
To make the voice acting more realistic, James Woods threw things at Ash Brannon when recording the scene where Reggie Belafonte throws objects at the documentary filmmaking characters.ĭirectors Ash Brannon and Chris Buck lent their voices to the fictional film production crew documenting the life of Cody Maverick. The only exception - due to agenda conflicts - goes to Woods and Jeff Bridges, who never recorded their voices together.Įveryone was encouraged to improvise and not necessarily follow their lines at all times.Īctors and actresses used real items and objects while recording the lines for "Surf's Up." For instance, Zooey Deschanel carried a sandbag to simulate Lani's squid. He replies, "Like what? Singing and dancing?" The line is a reference to "Happy Feet," another computer-animated film featuring penguins.Īll the voice acting team went into the recording room together.
#TANK EVANS SURFS UP MOVIE#
The layout team created a unique motion-capture video camera system on an old Sony video camera to give the illusion that the movie was made with a real handheld camera.Īt the start of the movie, Cody is asked if he has any skills besides surfing. The production team made a surf-and-research trip to Malibu Surfrider Beach to study and learn more about the technicalities of surfing and surfers. The movie's promotional poster initially included the tagline, "A True Story," but it was later replaced by "A Major Ocean Picture." Movie directors Ash Brannon and Chris Buck only agreed to do the movie after being assured that the waves would look realistic. "Surf's Up" was the first-ever film by Sony Pictures Animation that didn't feature a single human and the ninth of all time. Here are some curious facts and technical secrets about "Surf's Up."
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The world's first animated penguin surfing movie even features two very well-known professional surfers - Kelly Slater and Rob Machado - morphed into aquatic, flightless birds. The overall authentic surf feel is also attributed to the production team involving several real-life surfers. It mimics surf and beach culture and lifestyle with its stunningly beautiful CGI rendering of perfect cartoon-like waves. However, it's been considered a commercial failure. "Surf's Up" received positive reviews from critics and has slowly become a cult classic. The movie puts the spectator inside a documentary that follows the life of Cody Maverick, a young up-and-coming rockhopper surfing star, as he prepares for his first competitive appearance. It required the development of new computer-generated imagery (CGI) techniques, plugins, and 3D modeling because of the difficulty of simulating ocean waves. The legendary high-octane penguin surfer film released in 2007 by Sony Pictures Animation took five years to see the light of day. It's rated PG for a couple of mild curse words but other than that I say it's suitable for all ages."Surf's Up" is the most popular animated surf movie of all time. Overall, just a great, fun movie for both kids and grownups that'll put a smile on your face. I really enjoyed Jeff Bridges as an old, laid back surfer dude as well. Having said that, even the parts where it gets more predictable are still funny and entertaining. At least the triumph is not exactly what one would expect, and the movie gets points for that. However later on it does fall into the more typical animated film conventions that you would expect to find in a kids CGI movie: Hero gets frustrated and almost chucks the whole thing only to come back in the end and triumph.

As long as the movie stayed on that track, it was great.
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The interviews are played straight, and watching Cody earnestly reminiscing and answering questions as a penguin with a surfer twang to his voice was priceless. The movie combines the feel of the classic surfer movie Endless Summer with the style of the original short film Creature Comforts by Aardman Studios, and it's a great combination.
