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Penguins enjoy the Surf
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Surf’s Up is slated for release on Oct. 9 (prebook Sept. 6) on DVD and PSP ($28.95 each) and BD ($38.95).
The Sony Animation production, which grossed $56 million at the box office, is plotted like an animated Step Into Liquid. It’s a “documentary” following penguin Cody (voiced by Transformers’ Shia LaBeouf), who has just entered his first professional surfing competition. The voice cast, which includes Jeff Bridges, James Woods, Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) and Zooey Deschanel (Elf), recorded their parts at the same time, rather than separately, in order to encourage improvisation on the script. Figuring most of the improv would be saved for the DVD release, I asked Buck how much of the non-scripted material actually made it into the film. “About 95%,” he said. There goes my theory. The filmmakers, who also include Ash Brannon, formerly of Pixar Animation, had a loose story structure that was open to interpretation by the actors.
Zooey did mention that their recording sessions were filmed, so perhaps DVD viewers will get a chance to witness the improv magic at work first hand.
Actors Diedrich Bader and Mario Cantone, animated characters themselves, also hinted at possible deleted scenes for the DVD release, as Bader’s “Tank” character, the bad guy in the surfing competition, had a few sexually suggestive lines that didn’t make the final cut. After all, this is a family film.
But really, why penguins? “Probably because they’re the most human bird,” guessed Shia. Perhaps, but I liked another reporter’s guess: They have a good agent. —Cheryl Cheng
Posted by Laurence Lerman on July 27, 2007 | Comments (0)