Surf’s Up

Story 21/21: Sofa surfing family fun

Surf’s Up – the movie

Story 21/21: Sofa surfing family fun

January, 2011

Finally, the youngest member of the family is legally fit the see the first surfing movie of his life. Pop corns are fresh and juice is mixed. Time to put the DVD on. In the World of a three-years-old we are talking about ancient history – the movie was released in the US half a year before his birth.

On the other hand, his life was seeded in Bali, while daddy was improving his sluggish surfing skills in the early hours of a family holiday. Tiny Mac Donald’s Happy Meal -toy of  a surfing penguin Cody Maverick is set in front of the TV-screen to boost the atmosphere.

It is possible, that the Finnish subtitle of the film – imitating the translation of the iconic Kathryn Bigelow surfer movie “The point break” has lifted the expectations of the only adult in this crowd of three.

Turns out, that despite the tropical beach posted on the DVD-case, the animated mocumentary sets of from imaginary penguin community of Shiverpool, in the greyness of Antarctica – the coldest continent. Quite a contrast to the cover art.

In less than a quarter Cody hitches a ride on a whale, along with other prospect surfers from the darkness of the polar winter to the tropical setting of Pen-Gu Island. The story unwinds around the 10^th memorial surf contest to honour the perished legend, “The Big Z”.

Events roll out fluently, some scenes starting imitating surf documents, where different talking heads – in this case mostly penguins – deepen the characters or the surroundings by telling of various incidents to the supposed camera.

Scenes are mostly short and transitions smooth, so that even the youngest observer keeps well entertained and seems to be able to follow the plot. New angles, fast turns and hilarious incidents keep the sofa and beanbag chair crowd giggling till the cheerful end. Upbeat surf punk is playing over the end credits.

“So how was the movie?”

“Super fun!” 

“Yeah!”

“Well, who would you have been, if you were in the movie?”

“Lani! She was super brave on rescuing the surfers from the big waves!”

“Chicken Joe – he got really nice and warm bath!”

“Ha, ha, ha – so true! I’d been the sea urchin Ivan. He took Cody to the Geek.”

“And then Geek peed on Cody’s foot. Hi, hi, hi.”

“Was that the best part?”

“No, the lava tunnels!”

“Oh, because of the white maggot shit bath at the end?”

“Daddy!”

“OK, OK. How about some white snow baths and some surfing on snow?”

“Yea! Let’s go! I want the big red glider!”

“I’ll take the Snowracer!”

“Great. First to the loo, then to the snow-do!”

Epilogue:           Antarctica is the least populated and the coldest continent on Earth. Nowadays there are research bases, that are inhabited all year round. However, mostly people sign up for one-year contracts, as life is very isolated and winters there are harsh.

When I was a kid, there was a big fuzz of the hole in the ozone layer enlarging over polar areas. Scientists concluded, that the reason was releasing too much CFCs, chlorofluorocarbons, into the atmosphere. They were used as cooling agents on fridges and freezers and carelessly released to nature. One large ecological success story of the 1980s was the Montreal treaty that was enforced worldwide and has had clear positive impact on the ozone depletion.

Some background data:

The movie:

Surf’s Up (film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surf%27s_Up_(film)

Penguins:

Penguins in show biz: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin#In_popular_culture

Penguins, behaviour and conservation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin#Behaviour

Sixth extinction:

History: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction#History

Mitigation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction#Mitigation

Questions – see links above, books, Internet or digital media for answers:

1. Penguins in sow biz. These black and white upright creatures have inspired makers of pop-culture: there is the “Penguin” villain in Batman, movies like Happy Feet, Madagascar, etc. Explore the links or other sources and find a penguin video, movie, song or other piece, where penguins are presented in fun way.

Why did you select that piece? What is your favourite part? Why?

Compare choices, once you have reached the 4^th question “Discuss”.

2. Conservation. Penguins live on the colder parts of our planet. That means, that global warming is not a benefit to them. Many penguin populations are actually shrinking. 

How to help? What simple climate decision can you make today? That single act does not stop the climate change, but if every fourth person would every day take one action that rather conserves, than destroys our delicate planet, we would be on a better path.

3. Sixth extinction. Current ongoing extinction is Holocene, meaning caused by us people. Read the two links given above of the background and reasons causing the sixth extinction and of mitigation.

What do you think of the proposed solutions? What would be your Top 2 choices? Can you think of ways to help us get closer to what we need in those two solutions?

4. Discuss. Your view: What thoughts did rise in your mind having read the story, browsing through the background material and answering to the three questions above? Can you see links between the three topics handled in questions above? Discuss with your pair.

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