Have you ever wanted to step outside the norm, accomplish something that no one thought you could? That’s Cody Maverick (Shia LeBeouf) for you. A penguin from Antarctica, he spends his time surfing on a board made of ice. His hero is Big Z, the world’s greatest penguin surfer, who died in a freak surfing accident some time before.
When talent scouts come looking for new blood to compete in the Big Z Memorial competition, Cody is eager to go. As the competitors travel to Pen Gu Island, where the contest is to take place, he makes friends with Chicken Joe (Jon Heder), an unlikely surfer with a heart of gold.
Upon reaching Pen Gu Island, Cody has to prove his worth to participate, and in the first run, he wipes out, badly. The lifeguard, a cute penguin girl named Lani (Zooey Deschanel) is concerned – Cody stepped on a sea urchin. She takes him to see her uncle, Geek (Jeff Bridges) and he takes care of it, by urinating on Cody’s foot. Okay, that was a little gross, but apparently that is the way to neutralize the poison, so we’ll move on.
Cody discovers that Geek is really Big Z, alive but in hiding, and he learns at the hand of the master how to create a new board. He goes back to enter the official competition, going up against Tank Evans, the tough and egotistical former champion, and learns along the way that there are more important things than winning.
The movie is presented in the form of a documentary, with interviews from Cody’s mother and brother, as well as other participants in the competition. What cracked me up was that they even interviewed the sea urchin in question. Now, that’s true investigative reporting.
This film was rated PG for some mild peril and rude humor.
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