Cody Maverick admired the long time surfing champion Big Z. When Big Z was competing with Tank 10 years ago in a surfing duel, he fell from his board and was believed to have died. Cody was picked from his island to compete in the 10th annual competition in memory of Big Z, and he faced off with Tank and his friend Chicken Joe in the finals...

Animations involving animals usually sells cuteness and stories that adults usually find naive and unconvincing, and flat. For Surf's Up, it does sell a little bit of cuteness (such as the very young penguins), but the story is relatively better (no unbelievably kind characters), and is exciting (really!). Visual is great. Movements look real and smooth. Things do look pretty real. Also, despite usually Cantonese dubbings for similar files mediocre, the Cantonese dubbing of this one is good. With that said, the film exceeds my expectation. I wish I could understand more about the POV of the film, but in any case it is good entertainment.