Hollywood’s infatuation with penguins continues with “Surf’s Up,” where a documentary film crew asks competitive surfer Cody Maverick if he has any other skills.  He answers: “What, like singing and dancing?” 

His response is a pointed diss/nod to last year’s animated “Happy Feet,” in which emperor penguins sang for their spouses and one lonely little guy danced to his own beat. 

In “Surf’s Up,” teenage Cody, who hails from Shiverpool, Antarctica, is Hollywood’s penguin du jour.  He’s a rockhopper penguin, distinguishable by his small stature, spiky yellow feathers and seashell necklace randomly given to him years earlier by the late Big Z — the greatest surfing penguin of all time. 

“Big Z is surfing,” Cody tells the camera crew.  “There may as well not have been an ocean before Z.”  “Surf’s Up” distinguishes itself by putting the animated characters in the documentary format.  The vibe is part “Riding Giants” — the 2004 surfing doc about the history of surfing and the lure of the Big Wave — and part Christopher Guest-style mockumentary, a “new wave” in animation, so to speak. 

The Sony Animation team spared no detail in making it appear to be a real doc — they dropped boom mikes into shots, employed a handheld camera style and used grainy flashback footage of former penguin surf champs in their heyday.  They also moved most of the action from the frigid, black-and-white environs of Antarctica to the sunny tropics of Pen Gu Island, where brilliant color pops out of every frame and the big, blue waves wash over you as if you are riding through the “tube.” 

If you can get some pesky questions out of your head while watching the movie — such as, “Can penguins from Antarctica survive on a tropical island?” and “What kind of animal is Reggie?” — you can concentrate on the story, which follows Cody on his trip to Pen Gu to compete in the Big Z Memorial Surf-Off.  In his quest for greatness, Cody makes friends with a surfing chicken (insert pesky question here), whose prowess on the board is not matched by his intellect; he falls in love with Lani (Zooey Deschanel), a beautiful Gentoo penguin lifeguard; and he gets handily whomped in a pre-competition challenge by the reigning champ and resident blowhard, Tank Evans (Diedrich Bader). 

Lani takes the injured Cody to her layabout uncle’s jungle hideaway to recuperate from his wipeout.  The uncle, known as Geek, takes a shine to Cody and decides to teach him his surfing secrets — and the first secret Cody learns is that Geek is really Big Z, who didn’t succumb to the ultimate wipeout after all. 

Directors Ash Brannon and Chris Buck went against form when it came to the voice work.  Usually in animated films, the actors come into the sound booth one at a time and record their dialogue, and it’s all mixed together at the end.  Here, the actors were able to work together in the booth, so we have actual back-and-forth dialogue with real reactions and comic timing. 

The voice talent is spot-on, with Shia LaBeouf at the forefront as the voice of Cody, exuding a non-cartoony manner of awe-inspired confidence that never goes over the top.  Jeff Bridges as the reclusive aging hippie Big Z is inspired casting, as fans of “The Big Lebowski” will attest.   But save for one telltale “Man!” the character of Z is not nearly as laid-back as The Dude. 

The Big Lesson in “Surf’s Up” is that winning isn’t everything.  Big Z went into hiding when the extreme competitiveness of his sport took all the fun out of it, and when he crosses paths with Cody, Z takes up the challenge of getting back in the game.  In turn, Cody learns that friendship trumps trophies and “winning” is relative.  Nothing new on that score, but the originality of the documentary format coupled with the splendid CGI effects qualifies “Surf’s Up” as not just another penguin movie. 

And let’s be honest, they’re just so darn cute — even The Dude would abide. 

Surf’s Up

★★★1/2

Starring: Voices of Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges and Zooey Deschanel

Director: Ash Brannon and Chris Buck

Rated: PG for mild language and some rude humor