Surf's Up

Surf's Up is a 2007 American animated mockumentary comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It was directed by Ash Brannon and Chris Buck (in the former's feature directorial debut) from a screenplay they co-wrote with Don Rhymer and Chris Jenkins, based on a story by Jenkins and Christian Darren. The film stars the voices of Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, and James Woods. It is a parody of surfing documentaries, such as The Endless Summer and Riding Giants, with parts of the plot parodying North Shore. Real-life surfers Kelly Slater and Rob Machado have vignettes as their penguin surfer counterparts. To obtain the desired hand-held documentary feel, the film's animation team motion-captured a physical camera operator's moves. Surf's Up was released in the United States on June 8, 2007, by Sony Pictures Releasing, and received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the animation and humor. The film grossed $152 million worldwide against a budget of $100 million. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 80th Academy Awards. A sequel, titled Surf's Up 2: WaveMania, was released direct-to-video in the United States on January 17, 2017, and theatrical in select countries. Plot In a mockumentary, northern rockhopper penguin Cody Maverick, living in Shiverpool, Antarctica, with his mother Edna and his older brother Glen, has yearned to be a professional surfer ever since meeting the famous surfer Big Z many years ago. When a talent scout shorebird named Michael Abromowitz arrives to find entrants for the Big Z Memorial surfing contest on Pen-Gu Island, Cody jumps at the chance. En route to the contest, Cody befriends another entrant, Chicken Joe, a friendly but dim-witted rooster surfer from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The entrants arrive at Pen-Gu Island, where Cody meets and immediately falls in love with Lani Aliikai, a female gentoo penguin who is a lifeguard. He also meets the contest's arrogant champion, Tank "The Shredder" Evans, who has won the Big Z Memorial nine times since it was first held after Z's presumed death during a previous match ten years ago. Cody sees Tank vandalizing Big Z's memorial and immediately challenges him to a surfing duel. Tank wins the duel while Cody nearly drowns and is stung by a sea urchin named Ivan. Lani rescues him and takes him to her uncle, "Geek", to help Cody recover from his injuries.