Shia LaBeouf and Jeff Bridges voice penguins in Surf's Up

As a big fan of CG animation, I gotta say that sometimes it seems like we've already passed a golden age of CG-animated family films. I'm not talking about the quality of the animation -- that of course always gets better. I'm talking about attention to character and story, and all that "artsy" stuff. Remember when every Pixar movie seemed to innovate in some really surprising way? Who would've thought that a talking fish movie could be so deep, or that a superhero family so real. But lately a lot of that seems to be missing. If you agree with me here, I think we might have found the antidote. A while back, Sony showed a bunch of us press peeps some footage and let us sit down with the cast of 'Surf's Up' . I've been so busy getting ready for our summer movies coverage that it's taken me a while to post on the evening (and yes, I'm a flake) but check the flip to find out why I think 'Surf's Up' could be the best CG-animated movie since 'The Incredibles.'

First off, 'The Incredibles' and 'Surf's Up' actually have one big thing in common. Remember how 'The Incredibles' opened with the faux-documentary interviews with the superheroes? Mr. Incredible fidgeting with his mic, gesturing out of frame -- it was awesome. 'Surf's Up' takes that to the next level and completely adopts the mockumentary style. Check out the 'Surf's Up' trailer in HD and you'll see how funny it is -- I've seen that opening sequence like 4 times now and I still love it. Hopefully it works throughout the whole movie.

Jeff Bridges and Shia LaBeouf at Sony's Surf's Up eventAt Sony's fancy luau in Soundstage 18 (next door to 'Jeopardy' and 'Wheel of Fortune') we asked Shia LaBeouf about the mockumentary style, and he was psyched. "This is something that's never been done. It's new and it's fresh. This mockumentary in animation is 'Spinal Tap.' That's why reality TV is so popular. The fourth wall has come down and the people are really talking to you." Jeff Bridges added, "One of the great things about 'Spinal Tap' is it lacks the tongue and cheek. That's what makes it funny."

But can we take another penguin movie? Of course! 'Surf's Up' has been in production for years, and was greenlit well before 'March of the Penguins' madness hit. On the allure of flightless waterfowl, LaBeouf said, "It's the most human bird out of the bunch. They stand upright and congregate in little societies. They have human-like features. You can have fun with that." But then Jeff Bridges told us the real reason penguins are so popular: "They're taking over. Pretty soon there will only be penguin movies." Thanks for the heads up.

Jon Heder voices Chicken Joe in Surf's UpAnother thing about 'Surf's Up' is that for once the voice actors actually worked together. Usually they come in and record their lines in isolated booths on different days, but not so here. Plus, pretty much the whole thing was improvised. Diedrich Bader (who plays Tank, the oaffish mean-spirited surfer) said, "We were together and we were totally improv'ing. I don't think there's a single line that was written for me in the movie." Jon Heder lamented that a scene he improvised with his character Chicken Joe eating an orange got cut. But Zooey Deschanel was on hand to console poor Napoleon. "Maybe they just couldn't animate a chicken eating an orange with a beak."

The footage we saw was similar to what I've seen at Comic-Con and other events. But the new stuff lived up to the intro, especially a raunchy scene with Bader as Tank polishing and telling us all the names of his trophies. Some of those lines definitely pushed the envelope on kid-friendly, which is fine by me.Zooey Deschanel and Jeff Bridges at Sony's Surf's Up event

So I'm hoping that 'Surf's Up' lives up to its promise, and that other animation studios will follow suit. Let's keep on innovating the story-telling along with the technology please! Oh, and in other news, Shia wasn't talking about his role in 'Indy 4' and Jeff Bridges was hair-free for his role as Obidiah Stane in 'Iron Man,' which was in rehearsals. Who woulda thought he'd look so good bald?