Surf's Up 2: WaveMania

Surf's Up 2: WaveMania
What was this stupid sequel made for? Ah yes, to cash in on the wrestling craze.
Genre: Animated Film Comedy Sports Directed by: Henry Yu Written by: Abdul Williams Starring: Jeremy Shada Melissa Sturm Jon Heder Diedrich Bader John Cena The Undertaker Triple H Paige Vince McMahon Michael Cole Photography: Color Distributed by: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Release date: January 17, 2017 Runtime: 84 minutes Country: United States Prequel: Surf's Up (2007)

Surf's Up 2: WaveMania is a 2017 American animated direct-to-DVD film produced by Sony Pictures Animation and WWE Films. It is the sequel to Surf's Up and is the second/final film of the Surf's Up Duology.

Plot

A northern rockhopper penguin named Cody Maverick lives in obscurity on Pen Gu Island, where he teaches children to surf in his own surf school alongside gentoo penguin Lani Aliikai, opposed by his rival Tank Evans, who also runs his own surf school. Cody's best friend Chicken Joe is a world-famous surfer, performing in competitions around the world and calling himself "El Pollo Loco".

Chicken Joe leaves his world tour to visit Pen Gu Island. At the same time, "The Hang 5", a team of extreme surfers and thrillseekers (consisting of giant otter Mr. McMahon, puffin Paige and penguins J.C., The Undertaker and Hunter, and their announcer Seagull), arrive on the island. Since Cody was a big fan of them from childhood, he invites the whole team to his place and throws a party in their honor. At the party, Mr. McMahon reveals that the team are on a journey to a mythical surf spot called the "Trenches" to ride a 50 feet (15 m) rogue wave, and further reveals to his team that he is retiring and came to the island to find his replacement. After Mr. McMahon and Paige choose Lani, Cody and Tank respectively convince J.C. and Hunter to sponsor them as potential replacements for McMahon, the Undertaker randomly selecting Chicken Joe so that he will also have a candidate, unaware of his fame.

The group subsequently leaves the island atop a whale. Having approached an unknown coastline, they walk (and later surf) through a desert for a time (encountering quicksand), before reaching a jungle, at which the group stops for the night. The next day, while searching the jungle, they find a temple, the remains of an ancient penguin civilization that worshipped the art of surfing, Tank discovering a golden surfboard. Further, the group uses improvised hang gliders combined with surfboards to cross a lava lake on Cody's suggestion (from having viewed hieroglyphs from the temple), during which, due to his bickering with Tank, he almost knocks Chicken Joe into the lava, and the 5 harshly berate him for his behavior. Feeling immense guilt, Cody leaves overnight, while the group, feeling remorse (except for Tank, obviously) for the way they spoke to Cody (especially J.C., who said that Cody was nothing like them and he never will be), since if it wasn’t for Cody, they never would’ve gotten over the lava, moves onwards towards the Palisade.

While walking back, Cody comes across another set of hieroglyphs depicting the civilization's champion riding the waves of the island and his eventual death in The Trenches, leading to Cody deciding to return to warn Chicken Joe and Lani. Meanwhile, the rest of the group arrives at The Trenches, where Seagull is struck by lightning and disintegrated; Lani deduces the "RTL" catchphrase of The Hang 5 as being in reference to the act of "ride the lightning", i.e. surfing during a thunderstorm, which they have previously done worldwide. After admitting that all members of The Hang 5 are by definition "crazy" and that one must "RTL" to join, Lani declines membership, Chicken Joe accepts an honorary membership from the Undertaker, and Tank reluctantly agrees to "RTL" in order to acquire the fame and fortune associated with being a member.

Assembling before the formation of a 50 feet (15 m) rogue wave, The Hang Five and Tank ride atop of it as lightning rages overhead. Having changed his mind, and in fear for his life, a redeemed Tank swims off behind the wave, pursued by lightning because of his surfboard's metallic nature, while The Hang 5 continues maneuvering between lightning bolts; the Undertaker is struck by lightning and falls into the water. He is rescued by Paige and J.C. and brought to the shoreline, where his heart is found to have stopped beating; the Undertaker is subsequently revived by Chicken Joe through the use of jellyfish stings (as natural AEDs). The group then witnesses a returning Cody rescuing Tank. After such a selfless act, Mr. McMahon invites Cody to join their team, but he refuses, having become unwilling to abandon his friends and his island. Impressed by Cody, Mr. McMahon decides to stave off his retirement and desire for "fish milk" to remain with the team further.[5]

Why It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken

1. The main problem with this film is that it's pretty much a rehash of the original film: Cody travels to another island because of his enthusiasm for his idol(s), fights with Tank, and becomes a great surfer at the end. Even if it does have some changes, more specifically having Cody's idols to be The Hang Five, instead of Zeke "Big Z/Geek" Topanga and him directly meeting his idols instead of meeting his idol as a coincidence after being rescued by him.
   • Cody even goes through the same character development and lessons as the previous film, although nowhere near as well-executed and refined as before due to him being a lot more selfish this time and already learning in the previous film that winning isn't everything, making this movie feel less like a sequel and more like a poorly-made TV special with the Surf's Up IP slapped onto it.
2. It abandons the documentary style of the predecessor and instead goes for a more generic tone that is the complete opposite of what made the original movie so unique, as this sequel is stylized as a typical animated movie with less emphasis on realism and focusing on the adventure aspect, which was something that the original wasn't known for, and not to mention that there are only a few interviews here and there that try to recapture that documentary style, but they fail since they feel less like interviews in a documentary and more like news report interviews you'd see on regular TV, which is a downgrade from the original overall. The camera even moves less and there is a surprising amount of cartoon logic that doesn't suit Surf's Up at all, making this sequel feel more jarring in comparison.
3. Compared to the original's stunning animation with natural lighting and good use of weather for realism, the animation here is a minor downgrade from the first film, as this film looks more like a DreamWorks TV series like All Hail King Julien with cheaper lighting and softer movements. The camera is also stiffer and moves less, worsening this film's attempt at being like a reality TV show compared to the first film.
4. Even though the voice acting itself is good, Paige's performance as herself in the film is rather weak and completely wastes her talent as she often sounds tired while doing her role in the film, which is especially apparent in a few scenes during the film where she usually under-acts her performance most of the time since she usually isn't the best at voice acting and it shows overall with one scene where The Undertaker is drowning in quicksand, she rarely sounds that worried and gives out a dull performance in the film that pales in comparison to the other characters who actually do a great job in their roles and give out amazing performances.
5. Weak storyline, as it is simply the gang going to another place with a lack of major twists aside from "RTL" being an acronym for "Riding The Lightning". Not to mention that the film plays out like a typical animated movie as mentioned above and has none of that documentary flair from the first at all, and most of the movie is rendered pointless when Mr. McMahon decides he's staying with The Hang Five at the end of the movie and isn't retiring after all, which was a waste of time and had no impact whatsoever.
6. The designs of the Hang 5 look very unappealing and unfitting with the characters from the first film, looking more cartoon-ish while the original characters had a more realistic edge.
7. This so-called "sequel" doesn't have the same charm as the original film, especially with the simple animation and shallower stories.
8. The film, after mentioning Big Z in a brief summary and in Mr. McMahon's line "Maybe not. Big Z always said Pen Gu breeds great surfers.", ditches him by, out of nowhere making Cody a fan of The Hang 5 and saying too little about his opinion on Big Z, almost as if the former is taking the latter's role. It's like the directors did watch the first film, but decided to toss something brand new into the story by justifying its place there.
9. The film was in development for 10 years, and we got this poor result. And it was too late to make another Surf's Up movie, as people stopped waiting for a sequel, so this sequel should have been released earlier after the first movie!
10. Cody Maverick and Lani Aliikai's new voice actors Jeremy Shada and Melissa Sturm don't even sound like their original voice actors Shia LaBeouf and Zooey Deschanel.
11. A lot of characters from the original film aren't even seen or mentioned, particularly Zeke "Big Z/Geek" Topanga, Reggie Belafonte, Glen Maverick, the other Penguins, and Mikey.
12. False advertising: One of the commercials for the movie said that the penguins were returning from the first movie, but as mentioned before, some actually aren't in this film.
13. While Cody, Tank, and Lani do have most of their personality, like Cody being a cocky, bumbling but well-meaning lad and Tank being a rude coward, Cody's desire for fame and to be remembered gets worse over time, as he once accidentally made Chicken Joe lose his surfing board in the lava by tackling Tank into him. We get it, Tank kept being a jerk to Cody, but if the rest of The Hang 5 were concerned more about Tank's rude behavior instead of not believing J.C., maybe it could have gone better.
    • In fact, Cody Maverick was flanderized horrendously in this sequel to the point of his character development in the previous film was rendered pointless, since he acts incredibly selfish and doesn't care about others at all as he gets jealous of Joe's success and also Lani too for her being a candidate for being the new member of The Hang Five, which is out-of-character since he learned that winning isn't everything and that what is important is friendship and the people who love him, which made him a relatable and charming character in the previous film, something that this sequel completely undid overall.
    • To make matters worse, Cody acts more like a jerk than Tank does in this sequel and never redeems himself at the end of the movie, which is ironic since Tank was the main villain of the previous film and was infamous for cheating at the surfing competition and bullying actual children while surfing whereas Cody was the opposite and is actually very laid-back and calm. This is an extreme example of character flanderization and Cody rightfully gets scalded by the wrestlers for nearly killing his best friend, which is out of character and proves that even the movie is aware of how terrible Cody is and yet they still portray him like this even a few scenes later, making this movie feel like a cash-grab.
14. Combining surfing penguins with WWE wrestlers is utterly ridiculous, as not only does WWE have absolutely nothing to do with surfing, but it's also a careless way of praising unrelated celebrities for whatever reason.
15. Chicken Joe's humor may still be decent, but some jokes are very poor, unfunny, and obnoxious, such as Mr. McMahon's running gag about wanting to milk fishes, and a VERY inappropriate scene where Chicken Joe images himself drinking a fish's milk from his rear though a straw, which is weird and inappropriate for a kids movie. Also fish don't lactate because they aren't mammals.
    • Speaking of the aforementioned joke, it caused controversy for it's profane imagery considering that it was shown on-screen and ended up receiving backlash from audiences as a result, even to the point where an animator who worked on the movie apologized for creating the scene itself on Twitter (now known as X), proving why this joke shouldn't have made it into the film.
16. The ending makes no sense and is tiresome to sit through, as Cody is advertising his school again, but at least he and Tank became friends.
17. Mediocre and choppy editing, such as during a flashback of The Hang Five when the narrator is talking about their skills yet young Cody also talks in the same scene while sloppy laired onto the narration that's happening at the same time, which is not only unacceptable but also quite lazy and also indicates that this movie was made on a low budget due to being a Direct to DVD movie.
18. The soundtrack (by Toby Chu, who also did the soundtrack of Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return) just sounds crappy, especially compared to the exhilarating soundtrack from the original.
19. Because of the changes made in this film, it no longer feels like Surf's Up anymore. Instead, it feels like another generic surfing movie.
20. Surf's Up 2: WaveMania most likely killed off the Surf's Up series, as there hadn't been any attempts of either a third Surf's Up film or even a reboot of the series.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The Hang 5 characters' designs stay true to their original wrestler counterparts.
2. The voice acting is still decent with Jon Heder and Diedrich Bader reprising their roles as Chicken Joe and Tank Evans respectively, despite Jeremy Shada replacing Shia LaBeouf as Cody Maverick and Melissa Sturm replacing Zooey Deschanel as Lani Aliikai.
3. Some characters are still likable such as Lani, Chicken Joe (who is still a funny, laid-back guy; his interactions with Undertaker make him a bit funnier), and J.C. for noticing Tank's behavior and relating to Cody.
4. The CGI animation does look nice in some scenes thanks to Rainmaker Entertainment.
5. Despite the film being completely unnessecarry, its great to see another Surf's Up film after 10 years.

Trivia

• Surf's Up 2 was originally planned to be theatrical, but because the first movie grossed very little, it went straight to DVD.
• Paige talking about wanting her own reality show, Power Diva, is a homage to WWE's reality show, Total Divas, in which Paige was a cast member.
• Shia LaBeouf and Zooey Deschanel didn't return for the sequel because they were very busy with other roles, so Jeremy Shada and Melissa Sturm had to replace them to play Cody Maverick and Lani Aliikai.

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