Surf’s Up

One of those animated family matinee fillers that actually delivers by being no better or worse than you’d expect. The usual “be yourself” empowerment platitudes are in place for this CGI mockumentary about a penguin that just wants to surf, dude. Outsider Cody doesn’t fit in, and since he can’t dance he does what you wondered the penguins didn’t do in March of the Penguins … he gets the hell out of Antarctica. Embarking on his epic journey with his oddball friends, Cody heads off to a big surf competition where he falls in love and learns some big life lessons from his Big Kahuna mentor. There’s absolutely no reason on display here why this had to be penguins, but it is what it is and just go with the flow. It’s sporadically amusing stuff, but not exactly ambitious. Sort of like your typical surfer, just in a cuter package.