parodying North Shore. Real-life surfers Kelly Slater and Rob Machado have vignettes as their penguin surfer counterparts. To obtain the desired hand-held documentary feel, the film's animation team motion-captured a physical camera operator's moves. It was also nominated at the 80th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature, losing to Pixar's Ratatouille. A sequel, titled , was released direct-to-video on January 17, 2017.

Plot

A documentary crew follows the adventures of Cody Maverick, a 17-year-old northern rockhopper penguin who lives in Shiverpool, Antarctica, with his mother Edna and his older brother Glen. Cody has yearned to be a professional surfer ever since meeting the famous surfer Big Z many years ago, so when a talent scout shorebird named Mikey arrives to find entrants for the Big Z Memorial surfing contest on Pen-Gu Island, Cody jumps at the chance. En route to the contest, Cody befriends another entrant, Chicken Joe of whom is based on Joe Piggott.
The entrants arrive at Pen-Gu Island where Cody meets and immediately falls in love with Lani, a female gentoo penguin who is a lifeguard. He also meets the contest's arrogant champion, Tank "The Shredder" Evans, who has won the Big Z Memorial nine times since it was first held after Z's presumed death during a previous match ten years ago. Cody sees him vandalizing Big Z's memorial and immediately challenges Tank to a surfing duel. Tank easily wins the duel while Cody nearly drowns and is stung by a sea urchin. Lani rescues him and takes him to her uncle, the "Geek", to help Cody recover from his injuries. Cody wakes up, but cannot find the souvenir necklace given to him as a kid by Big Z. Geek then finds it in his hut.
While returning the necklace, Geek finds Cody sitting on a koa log and offers to help him make a perfect surfboard. They attempt to take the log back to Geek's house, only to lose control of it and end up on a beach far away from the house. When Cody gets to the beach, he discovers a shack full of old trophies and surfboards, which used to belong to Big Z. After observing Geek walking sadly into the shack, he realizes that Geek is actually a very much alive Big Z and asks him to teach him how to surf. Z reluctantly agrees, but tells Cody he has to make his own board first. The attempt does not go well, however, as an impatient Cody refuses to listen to Z's advice and crafts a weak and unstable board that shatters upon hitting the water. Angry, he storms off and runs into Lani, who eventually persuades him to return. Cody spends the night working patiently on a new board.
Z compliments Cody on his new board, and Cody is eager to start training. But Z instead has him do menial tasks seemingly unrelated to surfing. Finally Z and Lani teach him how to surf the waves. Afterwards, Cody asks Z if he'll come watch the contest, but Z refuses, revealing that he faked his death because he realized he couldn't compete with his then-new rival Tank, and that he had become too focused on winning. Not impressed that Z just gave up, Cody morosely throws the necklace Z gave him to the sea and leaves, meets up with Joe, and gets back to the contest just as it begins.
Tank easily makes it to the finals, as do Cody and Joe. In the semifinals, Tank battles with Cody, with Tank trying to throw him off his board, but Tank falls off his own board and loses. During the finals, however, Tank bursts in and tries to knock Joe off his board. Cody intervenes at the last minute, sending himself and Tank out of bounds and into an area of the beach known as the Boneyards, which consists of dangerously sharp rock outcroppings and has killed many surfers who have ventured there. Tank punches Cody off his board before crashing, and is rescued by Lani. Z, who had been secretly watching Cody's performance, rescues Cody from a gigantic wave and helps him get back to the beach safely.
Z and Cody find out that Joe won by default since Tank and Cody were disqualified. However, Cody accepts the loss, having decided he'd rather just have fun instead. Z reveals himself to the spectators and invites all of them to surf at his beach. Cody finishes his interview with a reflection of the past events and then joins the rest of his friends in the water.
Before the credits start, the film crew interviews Cody's family. Edna says she doesn't mind that Cody didn't win, but Glenn still sees Cody as a loser, causing his mother to lecture him.
In a post-credits scene, Glenn kicks out the film crew by carelessly tossing their expensive equipment out the window. He then says, "Go back to Hollywood!", much to Edna's dismay.

Cast

Surf's Up: Music from the Motion Picture was released on June 5, 2007. The following 14 songs are on the Sony's official film soundtrack.
According to the film's end credits, the version of "Wipe Out" heard in the film is actually performed by the punk band The Queers. The official soundtrack includes this version under the pseudonym "Big Nose", presumably for marketing purposes. Two songs by Green Day, "Welcome to Paradise" and "Holiday" in an instrumental version, are used for background music in the film. Neither song appears on the official soundtrack album. In the primary teaser trailer, the song "Get on Top" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers can be heard in the background. "Welcome to Paradise" was also used in the second trailer promoting Surf's Up, as well as "Three Little Birds" by Sean Paul featuring Ziggy Marley. The DVD and Blu-ray behind-the-scenes featurette entitled "Making Waves" features the song "The Water", performed by Venice. This also does not appear on the "Surf's Up" soundtrack, but can be found on Venice's "Garage Demos Part 2: Fast Stuff" CD.
Surf's Up: Original Ocean Picture Score was composed for the film by Mychael Danna and it was released on a limited edition 23-track CD.

Release

Marketing

To promote the film's release, surfboard wax bearing the film's logo and a rendering of Cody was given out at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con. It was attached to Open Season, which comes out on September 28, 2006. On June 8, 2007, McDonald's issued eight Surf's Up toys in their Happy Meals for one month. In the Australian market, a few small plush characters of Cody, Lani, Chicken Joe, and Geek replace some of the toys in the US lineup. There was also a tie-in with the candy Air Heads which introduces a "New Wave" flavor and four collectible lenticular motion surf board shaped pieces. Build A Bear stores sold plush toys of the film's protagonist, Cody Maverick. Patrons could "build" their own Cody as well as dress him up in an array of surf-themed clothing and other accessories in Build A Bear workshops. They could also purchase Cody and accessories at the official site. Several plushes from Nanco intended for claw machines can also be found and purchased in varying sizes. Characters available: Cody, Lani, Tank, Geek, Big Z, Chicken Joe, and Reggie Belefonte. A rare set of larger and higher quality plushes had been made available at the premiere's after party. Won either through available games, or given away with gift sets for attendees. Cody, Lani, Arnold and Geek were created and so far no plans for the dolls to be sold commercially have appeared. A series of children's 100 piece puzzles are available as well depicting various characters and setups. Five inch waterproof plush tub toys released by Jakks Pacific in minimal quantities to most major retailers. Five characters were produced, including Cody, Tank, Big Z, Arnold, & Chicken Joe. Each character has an attached washcloth/surfboard, but sport questionable likenesses. Along with the release of the film, a companion Surf's Up video game was released by Ubisoft for all the current video gaming systems on the market. All versions of the game are the same with mild graphical differences, with only the Nintendo DS version changing the overall format.

Home media

Surf's Up was released on high-definition Blu-ray Disc, PSP UMD Video and DVD in the United States on October 9, 2007. The DVD and Blu-ray included two animated short films: The ChubbChubbs! and The ChubbChubbs Save Xmas, the latter of which premiered with this release.

Reception

Critical response

Surf's Up has a 79% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 147 reviews; the average rating is 6.67/10. The site's consensus reads: "Surf's Up is a laid-back, visually stunning animated movie that brings a fresh twist to some familiar conventions. Its witty mockumentary format is fun and inventive, and the CGI is breathtakingly realistic." Metacritic gave the film a score of 64 out of 100 based on 26 reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A-" on scale of A to F.
Some reviews noted that in spite of it coming so soon after many films featuring penguins, Surf's Up was able to stand out on its own. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times reviewed: "The originality of the documentary format coupled with the splendid CGI effects qualifies Surf's Up as not just another penguin movie." The Dallas Morning News critic Nancy Churnin agreed: "Sorry, cynics, Surf's Up is a charmer. And if the birds look somewhat familiar, they have something fresh to say about friendship and what winning is all about." While James Berardinelli of ReelViews said: "If you have to see one penguin movie, this is it", Kyle Smith of the New York Post had a different opinion: "Maybe the next penguin flick will do more justice to the subject." Roger Moore of Orlando Sentinel gave the film a positive score, noting that it was "beautifully animated, terrifically acted and edited in a way that hilariously mimics those Endless Summer surf documentaries." Conversely, Bill Muller, The Arizona Republic's critic, disliked almost everything: "From the nondescript voices to routine animation to an over-written story, this movie spends much of its time gasping for air."

Box office

The film opened at number four and grossed $5,804,772 at the box office on its opening day in North America. It grossed $17,640,249 in its opening weekend. The film grossed $58,867,694 in North America, and $90,176,819 in the other territories, making the total worldwide gross $149,044,513.

Accolades

Sequel

A direct-to-video sequel, titled , was released on January 17, 2017. The film stars WWE superstars John Cena, Triple H, The Undertaker, Vince McMahon, and Paige.