Surf's Up

A simple comedy (mockumentary) with great visuals, and good performances.

Told by way of a light-hearted documentary, we learn a little of the intrepid young “Cody”. He lives in Antarctica with his family amidst a community who think he’s a bit obsessed. Obsessed with surfing, that is, and he is determined to win the legendary “Big Z” surf-off against the much larger penguin “Tank” who obviously has just a little more ballast against those thirty footers (and he doesn’t have an improvised board made from a shard of ice, neither). Luckily, he manages to recruit the services of veteran “Geek” who, let’s face it, has seen better days - but who sees the spirit in this tiny fighter and by working together there might just be a chance, against all odds! Thing is, this isn’t really about surfing at all, it’s about this young bird coming of age, about him learning about what truly matters. We know his dad ended up being lunch for an orca, and that his adoring mum has a new partner who is less than impressed with “Cody” and his thus far unsuccessful attempts to better the waves - but that just seems to galvanise the youngster more. The association with the older “Geek” serves that curmudgeonly character well too and a sort of reciprocal rejuvenation occurs as they gear up for that ultimate in perilous big surf - all with the help of the scrawny but savvy “Chicken Joe”. The style of storytelling is really quiet entertaining as it mixes the traditional vox-pop style of interview conversation from the contributors with some enthusiastically delivered spontaneous dialogue and some fun faux-grainy images that serve as archive from his earlier trials and tribulations. Sure, the ending is quite predictable but it isn’t sentimental and there’s plenty of seaborne action and mischief along the way - and I enjoyed it.

Doesn't quite live up to it's potential. I agree with the 60 ish % rating. This is a really cool an fun idea. But the final product underwhelms a little bit. I'm saying this with love. This could have been great! This could have been a classic! A few more instances of genuane emotional moments. That would be needed. It's hard to care enough and invest enough in the characters as it is now. And finally. WHERE ARE THE CAMERAS? In the whole movie we are suppose to understand we are seeing footage from the documentary crew filming the penguins. And we even see aerial footage and action camera perspective from the tip of the serf borads. Yet you can clearly see that there are no cameras on any of the surf boards. And where are the hellicopters with the animals shooting the aerial footage? We should have seen a bunch of animals running around with cameras and camera equipment! The absense of all the cameras and all the photograper animals really ruined the whole this-is-a-documentary idea.