Penguins. In the past two years it’s been Madagascar, March of the Penguins, and Happy Feet. Now Surf’s Up expands on penguin lore with some new twists. In this computer-animated tale, penguins not only waddle and swim, they surf, too. And every year they have a big surfing contest on tropical Pe Gu Island. The location makes for one huge difference between this penguin movie and the rest. Because most of it is not set in Antarctica, there are tropical colors instead of the usual white-on-white design of snow and ice. In addition, Surf’s Up is a mockumentary complete with news spots, archival footage, interviews, and frequent use of the Surfing Penguin Network (SPEN) logo. This ends up being a blessing and a curse. It’s fresh and audacious for an animated film, but the reality-show bits slow the action and get in the way of character development.

The hero is Cody Maverick (voice of Shia LeBeouf), a young rockhopper penguin who dreams of winning the Big Z surfing competition, named in memory of a legendary surfer. Cody, cocksure of everything, wipes out in the first trials. He then runs into Geek, who is actually Big Z (Jeff Bridges) -- not dead, as everyone thinks, but in seclusion, embarrassed that he lost his last competition. It was easier to fake death than face up to losing. Big Z trains Cody in a most unorthodox manner, and the younger bird meets Z’s comely niece, lifeguard Lani (Zooey Deschanel).

The film’s simple messages of "Never give up!" and "Winning isn’t everything!" are presented in ways that are neither preachy nor heavy-handed. Any tone that threatens to become too moralistic is always broken up by the puns and satiric barbs of the mockumentary structure. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

There are other memorable characters. Chicken Joe (Jon Heder), the only non-penguin finalist, learned to surf in Michigan and is always out of it, perhaps stoned. He gets involved in a subplot with a group of carnivorous penguins who try to get him into the pot for a big chicken roast.

The script is smart and tight, and the voice characterizations are ideal. Shia LeBeouf, who made a striking impression in this summer’s sleeper hit, Disturbia, sounds like every know-it-all kid you’ve ever met, which makes his transition of character entirely believable. Jeff Bridges voicing of Big Z is reminiscent of his character Jeffrey Lebowski in The Big Lebowski -- a lovable lunk who hides his smarts under a seemingly dumb persona. It’s reported that directors Ash Brannon and Chris Buck insisted that all the voiceover actors be physically together during the recording so they could interact with each other. The result is much livelier and realistic dialogue than is heard in the other animated-penguin flicks.

Surf’s Up wins on many counts: script, acting, and a choice collection of surfing music. What drags it down is the animation itself. After the eye-boggling Happy Feet, the work here, from Sony Pictures Animation, looks almost primitive. It’s not bad, it just isn’t as fluid as what we’ve come to expect from Pixar, DreamWorks, and George Miller (Happy Feet). It’s the story and the acting that raise it to a level where the animation becomes acceptable. And when you see it, be sure to sit through the closing credits to the very end.

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