Surf’s Up 2: Wave Mania (DVD) : Review

Film

A film, about a bunch of penguins, who end up going on a journey of self-discovery, voiced by a bunch of people from WWE. That should about sum this up. The story barely exists, the lessons are pushed way to hard, and the dialogue feels like those acts that occur between wrestling bouts, where everyone has a bunch of forced, pre-scripted dialogue to sprout while strutting about.

Surfs Up 2: Wave Mania has very little substance. The animation is cool, and that’s about all. No fun for adults, no fun for younger audiences. There might be a small audience comprising of fans of those who voice the characters, but that’s likely to be it.

The film feels more like self-indulgence and promoting, than an actual movie, and feels like it has failed terribly. Not much more to say, so view at your own risk.

Disc

Overall the disc is of a high technical quality, with a good number of bonus features. It is however a pity the film does not reach any great heights, but instead falls abysmally short.

Surfs’s Up 2 Wave Mania is available now, to purchase on disc, in South Africa.

Video

Video is encoded at a high average bitrate. There are no visible artefacts on screen, nor any colour bleed. Colours are vibrant, and blacks deep in the darker scenes, maintaining detail.

Viewers with the necessary hardware or software can scale up to a larger, or higher resolution screen, should they wish.

Audio

Audio is encoded at a high average bitrate. The soundtrack is encoded in a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Dialogue is clear via the centre speaker, with the left and right carrying a good deal of the other sound. Surrounds are used to a great extent to expand the on-screen world, and further draw the viewer into the story, but with more general sound expansion, rather than more sounds specific to those channels.

Navigation

Navigation is simple, and easy to use. The main menu presents a static screen, with text menu links. There is accompanying music. Options provided are to play the main feature, select languages, scene selection and special features.

The languages sub-menu gives options for audio language and subtitles.

The scene selection sub-menu comprises of static menus, with still, colour thumbnails for each chapter. While these are numbered, they are not labelled, meaning there would be some amount of guesswork involved to navigate to a specific part of the film.

The special features sub-menu provides a static screen, with text links.

Bonus Features

Bloopers – A short collection of bloopers, that might provide some amusement. These are the same as those that play during the end credits, but are now just accessible in one short clip.

Behind The Mic: Hanging With The Dream Team – A few short spots featuring the WWE team, giving the chance to see those behind the voices, but not providing a great amount of insight into any filmmaking aspects. Some commentary does feel a bit too like self-promotion.

Chicken Joe’s Extreme Slaughter Island Tour – Narrated and hosted by Chicken Joe. This short clip is basically a fast edit of several scenes in the film. Why this would be included is hard to tell, as it provides nothing extra, other than a glorified summary of some of the story and another visit to certain scenes.

How To Draw Your Favorite Characters – Giving the viewer a sub-menu that allows one to learn how to draw JC, Cody or Chicken Joe, in each of three short clips. There is an option provided to play all. Each clip is hosted by director Henry Yu. Yu is also the artist drawing the various characters.

Inside The Music With Toby Chu – A short clip providing a bit of insight into the planning that goes into the music for the film, as well as choices that had to be made for the accompanying music in various scenes. Chu gives some information about some the sea organ, and it’s use and history.

Previews – This provides access to play the two auto-play trailers again. There is no option to select which to play, as the link merely plays both as per the beginning of the disc.

There are trailers for Angry Birds and Open Season Scared Silly that auto-play at the beginning of the disc. There are presented with surround soundtracks. While these can be fast-forwarded, they can not be individually skipped.

 

 

By Andrew Germishuys

Founder of SAMDB | Actor | Armourer | Tech Enthusiast With over two decades in the film industry, I'm a seasoned actor and skilled armourer. I hold numerous certifications in acting and filmmaking, complemented by degrees and diplomas in IT and technology, giving me a unique blend of creative and technical expertise. When I'm not on set or in the workshop, you'll find me immersed in the world of gaming and VR, fuelling my passion for cutting-edge technology. Connect with me: X / Twitter Facebook Instagram Mastodon Threads Explore my work on SAMDB IMDb