I honestly didn't think I'd like this film, but I think I pretty much smiled throughout the entire movie. Surprisingly the voice acting is the strongest aspect of the film. The structure of the film as a faux documentaty is a very funny idea as well. Although by the three quarters of the way, do you realize where the plot is going to go, it's still a delight IMO.

oh and stay for a post credit sequence.

Out of everything released this week, Surf's Up is the flick I'm most excited about. Might go catch a screening this weekend.

although even DVDTalk's reviews seem to differ, I agree with Brian Orndorf's review:

Surf's Up

Surf's Up - Eric D. Snider's review

on a side note, I'm sure it was intended - the whole film had a 16mm 'film' look - to go along with the doc feel. I saw this in 35mm. To anyone who sees the DLP version is there a prevailent softness to the image throughout the entire film?

I had CNN or CNN Headline news on in the background and when they do their entertainment section they were talking about Surf's up and some critic's say the movie is better than Shrek 3 in some ways.
I think I'll pick it up when it comes to DVD to see if it really is Not another Animated Movie.

I liked the faux-documentary look to the film as they introduced film grain into a CGI-based film, though the grain got a little too much at times, but not enough to be too distracting but in small bits here and there. I also liked how the characters sometimes interacted with the "camera", or gave a 'breaking the 4th-wall' reaction to what had just happened in front of them.

The story is simple and predictable, but it's cute, and wears its heart on its board. The characters are ones that the young and old alike can find something funny or entertaining about them.

I give it 3 stars or a grade of B.

I thought it was awesome, a kid's version of 'Riding Giants' mostly but very fun and I love that they did it doc style...the different 'film stocks' and footage was a hoot... just very entertaining which is more than I can say for a lot of the recent CG fare. 4.5/5

Movies like this should only exist for population control.

I liked it a lot. Maybe being a surfer myself made a difference. I laughed out loud several times (the little penguin who kept getting int he water was really funny).

Don't know how anyone could complain about the look since that's how they intended it.

wtf does that mean? Maybe you meant to post this in a Shrek 3 or Open Season thread...clearly you haven't seen Surf's Up.

That describes every movie I've seen in the past year.

I took my three kids to see this yesterday, along with two nieces. They are aged from 7 thru 12, and we all had a wonderful time. Movie is a very enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes.

As an aside, I took the same 5 kids to see Shrek The Third 2 weeks ago, and we all agreed, it paled in comparision to this film.

Not really, since the previews have been telling the premise of the story for weeks. But, I did modify my original post. You may want to modify my quote in your reply....

noted

I just hope that this film will be recognized for its technological merit. The water and waves were extremely well done. I'm not sure how it will be handled, if at all, in the visual effects catagory.

Saw this last night and it was absolutely entertaining, I couldn't help not smiling during the movie. A great little film that didn't rely on "celebrity" voice acting to pull in crowds and had a lot of genuine humor. The bird underling of the promoter had me cracking up. This is probably the best animated movie I've seen in theatres since Over the Hedge.

Recommended.