Surf's Up is a computer-animated sports mockumentary about penguin surfing contests, which makes it stand out from the crowd of penguin movies. The story unfolds as it would on any sports-channel on TV, with interviews (with penguins) overlapping footage of (penguin) surfing action, gradually unveiling the tale of Cody Maverick (voiced by Shia LaBeouf, Transformers), a young penguin from Antarctica with dreams of winning a surfing competition--a competition named after his idol, the missing Big Z (Jeff Bridges, The Big Lebowski). But when he joins the competition, Cody finds his zeal for winning may not be enough to defeat the cruel reigning champ, Tank Evans (Diedrich Bader, Grim & Evil). The story of Surf's Up is typical stuff: Youngster learns to value friendship over material success. But the documentary style gives the movie a different rhythm from the usual feature-length cartoon; it stutters and skips around, dithers on side topics, and backtracks to catch up with supporting characters. Some viewers may be annoyed, but others--perhaps the more media-savvy--will find it a refreshing change of pace. (Kids who don't watch much sports, however, may just find it confusing.) Surf's Up also features the voices of James Woods (Hercules), Zooey Deschanel (Elf), and Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite). --Bret Fetzer

The animation is incredible: the facial expressions, the body movement, the play of light, the attention to detail takes your breath away. Add to this a superb soundtrack, and you realise why it got such good critical reviews.

It is a traditional story, but has been told without so much of that awful syrup and candy so beloved by Disney and, I regret to say, Pixar. The mock 'reality program' slant was inspirational, as was the cutting forward to dialogue that explained events in the past. Sorry folks, you have to pay attention to this film. You are not spoon fed the story like Disney and Pixar do. You require some brains to follow the story line.

As for the negative comments on the film's dialogue and 'commentaries', come on man, ever heard of irony and sarcasm? This film mocked the entire money making engine and crass US TV coverage of such events.

This is by far and away better than Happy Feet, and I would say superior to Ratatouille. It's a shame people were pengiun'ed out by the time it hit the cinemas. The more you watch it, the more you spot little bits of detail you missed the previous times.

This is the way a mocumentary should be done. Jeff Bridges as an aged surfer-dude was an inspired bit of casting. I've watched this with my 7 year-old daughter multiple times and we both agree it's one of our favorite animated films. Well worth owning.

My husband (an avid surfer) counts this among his favourite films ever. It looks absolutly gorgeous. The colours are amazing and the surfing scenes look fantastic. Apparently the film is based on Disney's "North Shore", a live action film starring Laird Hamilton and Mark Occhilupo. I really enjoyed the way Surfs Up featured Kelly Slater and Rob Machado - It was a nice nod to the surfing community and their penguin avatars look so like them.
Its a fairly run of the mill "kid takes on the big guns and learns a valuable life lesson with the help of washed up old timer" story but what sets this apart are the fun characters (the relentless promoter was my favourite), the fantastic animation and the documentary style. I can see how younger kids might miss the story but the film looks so great I think it will appeal to all ages and if you surf you really have to add this to your collection

With the top quality cartoons that are being rolled out these days 'Surf's up' falls a little flat. It isn't particularly funny / even cute and cudly which makes me wonder what the selling point is.
The characters aren't developed to the point you get to love them such that they become household names.. like Shrek. Everyone knows who that is, even 80yr olds! Sadly, Cody Maverick won't make the cartoon wall of fame.
I'm not sure if 'Surf's up' will be able to hold any kids attention for it's full run time though you can rest assured it's all clean without even any innuendos meant to go over kids heads and entertain the adults (unless I missed them!).

The movie wasn't awful but it wasn't brilliant either. I still derived some enjoyment from it as it provided a nice break from studying while not requiring the use of many brain cells.

I went into this expecting one of those also-ran CGI kids movies but what I got was something that has out-Pixared Pixars recent output. This is a superb film and far more entertaining for adults than "Cars" or "Ratatouille"...not surprising as this is written and directed by Toy Story 2's Ash Brannon.

Surfs Up has a great cast, some cracking gags and elements of some recent classics; "The Incredibles" (love the fact that old footage, grain, focusing and other camera techniques have been worked in), "Finding Nemo" (it has that tear welling ahhhhh-factor without being too gushy) and a little dash of Aardman Animation (creature comfort type gags everywhere).

OK, so its not an out and out classic like Toy Story but its far better than rubbish like Shrek. Well recommended.