As informative as it is entertaining, the phenomenally popular documentary "March of the Penguins" demonstrates that life can flourish even in the remotest corners and harshest environments on our planet.
Director Luc Jacquet and his valiant crew of seasoned filmmakers spent a grueling winter in Antarctica getting up-close-and-personal with a group of penguins who turned out to be anything but shy when the cameras started rolling. The team recorded the complex mating and child-rearing ritual the penguins have been acting out on their own private little continent, far from the prying eyes of the outside world - until now, that is - for thousands upon thousands of years. After the penguins have marched seventy miles to their breeding ground, the males and females pair off into monogamous couples to do their thing (fear not, worried parents, the film stays within the pristine parameters of a "G"-rated, family-friendly feature here). Then, after the egg has been laid, the male and female trade off responsibility for protecting their progeny against the brutal cold in a fashion that can only make many exhausted mothers in the audience green with envy. Then we watch as the eggs hatch and the pint-sized young'uns finally get a taste of the challenging life they've been brought into this literally cold, cruel world to lead.
Although the photography doesn't have the sparkling clarity one would find in an IMAX film on the same subject, "March of the Penguins" still does an amazing job placing us right in the center of the action, be it on the ice as the penguins huddle for warmth against a raging blizzard or under water as the exhausted mothers search for food to bring back to their hungry babies. The movie is both funny and touching, keeping the inevitable anthropomorphic silliness to a decent minimum. The narration (voiced by Morgan Freedman) occasionally veers towards the sappy, but, for the most part, it stays levelheaded and informative, while the music ranges from the moving to the soupy.
"March of the Penguins" may be no more than a Discovery Channel feature blown up to big screen proportions, but it's still more fun to watch than most of the fiction films in theaters these days.
Director Luc Jacquet and his valiant crew of seasoned filmmakers spent a grueling winter in Antarctica getting up-close-and-personal with a group of penguins who turned out to be anything but shy when the cameras started rolling. The team recorded the complex mating and child-rearing ritual the penguins have been acting out on their own private little continent, far from the prying eyes of the outside world - until now, that is - for thousands upon thousands of years. After the penguins have marched seventy miles to their breeding ground, the males and females pair off into monogamous couples to do their thing (fear not, worried parents, the film stays within the pristine parameters of a "G"-rated, family-friendly feature here). Then, after the egg has been laid, the male and female trade off responsibility for protecting their progeny against the brutal cold in a fashion that can only make many exhausted mothers in the audience green with envy. Then we watch as the eggs hatch and the pint-sized young'uns finally get a taste of the challenging life they've been brought into this literally cold, cruel world to lead.
Although the photography doesn't have the sparkling clarity one would find in an IMAX film on the same subject, "March of the Penguins" still does an amazing job placing us right in the center of the action, be it on the ice as the penguins huddle for warmth against a raging blizzard or under water as the exhausted mothers search for food to bring back to their hungry babies. The movie is both funny and touching, keeping the inevitable anthropomorphic silliness to a decent minimum. The narration (voiced by Morgan Freedman) occasionally veers towards the sappy, but, for the most part, it stays levelheaded and informative, while the music ranges from the moving to the soupy.
"March of the Penguins" may be no more than a Discovery Channel feature blown up to big screen proportions, but it's still more fun to watch than most of the fiction films in theaters these days.