SURF'S UP 2: WAVEMANIA DVD (2017)

SYNOPSIS: Cody, Chicken Joe and Lani are back in their most epic adventure yet! The most radical surfing dream team, The Hang Five (voiced by WWE Superstars John Cena, Undertaker, Triple H, Paige and Mr. McMahon) puts Cody and his friends to the test and teaches them the meaning of teamwork as they journey to the most legendary surfing spot on the planet.

MOVIE REVIEW:

It’s never too young to start the young ones on wrestling. In order to expand their branding, WWE Studios partnered up with Sony Pictures Animation to co-produce this sequel to the 2007 animation, Surf’s Up.

The original stars Shia LaBeouf as an aspiring young surfer penguin Cody Maverick, Surf’s Up 2: Wavemania continues the adventure of Cody though it doesn’t matter to the audiences if LaBeouf is absent this time round since fans of the first animation are probably teenagers or older by now.

Cody and love interest, Lani are now running a surfer academy on Pen Gu Island until one day they are visited by Cody’s childhood heroes, The Hang 5, a group of world class surfers and extreme stunt personalities. With their leader retiring, the group is looking for a replacement and Cody, Lani, Chicken Joe and their arch rival, Tank is invited on a journey with them to Slaughter Island to see who will emerge the winner and be part of the new Hang 5.

Let’s face it; Surf’s Up 2: Wavemania is in short not made for the adult audiences. The storyline is too basic and mostly serviceable if you are expecting Disney/Pixar level of quality. It’s purely in place to deliver a few adrenalin high action sequences and crack a few safe jokes. There is also a handful of life lessons liked chasing your dreams, being a hero kind of messages stuffed inside the 84 minutes animation.  

But it’s the WWE superstars John Cena, The Undertaker, Triple H, Paige and WWE honcho, Vince McMahon that surprised us with their voice talents. Jon Heder and Diedrich Bader reprised their roles as Chicken Joe and Tank while Jeremy Shada and Melissa Sturm replaced LaBeouf and Zooey Deschanel.   

The animation by Canadian company, Rainmaker Entertainment is above average for a direct-to-video title. Probably the best we have seen so far but pardon us we have seen a lot worse on the big screen. To conclude, Surf’s Up 2: Wavemania served up a decent amount of thrills, references to wrestling gags and multiple ridiculous acts liked RTL (watch it to know what I mean) to entertain the masses. Kids will definitely love the looney tunes liked action while adults might want to shy away from this despite the voices of WWE stars. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The extras come with Bloopers, a standard making of feature called Behind the Mic: Hanging with the Dream Team, Chicken Joe’s Extreme Slaughter Island Tour, How to draw your favourite characters with Henry Yu and lastly a composer featurette, Inside the Music with Toby Chu.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Animation details are of course subpar to a big screen feature especially hair, fur and other background textures though the younger audiences won’t find this much of a distraction. The Dolby Digital 5.1 is more than serviceable to deliver an impressive array of sound effects.   

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee