No... I'm not talking about Happy Feet. =)

Some days ago I got my Surf's Up DVD, one of the best films of 2007, no doubt about it.

Before talking about mocap, I would like to say something else that surprised me about the movie: the awesome Brazilian voice talent.

I usually don't like watching dubbed movies, but most times I have to, since animation is 'just for kids' and virtually no animated movie comes to Brazilian theaters with subtitles. Surf's Up now joins Finding Nemo and The Emperor's New Groove on my list of good surprises, because I found the dubbed versions even better than the original ones.

Ok... now back to the subject. =)

When I was watching the making of this Sony Pictures movie, I got amazed by how they achieved the 'handheld' camera effect: there was a cameraman 'filming' everything!

Besides the term 'motion capture' was not spoken, it's exactly that, and it's a great example of good use of this technology. All keyframe animation in the movie was outstanding, really amazing story and acting there, proving that a penguin movie can actually be really good. =)

I found the use of captured motion from the camera, which was plugged into the computers - making the cameraman view and walk inside the virtual world - was a really clever idea.

There was even, according to the making of videos, some changes made to the planned camera angles because the 'cameraman' found some more interesting takes while 'filming' the action.

It's also interesting to notice that Surf's Up approach is the exact opposite of what was made in Beowulf: all animated characters and effects were carefully and skillfully key framed and only the camera was mocapped. Robert Zemeckis' movie, on the other hand, had all actors inside the ping-pong suit and the camera was animated later on.

Maybe it's not a coincidence that Surf's Up is a great movie. The clever union of talent and technology gave us an Oscar nominee, while the excessive love for a tool didn't result in something good.