Day 12/92. Surf's Up was released in 2007 and became one of Sony Pictures Animation's most underrated projects — it's often confused with Happy Feet, but the difference is huge: Surf's Up is made in a mockumentary style, with "accidental" camera work, including operators falling down and equipment breaking. The main character is a penguin named Cody Maverick (voiced by Shia LaBeouf) who dreams of going pro like his idol Big Z (Jeff Bridges) — a surfing legend who disappeared after riding an epic wave. The entire film parodies real surf documentaries, especially The Endless Summer and Riding Giants. The fictional island Pen Gu has beaches inspired by Hawaii and Tahiti. Big Z turns out not to be dead but a hermit living in a cave and surfing just for fun — a direct reference to real-life surfer Greg Noll (one of the first to conquer the waves at Mavericks). The animators deliberately made the penguins scruffy because real penguins have feathered plumage, not smooth skin — and this "shaggy" style created huge technical difficulties, with each frame taking hours to render. The film includes full improvisation: the voice of the chicken cameraman Joe (John Hidalgo) is about 80% unscripted lines, and the scene where Cody smashes his head into a camera came from LaBeouf during recording. Despite an interesting concept, the movie grossed only $149 million worldwide on a $100 million budget, but it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature (losing to Ratatouille). A direct sequel, Surf's Up 2: WaveMania, came out in 2017 — but without Shia LaBeouf and on a budget of around $5 million, featuring WWE wrestlers instead of the original characters. Real surfers consider the film a cult classic because the penguins' movements were accurately recreated using motion capture from actual pros: champions Kelly Slater and Rob Machado consulted with the animators. #cartoon #travisscott #surfing #foryou #edit - @icloudquake