So everyone was sick of animated films by the time Shrek 2 [not to mention Ice Age 2 and subsequent milkings of the cash cow] rolled out. It wasn’t trendy anymore so when Robots rolled around nobody was interested, Madagascar made a brief spark that entirely died for Cars.
Nevertheless this deserves all the chances that were given to Ratatouille and Persepolis.
Trailer
Surf’s Up has some of the best combinations of character, dialogue and design that I’ve seen since the first [and best] Shrek. Not to mention all the unbelievable in-jokes; but then again, when are they ever missing?
Cody Maverick
It’s one of those typical ‘finding my potential’ films with main penguin Cody Maverick voiced by Shia LaBoeuf [of Transformers fame] and with a face and a voice like that, how could anyone resist that happy-go-lucky boy charm? My friend Jo said: “You can’t help but like him, just look at that face!” [I think she was reading Empire at the time]
Big Z, an example of one of the mockumentary style of animation used
The film is a mockumentary/real-time mix and Cody is brilliantly self-centred, idolising and just plain teenage that he is so believable. The other characters are not to be skimmed over either, each with their own quirks and personalities that the documentary theme does not fall flat.
Tank Evans, voiced by Diedrich Bader
Even unlikeable Tank Evans is so bland and egocentric that he’s adorable. Adorably stupid, but adorable nonetheless. And his little trophy obsession. XD Hah.
Others of note were Chicken Joe [gosh, Jon Heder is bloody perfect for this,] Rob Machado & Kelly Slater [voiced by their real-life selves and sort of looking like them too...] and Big Z/Geek [Jeff Bridges.] Even that generic female interest – Lani [Zooey Deschanel] – was a little less than generic.
And my favourite? The Japanese and the Aussie surfer penguins ['voiced' by Tatsuhi Kobayashi and Rory Nubbins, respectively.] Haha, Rory Nubbins was such a bogan!
The cinematography? Pretty damn close attention to detail EVERYWHERE. And I mean small things like textures of shadows and colour of the sunset through the waves and OH MY GOD the water! [And I hear that that's really hard to do so that it looks real] And the detail! So much detail! I swear I tried to stop blinking because I knew I’d miss that immaculate attention to details of facial expression and ‘unnoticeable’ action in the background that – yet again – stressed the human-like characteristics and the ‘realness’ of the documentary.
Go see it. Don’t expect something to tell your progeny of in years to come but it’ll definitely be worth your time and better than hoping that they’d stop with this whole animation business.
Filed under: Film, YouTube | Tagged: Diedrich Bader, Film, Jeff Bridges, Jon Heder, Kelly Slater, mockumentary, Rob Machado, Rory Nubbins, Shia LaBoeuf, Surf's Up, surfing, Tatsuhi Kobayashi, trailer, video, YouTube, Zooey Deschanel
