Yes, I fancy penguins & many other adorable creatures.Is that really my fault?Nopes, please pass on the blame to Mother Nature & her tendency to redefine ’cuteness’.
Cody Maverick(Shia LaBeouf) is a rockhopper penguin who lives with his mother & brother at Shiverpool, Antarctica.When he’s not busy arranging their town’s ’fishstock pile’, he’s usually seen riding the ’cool’ waves.Being the only penguin with a talent for surfing, his brother & all the other residents of Shiverpool consider him an otherworldly being.He gets discovered by a talent scout & is taken to Pen Gu Island, along with a couple of other surf dudes to compete in the Big Z Memorial Surf Contest.After being shunned at his hometown, Cody is finally living his dream.He’s been a huge fan of Big Z Topanga ever since he could remember & wears a memorabilia given to him by the prestigious surfer during a rare Shiverpool visit.Sadly, Cody also remembers his heart grieved painfully when Big Z died surfing at.............nowhere else, but Pen Gu Island.He befriends a dumb, but big hearted & ultra-cool surf chicken from Wisconsin, Chicken Joe(Jon Heder).On reaching the coveted location, our birdie duo seek out the ’sights & sounds’ of the island.Cody especially can’t take his eyes off gorgeous bodyguard, Lani Aliikai(Zooey Deschanel) & stutters like the penguin fool he is eachtime he manages to catch her in conversation.Meanwhile, Cody & his newbie surfer friends aren’t the only ones fighting for the title.The giant of surfing, Tank ’the Shredder’ Evans(Diedrich Bader) has won every competition so far & carries an ego mightier than his very own biceps.On a ’face-off’ between Tank & himself, Cody gets wiped out almost embarrassingly & begins questioning his talent.If only Big Z were here to offer few words of encouragement?Wait a minute!Aren’t islands suppsed to be havens of magic?
I didn’t know this was a mockumentary until I wikipediaed it.I’ve never watched surf movies before(other than TV serials like Baywatch, Baywatch Hawaii & North Shore which had literally nothing to do with surfing), hence I couldn’t realise that this was an animation movie & spoof all rolled into one.Shia LaBeouf seems natural voicing a peguin, that too one obsessed with surfing.Jon Heder as Chicken Joe brings a smile to your face while Zooey Deschanel is what every female voice artiste usually is in animation movies, sounding cute & being borderline memorable.Jeff Bridges as Big Z/Geek & Shia LaBeouf win hands down for their multiple talents.The animation while focusing on the sun, sand & surf brings out an ’awwwww’ for their characterisation of many little penguins with huuuge eyes.Cody easily is a handsome penguin while Chicken Joe might’ve been some hunk back at Wisconsin.Very young kids won’t be able to understand certain puns in the movie, but will enjoy watching the penguins at action.
Final grade- A-, fun for the whole family
P.S.-For some reason our local McDonald’s never carried out the promotional offers of giving a ’Surf’s Up’ character with every happy meal :(