What is it about penguins all of a sudden? No-one, it seems, can make an animated family film these days without using the cute little waddlers.

We had March of the Penguins, Dance of the Penguins (otherwise known as Happy Feet), and now we’ve got cool-dude penguins . . . family-friendly fable Surf’s Up.

Where Oscar-winning Happy Feet was a cutesy family tale playing on its pure innocence, this film is more of a mischievous adolescent.

Presented in Creature Comforts style, it introduces the main protagonists in a series of direct-to-camera interviews and presents itself as a fly-on-the-wall documentary of courageous Rockhopper penguin Cody, who fancies himself as a bit of a surfing God.

He’s misunderstood by the rest of his family – while they are happy counting fish every morning in a mind-numbing bore, Cody seeks solace in surfing around the icy wastes, dreaming of one day riding the waves like his idol “Big Z”, the most talented penguin surfer of all time who famously crashed and died during a competition.

Spotted by a talent scout, Cody is spirited away to the sunnier climes of Pen Gu Island, the idyllic Hawaii-style location of the prestigious Big Z Memorial Surf-Off where penguins attempt to p-p-pick up a giant wave and ride it to victory.

With a helping hand from a spaced-out chicken, and his eyes set on impressing a beautiful lifeguard with a fascinating secret, Cody seeks to confront nine-times reigning champion Tank Evans, an emperor penguin with an ego as big as his belly.

The mere quantity of animated movies hitting our screenes these days somehow dims their efectiveness. It used to be a big event seeing Disney’s annual offering, now these things are ten-a-penny.
The celebrity voiceovers in this one are lively enough (particularly James Woods and Jon Heder) and water effects are neat, but when it comes to the more minute detail of the characters and their feathers, it’s not in the same league as the latest offerings from Pixar like Nemo, Toy Story and Monsters Inc.
What Surf’s Up lacks in charm it seeks to make up for in effervescence and attitude. Most of the time, it succeeds. Just don’t expect it to linger too long on the crest of your memory’s wave.

Carl Jones is the Shropshire Star’s film reviewer. Have your say on his blog below.