Line #10 YMMV/SurfsUp


1	* {{Adorkable}}: Cody starts fanboying like crazy when he finds out that [[spoiler: Geek is Big Z]].
2	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: When Lani berates Cody for caring more about the competition than her or Z, is she being fair or overdramatic? If it hadn't been for the competition, Cody would never have come to Pen Gu, and would never have got [[spoiler:Z back to the beach.]] But at the same time, it can be said that Cody was thinking about his friends as a means to an end to get training and that he was being too singleminded instead of enjoying his time with them.
3	* AudienceAlienatingPremise: As the movie came out after both ''Film/MarchOfThePenguins'' and ''WesternAnimation/HappyFeet'' caused a considerable backlash against penguin movies, a lot of people avoided this movie like the plague on "penguins on surf boards" alone. The film wound up underperforming at the box office, although it was well-reviewed by critics for ironically having elements that made it stand out among other penguin movies.
4	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
5	** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtCcKUHWdqE Legends]]", used to powerful effect in the flashback's to Z's surfing.
6	** Special mention to the soundtrack consisting of [[TheNineties 90's]] AlternativeRock songs, with some especially noteworthy examples including "Drive" by Music/{{Incubus}}, not one but ''two'' Music/GreenDay songs ("[[Music/AmericanIdiot Holiday]]" and "[[Music/{{Dookie}} Welcome to Paradise]]", which are obviously PunkRock in this case), "Reggae Got Soul" by Music/ThreeEleven, the ''immensely'' well-fitting "Into Yesterday" by Music/SugarRay, and the OneHitWonder "You Get What You Give" by Music/NewRadicals.
7	* CargoShip: Tank and all his trophies. Also canon.
8	* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Geek says he has no interest in the competition and tells Cody he won't attend. That turns out to be a lie, as he secretly watches from the jungle with a fatherly smile on his face.
9	* OnceOriginalNowCommon
10	** The concept of artificial JitterCam (created with a specialized MotionCapture camera) was pretty unique when the film first came out - and indeed, it's still unique for an animated feature. But, like all good things, it has been overdone to the point of sickness.
11	** {{Improv}} in animated films. Here, it was a necessity. Ten years later, it's expected.
12	* {{Squick}}:
13	** The cure for stings from a sea urchin. [[ShownTheirWork Peeing (or vinegar) can help clean out the injury and soothe the burn, but one should go see a medic as soon as possible afterward]].
14	** This movie's really fond of poop jokes. At one point, Cody even ends up water-sliding down into a glowing, jello-like pool of...glowworm poop.
15	* StopHavingFunGuys: Arguably AnAesop of the whole film. Cody cares about beating the competition and takes surfing seriously. It isn't until he learns from Big Z that looking at sports from a competitive view ultimately ruins what makes them fun.
16	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: By the filmmakers' own admission, the "animated mockumentary" gimmick was a little too ambitious and by the third act, the film becomes a more-or-less conventional family film simply to wrap up the story.
17	* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome:
18	** The film featured the best water effects ever for a CGI film at the time, even outdoing ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'', and it still looks impressive to this day. A big part of it is that the animators were able to properly simulate different types of wave displacement -- foam, spray, and wakes -- which allowed them to accurately portray different kinds of water, such as rough and choppy waters in the climax.
19	** There's a reason the artificial JitterCam looks so real; it ''is'' real. The animators created a rig where they could virtually "film" scenes with an actual camera.
20	* {{Woolseyism}}: The Brazilian Portuguese dub, directed by Creator/GuilhermeBriggs, is iconic for making several localizations to the film so the comedy and the feeling of a documentary would be preserved. Examples include Cody coming from "[[UsefulNotes/RioDeJaneiro Frio de Janeiro]]" (frio meaning "cold" in Portuguese), Chicken Joe being from the Brazilian Pantanal in Mato Grosso, informal expressions common among surfers and many other adaptations still quoted by many Brazilian fans of the film.

Context YMMV / SurfsUp