I am tired of penguins. There, I said it. I know this is only the third in the span of a couple of years, but I am sick and tired of these penguin movies. I thought March of the Penguins was fantastic. I saw Happy Feet and fell in love again. Then the trailers for Surf's Up hit; It was just too much.
I just did not have any interest in seeing it, too many penguins. I did not want to see penguins and I did not want to see penguins surfing. I have nothing against the filmmakers, I just had no interest. So, how did I find myself in the theater actually watching? I do not know, but I did, and I found that I was glad that I did.
Surf's Up is the tale of a young penguin, Cody Maverick (Shia Lebeouf) who wants to be a top surfer. He grew up idolizing Big Z (Jeff Bridges), a legendary surfer who had visited his town when he was but a child. Young Cody dreams of following in Z's footsteps, even when no one else supports him. While everyone thought he was crazy, or lazy, he never let go of his dream.
One day, he is visited by a talent scout looking for the next big thing in surfing, and finds Cody. Cody is ecstatic. He sets off to enter a big tournament, on the tropical island of Pen Gu, in honor of the late Big Z.
It is at the island where he runs into some heavy opposition in the form of current champ, Tank Evans (Diedrich Bader). Tank is an egocentric, mean hearted character who only cares about winning. A run in with him leads to the lifeguard, and love interest, Lani (Zooey Deschanel), rescuing him and taking into the jungle to recuperate. There he meets Geek, a heavy set loner penguin who knows a thing or two about surfing.
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