MBG review: "Surf's Up", rated PG

Like my good friend John Herrick says, "Opinions are like noses. Everybody's got one."

The movie is "filmed" like a documentary, characterized by the cast looking directly into the camera (like on "The Office") so there is a whole LOT of dialogue, which we all know is a two-year-old's favorite movie element...

I will leave it to you to analyze whether filmmakers have lost touch with what is truly appropriate for small children or if I am just overly protective and cautious with what Jack Everett hears and sees. Regardless, it is only a few minutes into the film before I begin to fear that Jack will cry out in Sunday School the words he has now learned from a few of his new favorite penguins.

Unfortunately, he has many new ones from which to choose: , a penguin says "it tastes like sh...," and the scene cuts away... a chicken says, "I can feel it in my nuggets," several say "shut up", and then there's the name-calling (loser, cocky, jerk, pecker face, bum, blubber-ball, fish sticks, "dirty trash can full of poop"). While scooping fish, Cody looks at the camera and says, "This job sucks!" When a baby penguin starts to drown, the lifeguard says, "Crap!" A few little ones standing by giggle and repeat, "She said crap!"

Aside from the questionable language, some of the themes seem a bit unnecessary as well. While I am confident that Jack and James don't "get it," and acknowledge that older children will most likely be able to put these types of cartoon deaths in perspective, both of the main characters show pictures of their dead fathers. Cody's Dad is surfing into the mouth of a killer whale (Jack's sweet hero Shamu...) and Chicken Joe's Dad is shown on a bucket of Fried Chicken. The hero, Big Z, died in a surf contest and we see a flashback to the accident (the penguin goes under a huge wave and does not surface). A little more benign, (and I know... kids love potty humor) but Cody gets an urchin needle stuck in his foot and the big male penguin pees on it to counteract the poison. Pretty gross.

So, there were enough times that Jeff and I had to look at each other with looks of "Yikes!" to give me cause to recommend this as a rental to audience members over six years of age.

The big question is, "Did Jack Everett like it?" Well, for this answer we rely on the time-honored potty test. Jack got up to go potty four times in this short 80 minutes. This means he was bored. When the automatic flush and hand dryers have a stronger draw on him than the plot line, we know the movie makers have missed their mark with him. (Ratatouille [G] was two hours long, and he only potty'd twice.)

One of my favorite sites, http://www.kids-in-mind.com/, rates movies for appropriateness for children and outlines the questionable content to help parents review movies without having to actually go watch them. I probably should have read this site before paying the $12.00 to see this one. Oh well.

Any opinions? Your take? I'd love to hear - Feel free to add a comment!