Surf's Up is a documentary styled, animated, children's story about penguins in the jungle who surf. A little difficult to put my finger on why, but this animated tryst kind of works.

Unusually small penguin Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf) surfs the wake of a giant whale to the Big Z surfing competition with the dream of being a world class surfer. On the whale he meets Chicken Joe (Jon Heder), and they become fast friends. Chicken Joe and Cody Maverick get separated and each of them has their own small adventure. There is a small group of young penguins that comment on different aspects of the plot. The movie is animated documentary style and it gives it distinction from other animated movies. v

I admit it; I was a sucker for the little penguins. They are pretty freaking cute. Their contribution was just to be gosh darned adorable and they were! I don't care if it was a cheap attempt at “awww” but I don't care, they got me!

This isn't my favorite of Shia LaBeouf's roles but I think he was the right guy for this penguin. His voice young, not childish, still not so recognizable that it is distracting and he is usually spot on as Maverick. His stupidity is pretty funny and his naïveté is charming.

Chicken Joe cracked me up, my giggles splattered all over the movie. On his own adventure, he is too stupid to realize he is in danger and says the dumbest things. Again, the jokes are simple and cheap but they work for the movie. John Heder is a great idiot…go figure.

Zooey Deschanel who plays Lani Aliikai has a voice that can only be called sweet. Her performance was solid but her character was generally flat. She is a cliché cartoon character; the sweet love interest that makes the weak male see his own value. Why are these characters always so soft and squishy? Why don't they ever verbally slap their lily-livered boy toys into seeing their worth or better yet, leaving them until they find their worth. Why is it the female character's job to be on the sidelines coddling someone who should know better? None of this is Deschanel's fault, she didn't write the story. To her credit her voice and performance perfectly epitomizes the role.