Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Surf's Up
EMAILPRINTColumbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 26 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 25 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Adventure | Comedy | Family/Kids
Written by:
Lisa Addario
Christian Darren
Don Rhymer
Joe Syracuse
Directed by:
Ash Brannon
Chris Buck
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 8, 2007
DVD: October 9, 2007
Running Time: 85 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for mild language and some rude humor
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, James Woods, Diedrich Bader, Mario Cantone, and Kelly Slater
Surf's Up is an animated comedy that delves behind the scenes of the high-octane world of competitive surfing. (Sony)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
An animated family movie about penguins -- in the wake of "March of the Happy Feet," they're the Angelina Jolie of animals, both cute and admired everywhere. Plus, it's about surfing.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Best of all is Jeff Bridges as the voice of Geek, a laid-back philosopher-penguin who becomes Cody's low-key guru, mentoring him in the ways of the wave.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Michelle Kung
The most colorful of the penguin 'toons to date, both figuratively and literally.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Not only are LaBeouf and Bridges terrific, but Jon Heder is hilarious as surfing fowl Chicken Joe. And Zooey Deschanel is saucy fun as penguin lifeguard Lani.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
What makes Surf's Up stand out is its look and texture.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
The entertaining new film from Sony Pictures Animation is a nice surprise, and the rare mainstream American kid film.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Has its own peculiar, loose-knit kind of charm.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
A cut above the noisy, pop-culture joke-larded norm, and it's much more than a "Happy Feet" knockoff.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Surf's Up is that rarity in a children's movie, a comedy that's actually exciting.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
It's cool but not too cool, and cute but not too cute. A neat trick considering its overexposed avian cast.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
If you have to see another penguin blockbuster, you could do worse than this loose-limbed charmer.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
Don't worry, parents, only you--and not your 5-year-old--will get that the chicken's stoned out of his gourd.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
A cheerful and frequently amusing bit of nonsense, which certainly will provoke children into giggles. The film does not measure up to "March of the Penguins" or "Happy Feet," both Oscar-winning efforts. Nor is it trying to.
Read Full Review >Variety Peter Debruge
Every bit as entertaining as the early Christopher Guest efforts.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
The film's greatest triumph, at least on a technical level, is the amazing texture of the water, which has never looked so dramatic or convincing in an animated film.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
Mostly, it just stands out in a crowded field of tacky also-rans by being a reasonably acceptable, more or less non-obnoxious way to spend an hour and a half.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Where Surf's Up falls down is in its central relationships. (A few more jokes wouldn't have hurt either).
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
First they marched, then they tap-danced. Now they ride the waves on souped-up boards. It really doesn't matter what stunts they try to pull off: Who can resist an animated mockumentary in the style of "This Is Spinal Tap" starring the black-and-white big birds of the moment?
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
The voice performances are great, particularly those from LaBeouf and Bridges, who's in a "Big Lebowski" mood. But a moratorium on penguin movies may be in order.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
Has a friendly, blue-collar vibe (Cody is an ex-fish-sorter from the Shiverpool, Antarctica) and some sly, low-key humor. Nevertheless, a moratorium on penguins might be called for, despite the inevitable anthropomorphic void.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
There's nothing terribly wrong with Surf's Up, except maybe the part where one character calls another a "dirty trash can full of poop." But the movie isn't terribly robust, either.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
The novelty wears off almost immediately, leaving this a real chore to watch; there's something bizarre about low-budget spontaneity being replicated in such a labor-intensive medium.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 25 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Alex L. gave it a10:
The movie is cool and funny. Besides surfing, a penguin toots and one penguin calls another penguin a dirty trash can full of poop. This was why the movie is cool and funny.
Streetsy gave it a10:
Seriously under rated. I enjoyed this film immensely and have watched it 5 times already. The animation, (for all those animation nerds out there like me) is top notch. The CG is fantastic. And the story is great.
A K gave it a6:
It wasn't bad and the mockumentary style was fresh, but it's nowhere near as good as Ratatoille.
Chad S. gave it a6:
"Surf's Up" presents itself as a faux-doc and actually manages to be more objective than a real nature documentary film like "Winged Migration". The fake crew doesn't come to Cody's aid when he's drowning, or stop a tribe of wild penguins from converting Chicken Joe(Joe Heder) into a soup base. Worst of all, they allow Cody(Shia LeBeouf) to leave home on a whale without notifying his parents. The notion of a documentary film, however, falls apart completely when Cody and Lani(Zooey Deschanel) shoot down a lava tube. There is no way a camera crew could've captured their torrid ride. "Surf's Up" is at its best when Big Z(Jeff Bridges) mentors Cody even though the vocal work by both Bridges and Shia LeBeouf are a little off the mark. The MTV-style surf contest seems too routine, in comparison to the film's ambitious beginning of establishing Cody's roots in Antarctica, complete with interviews and voiceovers.
Jared C gave it a10:
A fun gripping animation film with epic and exciting sports action.
Sam J. gave it a10:
Surfs up is a great movie with funny penguins. Hearing some of the jokes will make you laugh so hard.
Paul K. gave it a9:
Extremely well done. Worth seeing in the theater or a must on video.
