For all the slack I giving “Surf’s Up,” I have definitely seen worse movies in my life time (I’m looking at you “Shark Tale”), and Dreamworks does successfully push some gags along with finesse. The bit about Cody making his own board while Z being incapable of leaving him alone was priceless, and the inevitable splash in to shiny goo after a cute bonding scene with Cody and Lana, just to name a few. There’s the great voice work by the mainly all star cast. Shia Labeouf is very good as the sympathetic Cody who is more obsessed with winning than he is with loving the sport he obsesses over. Labeouf really helps to turn the selfish Cody into a likable hero with some redeeming values, and the twist in the climax involving the final competition helps “Surf’s Up” rise above the doldrums of predictability and cliché, and add some originality.

The friendship between he and Z is very subtle with shades of a father and son who sort of complete one another. Z, once thought dead, discovers he loves surfing again, and Cody learns how to relax and not take life so seriously. The “Karate Kid” type moments including training and unorthodox commitment techniques are pretty funny, and Bridges, in spite of being reminiscent of the Dude, thankfully doesn’t lay it on too thick and makes Z a serviceable mentor figure that turns Cody’s life around. Zooey Deschanel is absolutely charming as Cody’s love interest Lani, while the respective supporting talents of Anthony Cantone, Diedrich Bader, Kelly Slater, and Brian Posehn only serve to add to the charm of the movie that hardly ever resorts to “Shrek” levels of pop culture dependence to deliver the comedy.

Oh me oh my! Surfing penguins! As if we don’t have enough movies and media about penguins, now after watching that overblown piece of malarkey (Happy Feet, I’m talking to you), now we have “Surf’s Up” an animated sports movie that attempts adamantly to build character and conflict sans the dancing, and… it’s still just a damn movie about surfing penguins. Even with Jeff Bridges playing an animated fish version of The Dude, “Surf’s Up” never quite rises above the premise of surfing penguins.

All of which leads up to the big surfing competition with Tank Evans, while the Don King type promoter boasts and hypes the inevitable square off. There’s a celebrity cast who provide fairly good voice work including Jon Heder who is very boring and ultimately fruitless as Chicken Joe, the slow witted surfer bum friend of Cody’s who slumps over, lacks any sort of wit, and never justifies his amount of screen time or focus beyond the climax.  As for James Woods, well, he’s James Woods in animated form again. He’s snarky, obnoxious, loud, and rowdy and adds nothing as the antagonist Reggie. I’m still at that mind set where I’m waiting for studios to stop thinking as animated films as something solely intended for children, and as a medium that can be aimed toward adults. Animation has the potential to be something more than talking animals and pop culture gags, in the end, and “Surf’s Up” is mediocrity personified with barely anything worth remembering after the credits have ended. It’s another overblown and overrated animated entry.

I was ultimately very conflicted with “Surf’s Up.” It has its likable qualities and definite charms with great voice work, nice animation, and rather sharp gags involving surfing, but in the mean time I’m still waiting for animation to go beyond talking animals and simplistic premises with almost take away value. I guess I’ll have to sit on the fence with this one.