This Kid's Movie is About Existentialism.

Sometimes kids movies can be far more serious then we are lead to believe. In this video we will dive deep into the philosophical nature of surfs up. Enjoy the video!

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Attribution for Song in Video

[malcolmogduck]

The chicken is also arguably a symbol for living an authentic life. He has no agenda, he simply is and does as he is. In the end he is the winner.

[Sgt.Crawler]

Fun fact, this movie is well loved in Brasil because the dub team went above and beyond to integrate brazillian surfer slang, so much so that bilinguals find this movie significantly more funny and heartfull in portuguese. They also make brilliant puns using the names and locations in the movie.

[noahfenech]

The late 2000's early 2010's cg animation was MARKED by existentialism. So many stories featured characters contemplating their place in the world, their worth as people and their own dreams and fears. The standard for animated films pretty much any other time is protagonist faced with a quest, they will question their abilities and worry about failure, but the quest itself is never a matter of question. Surfs Up, Kung Fu Panda, Megamind, Rango. These movies all feature stories which primarily derive conflict from within the protagonists own hearts, am I cut out for this? What even is my quest? What is my purpose? Why am I here? What good am I? There is certainly external conflict, but it is secondary to the characters conflict of spirit.

Who am I?

[Zedigan]

The biggest lesson I took from surf's up as a kid was that what you do, you should be doing for the sake of it. Competitions are fun but don't become obsessed with winning no matter what. In the surf's up Cody's first impression is that in order to be taken seriously as a "surfer" he needs to win a competition. Big Z eventually teaches him that although competitions are fun, there's more to it. The heart and soul of surfing is being carefree, ideally with good people around you. Just vibing.

[greenghoul]

Chicken Joe is such a mood in this movie he is genuinely enjoying life and unlike everyone who wants to win he's only in the competition for fun, that is what makes a real winner

[flipper]

"anxiety is the dizziness of choice" - someone a lot smarter than me

[kenyizsu]

To be fair, the moral of Surf's Up is very simple - it isn't about winning, it's about enjoying what you do (Cody), and don't forget down the line why you loved it at the start (Geek). This whole existentialism is kind of a more advanced or philosophical take on this simple moral, and I remember as a small kid I totally got the message the first time around. That's why it is one of my most favorite movies to this day. The other being its incredible execution of an animated mockumentary. It's genius :D

[pink-pixie]

Holly cow. This actually helped me so much. I have always struggled with my music, feeling like i should always get to that one moment. When im finally able to do ____, ill be a true musician. This just hit me that i should just enjoy being able to go to my lessons everyday, get to enjoy messing up, making music and doing what i enjoy. Thank you

[Ostan-jwbg]

“How can humanity have so many questions about the world, yet also believe we have all the answers.”

I’ll remember that quote.

[champ]

one of my all time favorite childhood movie together with ratatouille; the quality of the animation ( still hold up and in fact is better than 90% of animated movie that came out 15 years later), the music, the surf, the humour etc.

also the fact that the movie is disguised as a documentary with that real cameraman following the character ( even getting attacked by the native people at one time ) really make me really immersed in that world. it really has those quality of all those found footage movie that came out during that time like Rec, cloverfield, blair witch etc.

[Bushidolad]

FINALLY someone shows Surfs Up for its greatness. Its absurdly overlooked and im glad its getting some of the recognition it highly deserves

Amazing video 🔥

[maskedfoxx]

"The meaning of life is whatever prevents you from killing yourself" needs ro be put on a t-shirt

[sharkbait]

Now imagine watching this movie as a child, loving it, and understanding exactly what its about without being able to articulate the words to explain it.

I must be more traumatized than I know

[AveryAnarchy]

me as a child missing the whole point of the movie, buying the Surf's Up PS2 game: I am going to become so obsessed with being the best at this and 100% every course

[zenith]

The part where you're talking about having too much freedom really resonated with me. My dad killed himself when I was 15 yrs old and my mom obviously devastated as well just didn't have any authority over me (altough she very much did try I'm just very stubborn and did whatever I wanted).
Everything always came quite easy to me, I have great friends, I'm smarter then most people and never put any effort into school yet was at the top of the class for most subjects. Those 2 things combined at now 23 yrs old have not done me any good at all. I feel stuck in place, I feel paralyzed. I have no discipline at all and I procrastinate everything to the point I just say I can't do it even though I know for a fact I can. I needed someone to give me directions and call me out on bad behavior (and actually punish me for it when necessary).
Having freedom is indeed a blessing and a curse at the same time and I'd go as far as say that too much freedom will have you fall into self destructive behavior most of the time.

[ThatJyJade]

Surfs Up is literally my favorite movie lets goooo

[quackyart]

Love hearing people talk about this film. It has flaws but it feels quite unique in it's delivery and vibe, as far as big-studio animated features go.

[plzletmebefrank]

To be fair the majority of storytelling is about one form of self actualization or another. Most stories can easily be said to be about existentialism, because the struggle is often to find meaning, purpose, or happiness. To find where they belong.

[jesusorduna]

Loved this movie as a kid and love it even more as an adult. It was criminally ahead of its time and I genuinely don’t get why many people overlooked it when it came out, I was super hyped about it in the theaters but everyone around just treated it like and okay Sunday movie and not as the masterpiece it really is.

[BossMkII]

I LOVED this movie as a kid and while I never really thought about the meaning behind the movie, I always knew it was about figuring out what you want to do with you life.