Herald Rating: * * * *
After Happy Feet and their co-starring role in Madagascar, there really is no need for another penguin cartoon. Good thing, then, that while Surf's Up features yet more antics from our favourite black and white Antarctic-dwellers, it's also a leap sideways
off the usual iceberg.
If anything, Surf's Up might be too smart for its own good - it's a cartoon with a teen-plus funnybone. It amusingly structures its story of aspiring penguin surf champ Corey as a combo of reality-TV shoot and ESPN-styled sports show (complete with voice cameos and penguin stand-ins for real surf stars like Kelly Slater), all of which has echoes of plasticine masters Aardman's low-tech Creature Comforts series
That cleverness - and a sense of physics which is more amusingly accurate to surfing than Roadrunner slapstick - might put it over the heads of younger folk. And even its economical running time can't avoid a couple of flat patches around the half-way mark.
Though those big digitally-rendered perfect waves keep coming as young Cody leaves icy Shiverpool for tropical climes to enter a big league surf contest, meet the lifesaver of his dreams and, of course, learn the true zen of surfing from a former champ voiced by His Dudeness, Jeff Bridges.
Creating the Big Lebowski of Antarctic waterfowl is just one of many inspired touches to this warmly funny romp. It more than makes up for the fact that Surf's Up missed the crest of the wave in penguin flicks.
Voices: Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, James Woods
Directors: Ash Brannon, Chris Buck
Rating: G
Running time: 85 mins
Screening: SkyCity, Matakana, Berkeley, Hoyts
Verdict: Penguin-powered animated mockumentaries don't come any better
