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'Surf's Up' is a sweet, sophisticated animated movie with well-crafted visuals and a storyline to match. At a time when animation feature films are being produced almost as often as the average blockbuster, it's refreshing to find innovation within the genre.

In this tongue-in-cheek adaptation of your typical surf movie, a camera crew goes behind the scenes of a big international wave riding tournament to capture a young penguin in pursuit of his dream. Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf) is determined to leave behind his small, boring home town of Shiverpool — as well as his mother and brother who don’t seem to understand him — in the hopes of becoming as famous as his hero: late surf legend Big Z (Jeff Bridges).

During his adventure he meets an array of interesting characters and learns that friendship is more important than winning — which pretty much sounds like your average animated story for toddlers and pre-teens.

But 'Surf’s Up' has a lot more to offer adult viewers, at times seeming like it's not really aimed at kids at all. The dialogue is quick and peppered with innuendo, Cody has quite a bit of emotional baggage regarding his father, and the relationships between the main characters are more complex than you'd expect. So the friendship between Cody and love interest Lani (Zooey Deschanel) has definite adult undertones, while his newfound best friend is a hippie surfer chicken with a constant case of the munchies.

Parents of young children may be wary of such overtones, but the film creates some balance by including regular interview snippets of cute young penguins giving their innocent thoughts on the competition and surf culture in general.

The slick animation also engages an audience of any age. During the wave riding scenes the intricate camera angles and movements typically found in surfer movies are expertly translated into animation, which is especially impressive considering water is one of the most difficult elements to animate.

A modern adult contemporary soundtrack (featuring the likes of Incubus, Sugar Ray, Pearl Jam and Lauryn Hill) stitches everything together neatly and enhances the emotions and experiences of the characters without pushing the already obvious moral of the genuinely feel-good story.

Strap on your board and head for the beach.