Smack dab in the middle of the summer blockbuster season — with the latest installments of “Spider-Man,” “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Shrek” already leading the way — comes another movie about penguins.
Not dancing penguins. Not marching penguins. Surfing penguins.
“This is Sony’s first time out with an animated film so I know they’re really behind this,” says Jeff Bridges, who voices Ezekial “Big Z” Topanga, mentor to Shia LeBeouf’s Cody Maverick in “Surf’s Up,” which hits theaters Friday. “That’s important because there is so much competition out there.”
Directed by Ash Brannon and Chris Buck, “Surf’s Up” takes a behind-the-scenes look at the Penguin World Surfing Championship.
An assortment of characters, including young Cody Maverick, vie for the top prize. Jon Heder, James Woods and Zooey Deschanel also lend their voices to the film.
And “Surf’s Up,” which was written by Don Rhymer, Brannon, Buck and Christopher Jenkins, plays like a mockumentary rather than an animated film, owing more to the style of Christopher Guest than that of Walt Disney.
“There was a lot of improvisation,” Bridges said. “They were very clever with how they did the whole thing. I think the animation and the way they captured the waves — the feeling of what it’s like to surf — along with the ‘Spinal Tap’ thing, really works.”
Heder, the voice of Chicken Joe — the only surfer in Sheboygan — said he enjoyed the experience.
“There really wasn’t a hard-core script, so the movie relied a lot on our ad-libbing,” he said. “When we showed up, they had lines for us, but it was very simple conversation. It was very experimental and gave me a lot of practice for my improvisational skills.” Which, Heder explained, was different than his work on the comedies “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Blades of Glory.”
“Something like ‘Napoleon’ was really quite controlled — I didn’t have to do a lot of improv,” he said. “With ‘Blades of Glory,’ there was a little bit more because when you work with Will Ferrell, he does improv a lot so you get used to extending the scenes.”
And, like “Napoleon Dynamite,” Heder thinks “Surf’s Up” has the potential to be a hit with adults as well as kids.
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“The movie does play a little bit older,” he said. “It’s not that juvenile. It’s not like a Saturday morning cartoon. Obviously, we are entering a big summer for movies. We’re book-ended by movies like ‘Pirates’ and ‘Shrek.’ But ours is really a summer movie. It’s surfing. It’s colorful. It’s fun. People kind of like penguins and people like surfing, so I’m not too worried.”
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