surf up 43

The Movie Itself is another Computer Animated penguin movie and that might strike some of you as something you’re probably growing tired of as a moviegoer but in all honesty this is more a parody of that cliche. The main character of this film is “Cody” (voiced by Shia LeBeouf of now “Transformers” fame) a Rock hopper penguin from a small little town of Shiverpool, Antarctica (yes that’s probably an obvious parody of The Beatles’ hometown of Liverpool, England). “Cody” loves to surf and his hero is a legendary surfer by the name of “Big Z.” Determined he journeys to take part in “The Big Z Memorial Surf-Off” on Pen-Gu Island.

There “Cody” meets some friends like the goofy surf nut / fellow competitor “Chicken Joe” (voiced by Jon Heder of “Napoleon Dynamite” fame) and most importantly a cute girl lifeguard penguin named “Loni” (voiced by Zooey Deschanel). She introduces “Cody to an old washed-up former pro surfer penguin that goes by the name of “Geek” (voiced by Jeff Bridges of “The Big Lebowski” fame). “Cody” goes through quiet an adventure in this film and it’s really a story that grabs you from the start. This is honestly one of the best computer animated films I’ve seen in a long time. Overall I’m going to say this Blu-ray Disc is a MUST-HAVE.

Video Quality on this release is 1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50 gigabyte Dual-Layered Blu-ray Disc. This video quality and presentation is absolutely flawless and just honestly amazing. If there were anything to complain about here believe me I’d beef this portion of the review up with that but there simply isn’t a thing to complain about. This is Sony at their best when it comes to video quality. The most awesome computer animation with vibrant color, extreme clarity (even with the cinematography styles at points adding a bit of noise on purpose to achieve a documentary type feel) and all around just great picture is what you’re going to find on this release. I remember seeing the AVC MPEG-4’s variable bitrate hit as high as 40Mbps or slightly higher at points. This info may be a bit technical for some of you to understand but I’ll just say… that’s REALLY GOOD.

Audio Quality on this release is in Uncompressed Linear PCM 5.1 @4.6Mbps and Dolby TrueHD 5.1 as well. The fact that Sony is now doing both PCM and TrueHD has me absolutely excited to see on each release and this is no exception. This really offers you two great 5.1 surround mixes to choose from depending on the capabilities of your stereo receiver. The soundtrack to this film absolutely first off is awesome with songs from Green Day, (namely “Welcome to Paradise” and a short clip of “American Idiot“). I must admit this had me rocking out on both 5.1 mixes and really is impressive. The background noises of the ocean (obviously the sound of waves) is absolutely realistic and really sets the vibe to the film. There’s a large rear channel surround presence at almost all times in both 5.1 mixes.

# Bonus Materials:

* Audio Commentariesare here from both the “Filmmakers” (Writers/Directors Ash Brannon / Chris Buck) and the “Visual Effects” guys that worked on the animation in the film.
* Blu-ray Disc “Bookmarks“ are now a reality. You use the colored buttons on your Blu-ray Disc Player’s remote to manage these (Similar to “Bookmarks” on HD DVD titles). You use the green button to make a “Bookmark,” the yellow button to view your “Bookmarks” and the red button to delete a “Bookmark.” This is really impressive to finally see this making it’s way to Blu-ray and yes I realize that rhymes.
* First title to feature an icon for SONY PlayStation 3 users to see on their menu to start to playback of the Blu-ray Disc.
* All Bonus Materials aside from the last item listed (the Music Video) on this are in 16:9 (Widescreen) 1080p High Definition video and Dolby Digital sound (mostly in Dolby Digital 5.1 @448kbps but in some cases Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo @192kbps).
* “The Chubbchubbs!” (5 minutes) is an Academy Award Winning animated short that is very “unique” like “Surf’s Up.” Lots of laughs to be found here and this is definitely worth checking out!
* “The Chubbchubbs Save XMAS” (5 minutes) is an all-new animated short featuring the “Chubbchubbs.” This isn’t quiet as entertaining as the original though I must admit but it’s still worth a few laughs and really nice computer animation.
* “Lost Scenes” with optional Filmmaker Introductions (8 minutes) is split up into 4 different parts. They are as follows “Doris & Sheila” (a sketched out storyboard animation with voice actors), “Pen-Gu Island of Adventure” (sketched out storyboard animation but no voice work), “Z is for Surfing” (sketched out animation again with voice acting by Jeff Bridges) and last we have “Doris & Sheila: Behind the Scenes” (which is pretty self-explanatory).
* A total of 4 Featurettes are included on the bonus materials.
* “Arnold’s Zurfinary” (4 minutes) includes the little penguin “Arnold from the film. This is honestly a tad bit goofy but worth some laughs still.
* “All Together Now: Surf’s Up Voice Sessions” (17 minutes) is one of the best behind the scenes featurettes I’ve seen for an animated film yet. It includes all the stars of the film recording their voice sessions in the studio. We even get some side by side (Picture-in-Picture) comparisons of the live action video of the recording session and the finished product (the fully animated scene in the film). Also included in this are interviews with the Writers/Directors of the film.
* “Not a Drop of Real Water” is split up into 3 parts. The first is “Surf Cam” (7 minutes) and features the Writers/Directors discussing the camera style to the film. The documentary hand held camcorder look at times was obviously what they were going for and they nailed it perfectly here. “Making Waves” (12 minutes) features again the Writers/Directors discussing how they actually went to the beach and learned to surf to get into the feel of the film. This goes on to be very in-depth (pun intended) and shows us a lot of behind the scenes making of the computer animation. Last we have the third part, “Storyboard to Surfboard” which allows you to use the left, right (and/or “Angle”) buttons on your remote to cycle through various stages of the animation process. This is a tad bit confusing at first but once you get the hang of it you’re really going to get a kick out of it.
* The “Surf’s Up Pinball Game” can be played using your Blu-ray Player’s remote directional pad. This proves to be very playable and a tad bit of fun honestly, especially I’d say for kids which it was obviously targeted for.
* “Progression Reels” (5 minutes) has one of the visual effects guys walking you through the progression stages of the computer animation in the film. This might be boring to some but to computer animation fans it’s really worth watching.
* “Galleries” is split up in to two different sections to choose from, “Characters” and “Locations.” This allows you to browse through still images of the computer animation stages, sketches and such.
* Last of the bonus materials on this release we have a Music Video by “Ms. Lauryn Hill” for the song “Lose Myself” (3 minutes) and is again as I said in the beginning of this portion of the review the only bonus material that is presented in 4:3 (Fullscreen). This honestly doesn’t look that great but the song is alright I guess.

Share and Enjoy: