Voices Announced For Surf's Up
The Dude abides in the penguin animation cast 29 July 2005
Thank goodness for cinema. Were it not for reading about upcoming film Surf's Up, we might have remained completely ignorant of the fact that surfing, that most enduringly cool of sports, was invented by penguins. After all, that's the theme of this CGI film – and Hollywood never lies. Further bolstering our belief are a host of big name actors who have signed on to lend their voices to this reconstruction of surfing's early day, led by Jeff "His Dudeness" Bridges.
El Duderino will play against type as The Geek, a washed-up, overweight and cantankerous king penguin who mentors the young hero of the piece, Cody Maverick (voiced by Constantine's Shia LaBoeuf), a young surfer penguin entering his first professional competition. Zooey Deschanel (Elf, Hitchhiker's Guide) will voice Lani, a penguin lifeguard who works on Pen Gu island's South Beach. Call us crazy risk-takers, but we're putting our money on her being a love interest right now.
The voice cast is going to be rounded out by James Woods (last seen in Be Cool), Jane Krakowski (currently onstage in Guys and Dolls, previously Elaine in Ally McBeal), Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite), Mario Cantone (Sex and the City), Brian Benben (something called The Brian Benben Show) and Michael McKean (comedy genius and Spinal Tap member) have also been cast.
As we reported in our original story on this film here (apologies again for the Beach Boy puns) the film is due to be directed by Toy Story 2's Ash Brannon and Tarzan's Chris Buck for Sony Pictures Animation, with a release date of summer 2007. And it won't be a moment too soon – with March of the Penguins currently storming up the US box office charts, clearly there's never been a better time to get excited about cuddly Arctic birds catching a tube and performing a roundhouse cutback. Radical, dude!
Empire Online