OVP: Surf's Up (2007)

Film: Surf's Up (2007)
Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, Mario Cantone, James Woods, Diedrich Bader
Director: Ash Brannon and Chris Buck
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Animated Feature Film)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

I am kind of obsessed at this moment (late to the game, obviously), with the Shia LaBeouf Live song by Rob Cantor (if you haven't seen it yet, click immediately), and so it seems more than appropriate therefore that I take some time out and review one of his movies.  Yes, for those of you who remember the 2007 Oscars, when there was a sea of surprises on nomination morning (Tommy Lee Jones!  Laura Linney!), perhaps nothing was as surprising as the shocking exclusion of The Simpsons Movie from the Animated Feature race, where the Academy instead, for the second year in a row, went with a penguin movie.  What I didn't know before watching Surf's Up, though, was that this was in fact another penguin documentary.  Though the film has a cool framing device (one I didn't expect from an animated movie), the second half falls into hopeless cliche, and I was forced to be less-than-impressed, but I have to admit that while Simpsons was miles better, I at least get the appeal here.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film starts off as a surfing documentary, chronicling the life of Big Z (Bridges), a deceased surfer who was a legend in the penguin/animal surfing community, and is the hero of our main protagonist Cody Maverick (LaBeouf).  Cody is on a quest to make his name in the sport, eventually making it to the Big Z Memorial Surfing Contest, where he is competing against a host of people, including Tank (Bader), a gigantic penguin who is undefeated in the contest, and Chicken Joe (Heder, back when he was briefly a household name), a crazy classic stoner surfer.  The film progresses with Cody learning that Big Z isn't dead, but instead dropped out when he realized he couldn't cut it anymore with the likes of Tank, and faked his own death.  He teaches Cody that the meaning of surfing isn't to win, but to just chill out and have fun.  The film ends with Tank's ego deflated, Chicken Joe the oblivious champion, and Big Z/Cody just out in the waves like they always wanted to be.

The film's best attribute is surely the documentary-style filmmaking, and honestly the first fifteen minutes were really thrilling for me.  I loved the play with animated form, where you don't expect a documentary, particularly in a film clearly geared toward children, and all of the characters, from LaBeouf's gnarly young dreamer to James Woods' money-hungry agent seem pretty perfectly poised for the film.  I actually loved every time that they went back to this format, as it made for an interesting way to tell a story and watch it unfold, as you weren't quite sure what they would do with it.  You kind of knew that Big Z wouldn't be dead, principally because that's an obvious surprise, but how would they unfold that while filming?  Up until the point where Cody catches a whale ride to what is clearly a South African island, the film really works.

However, once the documentary aspect is discarded (increasingly this happens in the second half), the film loses its slight element of surprise and becomes a sloppily-written snooze.  We all know the exact reasons that Big Z quit and that Cody will have to rediscover his "love of the surf," but honestly I find these sorts of messages a bit convoluted in children's films.  Particularly in regard to Big Z, we have a character who quit surfing because he wasn't good enough, and then blackmails Cody, a surfer who might be good enough to just hang-ten and not compete.  I'm not applauding the villain here and competition is probably not in the lexicon of what surfing is about, but it feels a pretty crappy way to teach children not to try.  Fun is great, but teaching accomplishment is also an admirable skill, and much like the Disney film Bolt, the film leaves a sour taste when we watch someone discard hard work and skill in favor of just "being yourself."  I'm not down with that sort of animated film-it gives us no progress if we have characters who are shooting for something other than love but that goal is something they abandon when the going gets tough.  In this way, someone like, say, Tiana in Princess and the Frog is actually probably one of the better recent animated role models-she found love AND started a successful restaurant.  Cody Maverick just got lazy.

Those were my thoughts-I will say that I liked this tenfold over Bolt and the vocal casting was spot-on (Jeff Bridges as a "dude" is pretty easy, but Shia's chill bro is better than I think pretty much any other celebrity stunt casting they could have done).  What were your thoughts on Surf's Up?  Do you think that it should have trumped The Simpsons Movie for an Oscar nod?  And are you also secretly humming "running from your life from Shia LaBeouf?"  Share in the comments!