'Surf's' ups animation ante

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Time is a capricious beast when it comes to movie production schedules -- as the crew behind Sony Pictures Animation's second feature, "Surf's Up," has recently discovered.

Take 41/2 years to produce your computer-generated movie about penguins who surf, and someone -- like, say, National Geographic ("March of the Penguins") or Warner Bros. ("Happy Feet") -- may steal your peng-wind.

Then again, all those hours spent meticulously crafting your pseudo-documentary style, devising new technologies and tricks to drive it home, and building surfing sequences that have been approved by pro surfer Kelly Slater himself -- well, that may be enough to make the film sail away at the box office after all.

There are other selling points, too -- including a splashy summertime theme, star power, a positive message and, thankfully, a minimum of gratuitous pop culture references.

Fresh off "Disturbia," Hollywood "It" boy Shia LaBeouf assumes the lead vocal role as Cody Maverick, a young surfing penguin from Antarctica who travels to the exotic Pen Gu Island for a competition named after his now-deceased idol: the Big Z Memorial Surf Off.

Along the way, the penguin protagonist befriends laid-back Sheboygan-based surfer Chicken Joe ("Blades of Glory's" Jon Heder), a character not all that dissimilar from "Finding Nemo's" SoCal-ish sea turtle, Crush.

Despite the hesitations of talent scout Mikey Abromowitz (the bubbly Mario Cantone of "Sex and the City") and surf promoter Reggie Belafonte (James Woods), the cocksure Cody believes he can master Pen Gu's massive swells, but beefcake bad boy Tank Evans (Diedrich Bader of "The Drew Carey Show") proves he's all talk and no flow.

It's a good thing, then, that Cody finds his own Mr. Miyagi (well-cast mellow-man Jeff Bridges) to teach him all the surf-wax-on, surf-wax-off wisdom he so desperately needs. If his soul searching is deep enough, Cody may just find the mojo he needs to both crush his foes and land his crush, hottie lifeguard Lani Aliikai (Zooey Deschanel).

"Surf's Up's" story itself is solid -- but its unique, faux-documentary angle and well-executed effects are what make it a standout (and a superior effort to the studio's premiere film, "Open Season").

The ambitious flick borrows equally from the methods of documentarian Ken Burns (pans of old photos) and mockumentarian Christopher Guest (candid interviews); it even goes so far as to splice in what looks like grainy, archival footage and pioneer a new system that allows animated sequences to mimic those filmed on hand-held cameras.