Believe it or not, there are actually a few major films coming out this summer that aren't sequels. One of the most anticipated of the lot is Surf's Up, a CG-animated film about a young penguin who pursues his lifelong dream of competing in the fabled Penguin World Surfing Championship.
It's the latest offering from Sony Pictures Animation, the fledgling division established by Sony to take on industry behemoths Pixar and Dreamworks.
Surf's Up features a unique "mockumentary" approach and boasts an all-star cast, including Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges and Jon Heder, all of whom appeared at a recent event hosted by Sony to promote the film.
“This is something that’s never been done," said LaBeouf. "It’s new and it’s fresh. It’s an idea and just the concept alone - this mockumentary in animation, like Spinal Tap. The animation is like kick ass. Of course you want to be in it."
Surf's Up's production also featured actors actually working together -- a major innovation for a medium that traditionally involves actors reciting their dialogue in virtual solitude, ensconced in a recording booth. “It was in a room about the quarter the size of the stage and they had video cameras set up," said Bridges. "We’d all play together and they’d video us. There was lots of improvisation.”
“They set up mics at different locations," added LaBeouf. "We’d move across the room and there’d be a mic set up over there and Jeff would be in the middle of something. I’d be walking from there to here and there’d be a mic set up there and we’d block it just like a play.”
Surf's Up arrives on the heels of two obscenely successful penguin-oriented films, Happy Feet and March of the Penguins. Why the sudden popularity of flightless waterfowl? “It’s the most human bird out of the bunch," noted LaBeouf. "They congregate in little societies and they stand upright. They have human-like features. And they're black and white -- like the yin and the yang."
The similarities with the aforementioned films appear to be more of a coincidence than anything else. "This movie was conceived about four years ago, before any of the penguin movies came out," said Bridges. "It’s like one of those things when something’s in the air.”
“They made two or three Troy movies in one year and that was happenstance,” added LaBeouf.
“They’re taking over," joked Bridges. "Pretty soon there will only be penguin movies.”
One member of the Surf's Up cast who didn't get to play a penguin was Heder. The star of Napoleon Dynamite didn't mind being the exception, however. “It felt great to stand out! It was kind of cool to be the ugly duckling," said Heder. "Oh my gosh, that was awesome.” 
"You just kind of show up and it is weird because you’re like, ‘I’m a surfing chicken,'" he added. "But you just kind of play it like yourself and you just let that go. It’s fun when you see those personalities and animations match up with a really weird looking character.”
The experience was especially enjoyable for Heder, an avid cartoonist in his own right. "I love animation and I love bringing characters to life whether it be through acting or animation," said Heder. "They’re essentially the same thing. In animation you’re telling a story through characters and literally bringing them to life, and that’s what acting is. You’re bringing a character to life - a character you’ve never seen before. You’ve got half of it done with the visuals, then just bringing a voice to it, it’s really cool when you see it.”
Surf's Up opens nationwide on June 8, 2007.
Check out ReelzChannel.com's Surf's Up page for clips from the film and more!