Animated, Adventure, Comedy
Synopsis
Followed by a documentary film crew, a teenage penguin (Shia LaBeouf) heads to Pen Gu Island for his first professional surfing competition.
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, James Woods, Diedrich Bader, Mario Cantone, Kelly Slater, Michael McKean, Rob Machado, Sal Masekela
Producer(s): Sony Pictures Animation
Crew: Director - Ash Brannon, Director - Chris Buck, Writer - Don Rhymer, Writer - Ash Brannon, Writer - Chris Buck, Writer - Christopher Jenkins, Producer - Christopher Jenkins, Executive Producer - Jenny Fulle, Film Editor - Ivan Bilancio, Original Music - Mychael Danna, Production Design - Paul Lasaine, Art Director - Ron Lukas, Art Director - Marcelo Vignali, Casting - Mary Hidalgo
Distributor:
Release Date: 06/08/2007
Running Time: 85 minutes
OFFICIAL SITE
| PG | Parental Guidance Suggested |
Production Notes:
- Notes provided by Sony Pictures Entertainment. -
As soon as there was the first wave, there was the first surfer. All you needed was a piece of driftwood, or a block of ice -- and you were off, you were riding. They were hooked, man, they were hooked -- they couldn't stop. And they just passed it on and passed it on, handed that surf gene down all the way through the days. Up `til recent times, you had your old dudes, your "hang six" cats, these old guys that used to lay down with huge, humongous boards. These guys were the pioneers. But nobody saw what surfing could really be until Big Z did it.
Who was Big Z? You're asking the right guy, you got that far. Z is everything. Big Z is surfing. There may as well not have been an ocean before Z. They invented the ocean for him. He lived so hard because he wasn't afraid to live, and he wasn't afraid to die. He came to Antarctica when I was just a kid. Man, it was the biggest thing that ever happened here. And suddenly there he was. Just floating over the water, just hovering, like weightless. He could have walked up to anyone...and he walks right up to me. And he gives me this awesome, one of a kind Big Z necklace. Then he tells me, "No matter what, find a way, `cause that's what winners do." He was the greatest. Everyone looked up to him, respected him, loved him. And one day... one day I'm gonna be just like him.
-- Cody Maverick, up-and-coming surfer and star of Surf's Up
SYNOPSIS
Surf's Up is an animated action-comedy that delves behind the scenes of the high-octane world of competitive surfing. The film profiles teenage Rockhopper penguin Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf), an up-and-coming surfer, as he enters his first pro competition. Followed by a camera crew to document his experiences, Cody leaves his family and home in Shiverpool, Antarctica to travel to Pen Gu Island for the Big Z Memorial Surf Off. Along the way, Cody meets Sheboygan surfer Chicken Joe (Jon Heder), famous surf promoter Reggie Belafonte (James Woods), surf talent scout Mikey Abromowitz (Mario Cantone), and spirited lifeguard Lani Aliikai (Zooey Deschanel), all of whom recognize Cody's passion for surfing, even if it's a bit misguided at times. Cody believes that winning will bring him the admiration and respect he desires, but when he unexpectedly comes face-to-face with a washed-up old surfer (Jeff Bridges), Cody begins to find his own way, and discovers that a true winner isn't always the one who comes in first.
Columbia Pictures Presents a Sony Pictures Animation film, Surf's Up. Directed by Ash Brannon and Chris Buck. Screenplay by Don Rhymer and Ash Brannon & Chris Buck & Christopher Jenkins. With a story by Christopher Jenkins and Christian Darren. Produced by Christopher Jenkins. Music by Mychael Danna. Co-produced by Lydia Bottegoni. Imagery and animation by Sony Pictures Imageworks, Inc. Credits are not final and subject to change.
Surf's Up is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for Mild Language and Some Rude Humor. The film will be released in theaters nationwide on June 8, 2007.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Surf's Up is a fresh, fun animated comedy that immerses audiences in the competitive world of surfing penguins. For producer Christopher Jenkins, that hilarious starting point led to a breakthrough in how to present the story of up-and-coming surfer Cody Maverick. "The notion of surfing penguins really got me thinking. What if, instead of being a straightforward fantasy narrative, Surf's Up went into the world of animation with a hypothetically authentic camera, as if it were taping live interviews and ostensibly no script?" says Jenkins. "What would these surfing penguins tell us if they were given a chance? From there it was a short step to realizing the potential of this coupling -- the imagination of animation paired with the realism and immediacy of today's real-life video."
Directors Ash Brannon (co-director of Toy Story 2) and Chris Buck (director of Tarzan) quickly realized the cleverness in the idea: relying on the conventions and style of reality television and documentary filmmaking, Surf's Up would have an immediacy and relevance that set it apart from the pack. Using that technique, the directors brought into focus the characters, story, and art direction -- the heart of the film.
That intimate cinematic style perfectly supported the story that developed from the inspiring concept of surfing penguins devised by veteran animation executives Sandra Rabins and Penney Finkelman Cox.
At the center of the story, the filmmakers placed the relationship between Cody, a young, up-and-coming surfer who thinks that becoming a champion will bring him the respect he feels he deserves, and Big Z, the onetime legendary surfer who everybody thinks has passed on, but in fact has been living alone as a hermit for the past decade. "Having lost his father, Cody is clearly looking for a father figure, and the legend of Big Z had filled that void; because Z was a champion, that's what Cody thought he wanted to be, too. But when Cody enters Z's life, Z is forced to come to terms with his past and face life as a champion whose glory days are over," says director Ash Brannon. "When Cody finds out that Z is still alive, they naturally fall into those father-son roles -- the good and the challenging -- and both realize that nothing could matter less than a trophy. It's their passion for being out on the waves that counts most."
To absorb audiences into Cody's world, every detail had to be appropriate to the experience. "One of our main goals was to take the viewer to a tropical location," said director Chris Buck. "We wanted to recreate that feeling you get when you step off the plane in a place like Tahiti or Hawaii, and you're hit by that amazing scent and air and even by how different the light is. You really know that you're somewhere special."
An ensemble of talented actors form the voice cast of Surf's Up. Leading the way is Shia LaBeouf, who takes on the role of Cody Maverick. He is joined by four-time Academy Award® nominee Jeff Bridges, playing Big Z; Zooey Deschanel as Lani; Jon Heder as Chicken Joe; James Woods as Reggie; Mario Cantone as Mikey; and Diedrich Bader as Tank.
Because of the behind-the-scenes nature of the film, it was necessary that the characters speak in a natural way -- including improvised and overlapping dialogue. In a typical animation voiceover session, actors are alone in the booth as they record their characters' lines. This allows the animators, editors and sound designers more flexibility in splicing together different performances. For Surf's Up, the filmmakers made the highly unconventional choice to record many scenes with several actors in the booth at once. "A performance is completely different when you have the other actors there in the room with you -- you get a sense of what they're doing and react to each other in a natural way," says LaBeouf. "For a movie like Surf's Up -- which is supposed to go behind the scenes, showing what happens in the natural environment -- it was essential, and I'm glad we had the creative freedom to find the magic."
Jeff Bridges notes that when he was acting in the recording booth alongside LaBeouf, the two could not help but mirror the relationship that their characters have on-screen. "I have daughters that are Shia's age -- I think because of that, I naturally kind of fell into that. Also, when I was his age, I was an actor -- I had a lot of the excitement he's going through now. It was terrific to work with him; he's a great improviser and he was having fun doing it."
This technique paid off in several scenes, especially when Big Z and Cody Maverick cooperate on shaping a surfboard. "The actors were more comfortable recording dialogue with other actors in the film, and it comes through in the performance," Buck said. "Jeff, Shia, and Zooey were brilliant in playing off of and working with each other. They really took ownership of their characters."
The result is a film that reinforces Sony Pictures Animation's philosophy of promoting the filmmakers' creativity and vision. Following the division's successful launch last fall with the animated hit Open Season, Sony Pictures Animation has proven to be a home for great talent. "As a surfer and a dad, I knew how much fun it would be to share those experiences with an audience in our film's unique style," says Yair Landau, President of Sony Pictures Digital and Vice Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment. "Over the past five years, we have built a story-driven animation studio powered by Imageworks' 15 years of visual effects artistry. That's all on the screen in Surf's Up, a beautiful demonstration of who we are and where animation is headed."
"Surf's Up is a gorgeous production that enables audiences to share the lives of delightful characters," adds Sandra Rabins, Executive Vice President of Sony Pictures Animation. "Every detail of their world can be seen and enjoyed, from the smallest grain of sand to the magnificent beauty of the setting sun. It's like going to the beach without getting wet!"
Surf's Up is an example of the symbiotic relationship between the filmmakers at Sony Pictures Animation, which developed the project, and Sony Pictures Imageworks, which brought their vision to life. David Schaub, the film's senior animation supervisor, points out that even though the animators of Surf's Up use a computer instead of a pencil, the film is no less hand-crafted. "What appears to be spontaneous in animation is a result of creating each performance down to the last little eye-dart. Every little nuance and detail is toiled over to assure that the message and performance come across clearly."
ABOUT THE STORY
Cody Maverick, the hottest (and only) up-and-coming surfer in Shiverpool, Antarctica, has always dreamt of something bigger than a job at the fish factory, even as his unsupportive family -- mom Edna and older brother Glen -- do not understand why he has to be different from everyone else. But Cody has always wanted to be a winner at something and he's determined to take to heart the lesson that the late, great surfer, Big Z, imparted before going out for his final wave: find a way, because that's what winners do. And Cody finds his way: hitching a ride on overcaffeinated shorebird surf scout Mikey Abromowitz's whale, Cody heads for Pen Gu island and the 10th Annual Big Z Memorial Surf-Off. Along the way, he meets Chicken Joe, a goofball surf nut hailing from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, who learned the sport by riding the icy waters and small waves of the Great Lakes.
No sooner have Cody and Joe arrived than Cody falls head over heels for Lani Aliikai, the beguiling surf beach lifeguard on Pen Gu. After an awkward introduction and an even more awkward request for a date, Cody escapes down the beach to save himself further embarrassment... only to run into Tank "The Shredder" Evans, king of the nine previous Big Z Memorial Surf Offs, who is using a monument to Z for target practice. Cody is about to start a fight with the enormous bully when Reggie steps between them and turns the fight into a mini surf-off... which Cody quickly loses in an embarrassing wipeout.
Lani brings the embarrassed (and unconscious) surfer to the home of her friend, Geek, who quickly revives Cody. Soon after, Cody discovers the truth: this weird dude is his idol, Big Z.
The questions come quickly: Why is he alive? How did he get here? What really happened on that last wave? But none of that is important now; the bigger question is: Can Z help him win the championship? Z, frustrated by Cody's poor surfing, blurts out, "You want to learn to surf the right way, you gotta make your own board."
Cody's impatience gets the better of him once again -- and despite Big Z's guiding hand, Cody makes a terrible board. Cody, unable to admit his mistakes, misses the point of Z's lessons. Needing a break from his mentor, Cody heads off into the jungle -- and runs smack into Lani, the pretty lifeguard who rescued him. She invites him to one of her favorite places -- the lava tubes that run underneath the island. After an exciting, playful afternoon exploring the tubes, Cody returns to Z's beach and repeats the steps that Z taught him earlier. This time, ready to heed Z's lessons, Cody creates a perfect board. Z is pleased with what Cody has created, but Cody, still preoccupied with the need to win, asks only how many points you get for being "in the tube" -- inside the curl of a wave.
Z continues his teaching -- first making Cody practice his surfing on land, and then -- finally! -- in the water. For the first time in 10 years, Z takes a board and dives into the ocean. Z is happier than he's been in years -- until Cody asks Z to watch him surf during the competition the next day. Z is disappointed -- if Cody still wants to compete, has he been listening at all? But Cody is convinced this is just an excuse for whatever happened ten years earlier. And it's true: Z says that he couldn't win against Tank, and couldn't face going back to the beach as a loser, so he chose to disappear. The young penguin, angry with Z, walks off, not caring what his mentor thinks about the competition.
Cody returns to the surf beach to compete -- and shocks the crowd as he shows he is no longer the "wipeout kid" (in Reggie's words) that he was three days ago. With the confidence from his lessons with Z, he is simply taking the waves as they come. As the finals near, he will need to rise to the challenge and prove to Big Z, Lani, and himself what a true winner really is.
ABOUT THE CHARACTERS
CODY MAVERICK
Shiverpool, Antarctica native Cody Maverick is an undersized Rockhopper penguin with an oversized yearning to be a winner. Because he thinks a surfing trophy will bring him the love and respect he knows he deserves, Cody is determined to do whatever it takes to win the 10th Annual Big Z Memorial Surf-Off.
Cody's idol is Big Z, a renowned surfer who once had everything Cody wants. Big Z was popular, successful, and adored by millions. Even though Z never returned from his final wave in a competition ten years ago, his legend has only grown in the young penguin's mind. Still, Cody has a lot to learn -- including that being a winner doesn't necessarily mean taking home a trophy.
Shia LaBeouf leads the cast as the 17-year-old Cody. He notes that while the ultimate moral of Surf's Up may be "follow your dreams," the emphasis should be on the follow and not necessarily the dream. "It's not the destination; it's the journey," LaBeouf says. "It's a happier way to live."
The heart of the film, according to LaBeouf, is the relationship between Cody and Big Z, the onetime great who took his chance to disappear from the rest of the world. "They're two loners who become best friends when they're forced together," he says. "It's reciprocal; Big Z can teach Cody about the joy of surfing, but Cody can also show Z the path back to the life he's missed out on."
That onscreen relationship was mirrored off-screen by LaBeouf and Jeff Bridges. "In the booth, Jeff is all about creating the scene, as if he were on a live-action set," says LaBeouf. "He'll mime the scene -- he'll say, `OK, here's the coconut, so don't come over here; if you step in the wrong place, you're going to trip' -- and I'm thinking, `Oh, I've got to remember that's there.' And at first, you think it's insane, but then the scene begins and Jeff will say two or three words and we have a rollercoaster of emotion, all spawned by Jeff."
"Creating a character that's fifty percent me, fifty percent the animator, was an interesting experience," says LaBeouf. "I'm proud of how Cody came out -- and it's completely a dual effort. To see him move -- with detail from feather to feather
-- he comes to life."
EZEKIEL "BIG Z" TOPANGA
The world of surfing had no bigger star than Big Z. With his chiseled physique, self-confident air, and sense of fun, he rode the crest of the surfing world, bringing the sport into the mainstream. His name was synonymous with surfing until his last competition ten years ago, when he went out for his final wave and never came back.
Since then, Z has grown from a star into a legend, thanks to the marketing genius of scheming talent manager, Reggie Belafonte. Under Reggie's greedy eye for attention, Big Z's legend has become a veritable industry of trinkets and tchotchkes that couldn't be further from the life of surfing he stood for.
"I surfed quite a bit in high school," says Jeff Bridges, who plays the legendary surfer. "Then I stopped for about 20 years. I've just started to take it up again. I'm fair; my chops are coming back. At first, the thing that I feared was the temperature -- the water is so cold out there -- but with the wet suits they have today, the cold is no problem. It's the paddling -- I have about 10 paddles in me and I have to rest for awhile."
When Big Z went out for a final wave, he took his opportunity to disappear rather than disappoint the fans who expected him to win every time. "He's dead to the world -- almost as if he's spending his whole life asleep," says Bridges. "From out of nowhere comes this kid -- and at first, he's irritated, but he can't help but find himself waking up to life and all the wonderful experiences out there. Cody gets him out on the water, which is what Big Z loved first."
Surf's Up presented a special opportunity for Bridges to collaborate with a close friend. "There was a scene set around a campfire, and I thought, `Well, maybe Z's got a ukulele," says Bridges. "The directors thought that was a great idea, so I threw it to my buddy, John Goodwin -- he's my oldest friend; we go back to fourth grade -- and a half-hour later, he's got the song. Boom -- it's in the movie, and I've got a huge smile on my face."
"Ash and Chris were very much in sync," adds Bridges of the film's directors. "Because they complemented each other so well, it made for a great flow of ideas -- any input you had was encouraged." Working with his fellow actors also aided the creative process: "I've done animated films in the past, and usually you're in front of a mic alone," he says. "For this film, we got to play together."
LANI ALIIKAI
Lani is a beguiling young gentoo penguin whose expressive eyes can scold or soothe without a word being spoken. An excellent surfer in her own right, she doesn't squander her abilities proving herself to others. Instead, as a lifeguard on the world's best surfing beach, Lani loves her job rescuing little wipeouts and big showoffs, including Cody. Also, as Big Z's niece, she is the only one who knows that he is still alive and has helped keep his secret for 10 years.
Like the rest of the cast, Zooey Deschanel, who plays Lani, enjoyed the unusual recording sessions. "For the scenes where Lani is carrying Cody, the directors had sandbags for me to carry -- you can hear the exertion in my voice. It was very aerobic."
Deschanel's favorite contribution to the film may be her role as the inspiration for Arnold, a baby penguin that's constantly falling in the water just so he can be rescued by Lani, the object of his crush. At first, the character didn't exist -- Deschanel had one line about rescuing a penguin chick. "I ad-libbed his name -- Arnold," she says. "Chris Jenkins asked me why he was named Arnold, and I said, `He just looks like an Arnold.' Then I said something about too much passing out too often not being good for the brain... and the next time I came in, there was a whole character -- and it flourished without me being there! The seed of the idea sprung forth from magic."
"One of the things that made me so excited about the movie was how real the waves looked," adds Deschanel. "It's was so fresh -- it reminded me of Step into Liquid and Endless Summer and the other great surfing documentaries. I've never seen anything like it in animation."
CHICKEN JOE
Chicken Joe just might be the only Midwestern farm rooster with a shot at winning the 10th Annual Big Z Memorial Surf Off. The humongous crashing waves of Pen Gu Island are a far cry from those lapping against the Great Lakes shores, but this lovable oddball is happy anywhere there are friends and surfboards. Chicken Joe and Cody Maverick become fast friends, recognizing in each other the shared experience of being the outsider in their respective home towns.
Jon Heder takes on the voice of this lighthearted surf nut. Despite his laid-back demeanor, Chicken Joe's the one who's got it all figured out. "There's much more than meets the eye to Chicken Joe -- he's a smart chicken," says Heder. "He's got his act together -- he's there to have fun. He just loves to surf -- he doesn't really care about competition.
"There's a certain carefree feel to Chicken Joe that I relate to," he adds. "I remember being a kid on the basketball court -- I just wanted to goof around and have fun shooting the ball, but all my friends just wanted to win. They all got mad at me."
"Chicken Joe definitely has Midwestern family values," Heder continues. "He loves that feeling of family and he's friendly to everyone. He forms a fast brotherly bond with Cody, whether or not Cody sees it that way. Chicken Joe sees a guy who's a little bit lost and realizes that they're going to need each other while they're on Pen Gu."
"When you voice an animated character, not only are you voice acting, you're also practicing your improv skills," Heder continues. "It's always a weird experience to sit in a booth with the headphones on and imagine yourself in a place as serene as Pen Gu... and as a chicken."
"The great thing about animation is that anything you can imagine, you can bring to life," concludes Heder, who is very familiar with the medium. His brother was an animator with Sony Pictures Imageworks until recently and the actor himself studied the subject in college before focusing on his acting career. "It was like the designers just thought, `What would be the perfect place to go surfing and relax?'
-- and they designed exactly what they wanted: the beaches, the waves, the jungle, just the place you want to go for vacation."
REGGIE BELAFONTE
Manipulative otter Reggie Belafonte didn't shed a tear when his surfing prodigy, Big Z Topanga, disappeared into the Pen Gu Island waves. The scheming manager who turned Big Z into a goldmine was starting to make even more money from heir apparent Tank "The Shredder" Evans, and the big bucks keep rolling in as Big Z's fans turn their devotion into commemorating the legend. He's already got his eye on young up-and-coming surfer Cody Maverick's earning potential, but meanwhile, he's happy to take credit for things he had nothing to do with creating. Two-time Academy Award® nominee James Woods plays the role.
MIKEY ABROMOWITZ
Mikey Abromowitz is a small, stressed-out shorebird with a rapid-fire punchline for every mess thrown at him by life and his boss, Reggie Belafonte. Originally a talent scout for the dryer and more flamboyant world of musical theater, Mikey is always just one ulcer away from discovering the next big thing in competitive surfing.
For Mario Cantone, the chance to play the hapless shorebird was "a blast. He's impatient and miserable and hilarious -- a great character to investigate."
Cantone describes the process in the recording booth: "First you run through it as written, and then you start branching off. And then you branch off the branch -- it just keeps building. Ash and Chris were very encouraging -- they just let me go and they sat there and laughed for three hours, which is great when you're a sick, conditioned comic like me who's always looking for approval."
As the comic foil to James Woods's Reggie Belafonte, Cantone spent a lot of time in the booth with Woods. "He has so many stories," says Cantone. "You just want to sit there and listen, even though it's intimidating." Why intimidating? "Because it's James Woods! It finally got to the point where I was comfortable, but he has a presence, he's brilliant, and he's James Woods -- intimidating."
TANK EVANS
Winning is everything to the swaggering emperor penguin known as Tank "The Shredder" Evans. Of course, he's a genuinely great surfer, which he'd have to be to win the Big Z Memorial Surf Off nine times in a row, but there's no room for anything else in the brawny athlete's life -- except for making special time for polishing his trophies.
Actor Diedrich Bader says, "Surf's Up is a tragedy about the greatest penguin surfer in history -- Tank `The Shredder' Evans -- and the challenges that befall him. A handsome emperor penguin, enormous and threatening, he experiences a fall from grace."
How does that fall come about? Perhaps something to do with one Cody Maverick? "Never heard of him," says Bader.
He kids, but Bader took his role seriously -- to the point of attending surf camp in Malibu. "I learned just how difficult surfing is," he says. "I was up for maybe two or three seconds. That was good enough for me -- been there, done that! Now I'm just like Tank, `cause I was up for two or three seconds," he says, sarcastically.
Bader says despite the fact that it's easy to call Tank a bad guy, his son showed him a different way to see the character. "I described the story to him, and he asked me which character I played. When I told him I played the bad guy, he said, `No, Daddy -- he's not a bad guy, he just wants something else.' All he wants is to be left alone with his trophies. I think if somebody told him that there was such a thing as a trophy shop, surfing would be over."
"When we started production, Tank was a stereotypical bully," says Buck. "We had to keep pushing and pushing to find something different. Our head of story, Jeff Ranjo, cracked the weird side of Tank and took him to another place."
EDNA MAVERICK
Life in Shiverpool is hard for a widowed mother penguin, left to raise two sons in a town where the only aspiration is a job higher up the fish pile at the factory. Edna loves both of her children equally, but she finds it a lot easier to raise Cody's older sibling Glen than the high-spirited Cody. She lives in hope that Cody will outgrow his surfing phase so he can settle down and get a proper job, just like Glen and every other penguin.
The film's script coordinator, Dana L. Belben, first voiced the role as a scratch track -- a temporary track to lay over the storyboards as a means of seeing how a scene might play. "She just nailed the character; she hit it out of the park," says director Ash Brannon. "It was so real that when it came time to cast the role, we just said to her, `Well, it's got to be you.'"
GLEN MAVERICK
Glen is Cody's older brother in the Maverick's Shiverpool household. The two Rockhopper penguins are separated by a mere 14 seconds, but that's more than enough to give Glen license to bully his undersized sibling. When they were kids, Glen always gobbled down more than his fair share of regurgitated fish. Now that they're almost adults, Glen belittles Cody's dreams of getting anything more from life than the small comforts of a warm igloo and something smelly on the table when he comes home from work. Brian Posehn, perhaps best-known for his recurring role as Kevin on "Just Shoot Me," takes on the role.
ARNOLD, KATEY and SMUDGE
Arnold is a mischievous little penguin chick whose calculated "drownings" say more about his desire to keep getting "rescued" by Lani than his inability to swim
-- especially since penguins can swim almost from the time they hatch. Six-year¬old Reed Buck, son of director Chris Buck, provides his voice.
Katey is Arnold's best friend. She is a precocious and strong-willed penguin who has very firm opinions about Tank Evans, Reggie Belafonte, and why the world of competitive surfing is not just for boys. Reese Elowe, the eight-year-old daughter of producer Christopher Jenkins, plays the role.
Smudge is Katey's younger brother. His near-constant silence belies the fact that Smudge, like all little kids, is taking in much more information than those around him realize -- until he blurts things out at the most inopportune times. Jack P. Ranjo, 6, the son of head of story Jeff Ranjo, takes on Smudge.
THE PEN GU-ANS
Known for their ability to set clever traps in the jungle, the Pen Gu-ans are the native clan of penguins on the island of Pen Gu. This hyperactive species of birds move a little faster than your average penguin, a characteristic accentuated by their erratic, staccato, and incomprehensible way of talking. They also have a fondness for eating chicken.
ROB MACHADO, KELLY SLATER, AND SAL MASEKELA
Champion surfers Rob Machado and Kelly Slater, along with renowned sports commentator Sal Masekela, appear in Surf's Up as themselves in penguin form. Artists captured their personalities and mannerisms, but Rob, Kelly, and Sal provided their own voices for total authenticity.
ABOUT THE ANIMATION
As any member of the voice cast would say, creating the character only begins with the voice. When the actor has laid down the track, the torch is passed to the talented team of character animators at Sony Pictures Imageworks, the digital production studio where Surf's Up was made.
David Schaub, the senior animation supervisor, says the film's conceit -- that it is a documentary or reality-television show -- informed the characters' performances. "The illusion in Surf's Up is that the camera just happens to be there to capture the moment," he says. "In animation, we rarely get the opportunity to play out such long, extended performances, where characters carry the shot completely. It is an animator's dream come true!
"The animation style of Surf's Up is caricatured reality," Schaub adds. "The real-world dynamics are pushed to caricature without breaking the fundamental rules of physics and gravity."
Art director/character designer Sylvain Deboissy was inspired by the same idea. "When you think about it, penguins are a caricature of humans -- we share the same silhouette," he says. "Audiences identify with them. In designing the overall look of our characters, it was our goal to strike a balance between a realistic look
