He hops aboard Mikey’s favorite mode of transportation, a whale, and heads for Pen Gu island (which will remind you a lot of Oahu circa 1950). When a surf scout, shorebird Mikey Abromowitz (Mario Cantone), comes to Cody’s hometown looking for talent for the 10th annual Big Z Memorial Surf-Off, Cody won’t take no for an answer. Cody’s inspiration is the late and legendary “Big Z” (Jeff Bridges), the Duke Kahanamoku of penguin surfing, whom he once met when Big Z came to Shiverpool. Indeed, his mom and older, much larger brother take pains to portray him as a layabout in interviews with the camera crew (voiced, in fact, by the film’s directors, Ash Brannon and Chris Buck). This would be Cody Maverick (voiced by hot young actor Shia LaBeouf), an oddity in his home of Shiverpool, Antarctica, because of his mania for surfing while the rest of the penguin colony is hard at work fishing and hatching eggs.

While the film has limited ambitions, “Surf’s Up” does take a fresh approach to cartooning by introducing a reality-TV situation in which a camera crew is documenting the exploits of its penguin hero. Cult French Brand Biologique Recherche Gets a Rare Discount Online

Big z surfs up