The Real Surfin’ Safari

Ah, surfing. That most divine of pastimes, which pits man and fibreglass against the flexing muscles of Poseidon's deep blue sea. Truly there has ne'er been a more zen-like sport, as that which sees surfers embrace the swell of nascent waves to come thundering back to shore atop a chariot of rushing water. This sport of sports was, as any half-baked wannabe surfer knows, invented by Hawaiian natives hundreds of years ago and witnessed by the crew of Captain Cook way back in the middle of the eighteenth centrury. Or was it? According to Sony's new film, history has led us astray and their new animated feature, Surf's Up purports to chart the real inception of surfing at the hands (or rather, flippers) of, well, penguins. Pitched as a companion piece of sorts to Bruce Brown's classic '60s surfer documentary, Endless Summer, Surf's Up will be an animated mockumentary taking audiences behind the scenes of that seminal sporting event: The Penguin World Surfing Championship. Destined to possess the thrills and spills of the Olympics, the World Cup and the International Crocheting Championship combined, this gnarly tale of avian watersports will be directed by Toy Story 2's Ash Brannon and Tarzan's Chris Buck. We don't know about you folks but we're getting some Good Vibrations from this little number. We Get Around in this business and have seen a lot of films with California Girls and guys Surfin' USA coastlines, but this one from Sony looks Fun Fun Fun. Wouldn't It Be Nice if this could be a Break Away hit for penguin kind? You never know, if the film takes off then its Heroes And Villains could easily Do It Again for a sequel, but God Only Knows if that'll happen. We apologise for any indignities suffered by the Beach Boys during the writing of this story.