Talk about "March of the Penguins" here:
Review by: Breanne Derby
Plot Summary
March of the Penguins is a documentary narrated by Morgan Freeman which demonstrates the life of the Emperor Penguin in frigid
Antarctica. The penguins are followed on their "march" to their mating grounds, where the viewer learns just how much it takes for a baby penguin to survive in the world. Everything from the penguins' choosing of a mate, to the tedious incubation of the egg, to the parents' journeys back and forth to the sea to bring the hatchling food, to the young penguins' final departure into the sea is included. This documentary pretty much covers all of the life of a penguin that can be seen by the video-camera. Everything the viewer could ever possibly want to know about penguins can be learned from this film.
Review
First of all, this is a documentary, which is probably the most important thing to remember about this film. The entire purpose of the film is to educate the viewer on the lifestyle and habits of Emperor penguins in their natural habitat. It should be noted that the filming and all the footage of the penguins and icebergs and landscape was taken by Laurent Chalet and Jerome Mason when they spent almost a year in Antarctica.
This film took a bit of a different approach to documentary-making. It was very informational and factual, but there were times when it was blatantly attempting to tug at the heartstrings of the viewer. It was never directly said "some of the penguins are going to die," preferring instead lines such as "some, usually the older ones, will fall asleep and disappear" accompanied by shots of dying father penguins, struggling to stay alive against the cold, and "taking two lives" as they go.
The penguins were successfully personified. They stand and walk like bumbling human silhouettes against the blinding ice background, and they go through this struggle in order to bring a new penguin into the world, and many of them will not succeed. The narration is planned in order to make the viewer identify with the penguin, and cry when an egg freezes and cracks, or when a hatchling is left in the cold for too long.
Throughout the film there were many beautiful and haunting shots of the Antarctic landscape. The walls of ice and the deserts of snow were magnificent to see in the film, I cannot imagine what wonders they must have been for Laurent Chalet and Jerome Mason, who saw them in person and larger than life. There were also several lovely underwater shots of the penguins and other creatures (leopard seals, etc.) diving in to the ocean. The contrast between an awkward penguin on land and a sleek penguin under the water was more than evident.
Included in the special features is another hour-long documentary entitled Of Penguins and Men. Though the footage for March of the Penguins was captured by Laurent Chalet and Jerome Mason, the actual documentary was directed by Luc Jacquet. Of Penguins and Men is the documentary created by Laurent Chalet and Jerome Mason about the filming of March of the Penguins; it includes the aspects of the lives of the crew in Antarctica as well as the lives of the penguins. This documentary was more like the kind that can be seen on the Discovery channel, and included all of the information in March of the Penguins, and then some. When watching this it was obvious that some of the footage had been placed out of sequence for the actual film. There was some footage taken from a weather balloon included in this documentary that showed the penguin colony from above that was very interesting and not included in March of the Penguins.
Also in the special features there was an episode of National Geographic's "Critter Cam" where a camera was attached to a penguin so that the underwater habits of a penguin could better be observed. There was also a nearly irrelevant but delightful Bugs Bunny short entitled "8 Ball Bunny" starring Bugs Bunny and his mission to help return a penguin to its home.
Conclusion
March of the Penguins itself was very informational, and the footage was very beautiful, but it was boring. It was all I could do to keep from falling asleep, and many times throughout the film I found myself nodding off. Personally, I liked the documentary in the special features, Of Penguins and Men, much better. The whole way March of the Penguins was made seemed cheap. There was a crew of men who actually went to Antarctica and filmed the footage and saw the penguins in real life, and in March of the Penguins, they got very little credit for risking their lives to do so. The footage was arranged inconsecutively and narrated by a man who certainly did not see the penguins firsthand and probably had to learn all the information he spoke as he narrated. Of Penguins and Men seemed much more candid, and it held my attention throughout in spite of the fact that I had already heard much of the information once before. Of Penguins and Men was nearly a half-hour shorter than March of the Penguins, yet I feel that it held more information, and it was certainly more interesting for me to watch.
