Are you feeling overloaded with the seeming avalanche of penguin films sliding off those big white theatre screens in recent months. Didn’t Happy Feet come dancing out into the mainstream at the end of last year, and at most, it seems, March of the Penguins less than a year before that? Perhaps you missed one or both of those very good films. Alas, having seen them both, I felt more than a shade penguined-out. To boot, the trailers for Surf’s Up looked plain bad. The studio promoted the heck out of the film, but still I felt only the desire to avoid it. And I did. But, interestingly enough, a friend convinced me otherwise. And to my surprise -- we liked it! I liked it!

Despite, the penguins, Surf’s Up is decidedly different from the other two films mentioned above. In fact, the story has more in common with Cars and Robots (two awesome animated flicks). So, yes, it’s based on tried and true formula, but the buddy banter is fresh, never dull, and always entertaining. The picture further distinguishes itself by playing on “film” techniques. That is, shot tongue-in-cheek as a documentary, the crew follows our cocky young surfer on his rise to surfing celebrity. To do so, this animated film is shot handheld. That’s quite funny, because there’s no real camera necessary in computer generated animation. Further non-existent camera techniques are utilized from video tape drop-out from a cam mounted to the edge of a surf board, to cracked or splashed lenses, to even time-lapse photography. These are all very funny inside bits if you’re at all familiar with the recorded image. I especially enjoyed the old grainy 16mm film shots of past surfing events.

Anyway, the good humor isn’t used up entirely on the technical. There is plenty of funny to crack up the average adult or teen. As for the kids -- I have no idea, though I’ve heard they’ve been enjoying it as well.

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