The central joke – and major appeal – of the computer-animated Surf’s Up is that the picture doesn’t seem to realize its stars are penguins. This is structured like any other sports documentary – except that the rising young athlete being profiled is Cody Maverick (voiced by Shia LaBeouf), an Antarctic rockhopper who has traveled to Hawaii to compete in the Penguin World Surfing Championship. The vocal work is a major part of the fun. Each “bro” and “man” flows quite naturally from LaBeouf’s lips to the beak of his penguin alter ego, while Jeff Bridges, as a feathery surfing legend who comes out of hiding to train Cody, delightfully reprises his Dude routine from the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski.
