March of the Penguins

Movie Review - March of the Penguins

The Long Loving March

'March of the Penguins' is a great movie to watch. It can be classified as belonging to the genre of documentary. It focuses on the complexity of penguins' breeding habits. It shows actual footage of penguins to the viewer, whilst a voice-over narrator tells the story.

The narrator tells us that the penguins have a long journey ahead of them (each year), and that not all penguins manage to survive it. That is, they must travel to the breeding ground, where they will try and find a female to mate with. If a penguin successfully finds a mate, and his female partner lays an egg, then that egg must be guarded carefully by the male partner, especially from the cold. In the meantime, the females travel a long distance in search of food which they need to eat plenty of, so that upon their return they can concentrate on warming their egg without worrying about requiring food for a while. Their return also allows the male penguins to leave for the sea in search of food. Usually, by the time the male has returned from their feeding expedition the chick has already hatched.

When the chick eventually does hatch from the egg, then it still needs to be protected from the elements, such as cold, and predators such as albatrosses. To this end the male penguin has a flap of skin between his legs which he uses to keep his baby warm. I was very impressed by how sensitive the male penguins were portrayed as being, and also how sensible their behaviour was.

I particularly liked seeing the spectacular scenery shown in this documentary movie. In fact, the Antarctic chill shown in the movie made me feel cold in early March! All the fascinating footage of the penguins made me realise how dangerous the process is for penguins, and how much care and responsibility they must have, even sometimes sacrificing their own life for the sake of their unborn offspring.

The documentary was not only serious, but also light-hearted, as it showed the viewer how cute and funny the little chicks sometimes are, waddling and falling over unexpectedly which made me laugh. This documentary teaches us a lot about penguins, how difficult their life is and how much love there is in their family. While we find their behaviour entertaining, we're also learning about their complex reality.

One of the few negative aspects of the documentary was that there was not much action. Restless viewers who want to see lots of action, violence and special visual effects, will not particularly enjoy this movie.

Apart from this, I think that 'March of the Penguins' is an entertaining movie that allows the viewer to enjoy him or herself while learning about the day-to-day life of a penguin! I'd recommend this movie for a general audience, including children of all ages.

Now March of the Penguins is definitely a film I can recommend! You should be aware before you go to the cinemas that this film is very much a documentary. Anyone expecting anything other a documentary may feel disappointed.

Perosnally I loved this film, it's just a great story about how the Imperial Penguins live and parts of the film will leave you shocked as you see some of the penguins in distress and unforunately see some of them die. Their story is an amazing one though and it deserves to be told - and who better to guide us through the proceedings than the wonderful Morgan Freeman?

Animal lovers will love this film and I have to say I was quite moved by it myself. I think this must be the red hot favourite to win the 2006 Oscar for best documentary as it is such a touching and well put together story.

You would need to have a heart colder than Antarctican ice istelf to be left unmoved by this brilliant documentary.