Real Water Is About To Become As Inadequate And Tacky As Claymation Monsters

With the rise in global population, and the access to fresh water diminishing accordingly, it's almost comforting to know that even though every living thing on this planet would die out and the atmosphere would eventually become unbreathable, that the super-AI driven robots we will come to manufacture will be still be able to produce films with water in them.
Similar to the challenge and feat of digitally restoring extinct creatures in Jurassic Park, the future of cyborg-made movies will be faced with the daunting task of digitally restoring an extinct universal solvent.

Good news for robots that are to become the dominant beings of the planet. Surf's Up is a worthy indication that artificial water is looking uncannily like the real thing. And I'm not even joking. The computer generated imagery for Surf's Up's cuddly penguin line-up is the usual glossy, individually photo-realistic feathers and fur stuff we've all come to expect from the ton of animal oriented animated movies. But the water, which is featured prominantly in the movie, is the true spectacle of the piece.
True to life physics, sun glare, ripples, waves, foam, sprays and droplets. It's scarily awesome. Mind you, if i took the Pepsi/Coke challenge with real and artificial versions, I would be able to differentiate completely. All I'm saying is, wow. And it can only get better.

To be honest, the movie itself could spare to look a little better too. Not visually of course, I think I've established this film is gorgeous to look at. But so was Shrek 2, partially. And that was a bitch to endure.
I really hate how the long development process of a CG movie creates the problem of overlapping concepts. The best and main example; the wars of similarity between Dreakworks Animaton and Disney. Shark Tale and Finding Nemo were largely similar and dissimilar at the same time. Antz and A Bug's Life were contenders, with both coming out strong. But I particuarly enjoy the feud between Madagascar and The Wild, whose contexts and ideas were hilariously identical. Madagascar won that battle by a huuuuge margin, moreso for the fact The Wild bombed so hard. And there will be a ton more casualties to come with every major studio with about a hundred new films starring exotic talking animals with American accents in the pileline. Each!

I bring up the overlap factor because Surf's Up is about penguins. Warner Bros. also have an animated film coming out which stars penguins named Happy Feet. I mean, tell me this, how is it that two different studios have the same idea at the same time. Penguins are a pretty random animal, lets face it. How did Warners and Sony BOTH have a penguin idea at roughly the same time? Let's not forget that Dreamworks' Madagascar featured penguins as major characters. Which was released while those two films would have been halfway into their development cycle.


My money is going on the Warner Bros. movie, simply because it looks better. It's got a better cast, for starters. The Surf's Up cast is just packed with lesser known actors , while Happy Feet has some of the biggest names of today. (Note: So did another Warner movie, Ant Bully....). Secondly, Surf's Up is an animated mockumentary about the penguins who invented surfing. While I like the genuine innovation, it is nevertheless a stoopid idea. Happy Feet isn't much better, and it has a shittier title, but looks way more accessible.
And thirdly, the Happy Feet trailer is a whole lot better. Surf's Up is superficially dazzling, but that won't make a trailer watchable alone. And that won't draw someone like me to an child-targeted movie. Nor will I see Happy Feet, but Surf's Up's method of 'Let's go the apprach of seeing the main character get dumped by a wave like a loser and have some fucking retarded, drunk chicken-hawk thing mutter some godawful punchline' is just patronizing to all involved. Come to think of it, it might be the gopher that sports that punchline. And yes, that does make a difference. Albeit, not a preferred difference. Trust me, the gopher fucking sucks.
Frankly, seeing that gopher die of thirst would make the apolalyptic drought all worthwhile.

Surf's Up - Sony Pictures
Anticipation Level: Low-Medium.
Look out for: The biggest star. The pretty water effects. No truly, I mean it, the next biggest star is like, Jon Heder. Or Jeff Bridges, but he's just literally big.
US Release date: 8th June, 2007.
Trailer Source