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From Amazon.co.uk
March of the Penguins instantly qualifies as a wildlife classic, taking its place among other extraordinary films like Microcosmos and Winged Migration.
French filmmaker Luc Jacquet and his devoted crew endured a full year of extreme conditions in Antarctica to capture the life cycle of Emperor penguins on film, and their diligence is evident in every striking frame of this 80-minute documentary.
Narrated in soothing tones by Morgan Freeman, the film focuses on a colony of hundreds of Emperors as they return, in a single-file march of 70 miles or more, to their frozen breeding ground, far inland from the oceans where they thrive. At times dramatic, suspenseful, mischievous and just plain funny, the film conveys the intensity of the penguins' breeding cycle, and their treacherous task of protecting eggs and hatchlings in temperatures as low as 128 degrees below zero. There is some brief mating-ritual violence and sad moments of loss, but March of the Penguins remains family-friendly throughout, and kids especially will enjoy the Antarctic blue-ice vistas and the playful, waddling appeal of the penguins, who can be slapstick clumsy or magnificently graceful, depending on the circumstances. A marvel of wildlife cinematography, this unique film offers a front-row seat to these amazing creatures, balancing just enough scientific information with the entertaining visuals. --Jeff Shannon
Product Description
Narrated by Morgan FreemanDirector: Luc Jacquet
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
They're big birds, Emperor Penguins, and they combine the dignity of a maitre d' in formal dinner suit with the comic bathos of a Chaplin … multiplied by the thousands. ''March of the Penguins" follows their Antarctic breeding pattern - although 'breeding' is altogether too rapid a word for such an astonishing feat of endurance. The birds march miles through some of the most inhospitable weather and terrain on earth - 'march' may be too dignified a word for their metronomic waddle and occasional belly slide, but it does convey their indomitable determination and sense of purpose.
The film may concentrate on the routines of survival on ice, producing an egg, keeping that egg warm until it hatches, keeping baby alive until it is capable of fending for itself (there is an enormous death toll), but it also follows the penguins into the sea. Unable to fly, once in the water they take flight. Water really is their element. But, with no predator on land (or ice) except the temperature and weather, at sea they are hunted, and life becomes a life and death struggle for survival.
A massive box office hit, ''March of the Penguins" is a French documentary which has attracted considerable critical acclaim. It's original French soundtrack can be a bit twee in places in the way it gives the birds a voice, but the American, English language version casts Morgan Freeman in the role of narrator. Now Freeman has a lovely voice - warm, avuncular, yet with just a hint of gravitas. Unfortunately, the narration at times does tend to sound like "The Shawshank Redemption" - a brilliant film in its own right, but the voice-over here can be a touch sentimental … overwhelmingly so at times.
... Read more ›20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By Mr. M. Kiehn
Format:Blu-ray
This is an excellent moving film. Morgan Freeman's naration is excellent adding a real feeling of care and warmth for the penguins. It is highly recommended! The content of the film definitely deserves 4 stars at least and this review should be read in this context.
So why only 3 stars? This is a review of the Blu-ray version of the film. So what is this film like in HD (bearing in mind that this comes at a 200% premium compared the standard definition version March of the Penguins - Luc Jacquet [2005])? The HD adds nothing. At times it seems more like an upscaled DVD. Certainly compared with the same material from Planet Earth on Blu-ray this is very poor. Bearing in mind that this was shown in the cinemas on a large screen this must be a flaw in the conversion. What a let down as it is not hard to see how beautiful this could have been.
So why only 3 stars? This is a review of the Blu-ray version of the film. So what is this film like in HD (bearing in mind that this comes at a 200% premium compared the standard definition version March of the Penguins - Luc Jacquet [2005])? The HD adds nothing. At times it seems more like an upscaled DVD. Certainly compared with the same material from Planet Earth on Blu-ray this is very poor. Bearing in mind that this was shown in the cinemas on a large screen this must be a flaw in the conversion. What a let down as it is not hard to see how beautiful this could have been.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By SILENT_TEAR
Format:DVD
''March of the Penguins." It sounds like the title of an unwritten episode in George Lucas's intergalactic megafranchise, but this touching and brisk National Geographic-produced documentary actually is about penguins, with whom we have far more in common than any of the digitized creations in Lucas land.
Directed by Luc Jacquet, bravely photographed by Jerome Maison and Laurent Chalet, and narrated by The Great Voice Of Morgan Freeman, ''March of the Penguins" presents the unique breeding cycle of Antarctic emperor penguins, majestic little creatures with long white torsos, talon-like beaks, and an enduring need to reproduce. 'rampant little thing's they can be' lol
Every spring, they waddle and slide on their bellies for miles to a wide open space where the ice is thickest and where hundreds of other penguins have gathered to look for a mate in the coldest place on earth.
It's a great, big singles mixer. And because the females outnumber the males, the ladies compete for the attention of the unattached men, who seem to know the statistics and carry on with a cocky sense of aloofness. The movie never says what becomes of the single female, who presumably will have to wait until next season, but certainly someone at Modern Penguin magazine is writing an article about how they should be in a total panic.
The good news for the remaining singles is that there really is always next year: Once the courtship is over, the love made, and the egg hatched, man, woman, and child sever their bond and go their separate ways, only to gather in the same spot the following season for a different partner. The movie never mentions whether repeat couplings occur or if really old penguins have midlife crises and just want to keep pairing off with hot young things.... Read more ›
Directed by Luc Jacquet, bravely photographed by Jerome Maison and Laurent Chalet, and narrated by The Great Voice Of Morgan Freeman, ''March of the Penguins" presents the unique breeding cycle of Antarctic emperor penguins, majestic little creatures with long white torsos, talon-like beaks, and an enduring need to reproduce. 'rampant little thing's they can be' lol
Every spring, they waddle and slide on their bellies for miles to a wide open space where the ice is thickest and where hundreds of other penguins have gathered to look for a mate in the coldest place on earth.
It's a great, big singles mixer. And because the females outnumber the males, the ladies compete for the attention of the unattached men, who seem to know the statistics and carry on with a cocky sense of aloofness. The movie never says what becomes of the single female, who presumably will have to wait until next season, but certainly someone at Modern Penguin magazine is writing an article about how they should be in a total panic.
The good news for the remaining singles is that there really is always next year: Once the courtship is over, the love made, and the egg hatched, man, woman, and child sever their bond and go their separate ways, only to gather in the same spot the following season for a different partner. The movie never mentions whether repeat couplings occur or if really old penguins have midlife crises and just want to keep pairing off with hot young things.... Read more ›
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By Charles Wolf
Format:DVD
If you make the effort to catch March of the Penguins, you'll be predictably pleased for the simple fact that if it's penguins you want to see it's penguins you're going to get. Beaucoups de penguins. And you will learn plenty about these noble survivors of the coldest place on earth. If it's Danny DeVito or Burgess Meredith you came to see, you are quite off the mark.
The Emperor Penguins of Antarctica survive and perpetuate their species in a frozen and surreal environment driven by instincts developed over centuries. They have mostly monogamous relationships and in the midst of this can recognize one another's 'voices'. These relationships help to organize survival. We get seemingly impossible and privileged views of their long marches across barren landscapes, complex rituals of protecting of fragile eggs in 160 mph winds, huddled in huge packs against the cold, males and females sharing food foraging duties, and chubby birds diving to great depths for fish. It's a remarkable system of survival.
The French filmmakers shot on super 16mm film for one year (with 120 hours of images), which is a whole winter cycle for the emperor. They saw none of the images as they progressed. Nobody left until it was done and director as LUC JACQUET SAYS; "It took a year to recover. Re-entry is a long process." The result is, no doubt, some the most remarkable footage ever filmed on the subject. What they do, of course, to reel in their audience is to anthropomorphize these creatures. Like the recent "Parrots of Telegraph Hill" we see the penguins take on the attributes of 'love' and 'caring'.
The baby penguins toddle along just like little people, except that they do so braving extreme minus degree temperatures.... Read more ›
The Emperor Penguins of Antarctica survive and perpetuate their species in a frozen and surreal environment driven by instincts developed over centuries. They have mostly monogamous relationships and in the midst of this can recognize one another's 'voices'. These relationships help to organize survival. We get seemingly impossible and privileged views of their long marches across barren landscapes, complex rituals of protecting of fragile eggs in 160 mph winds, huddled in huge packs against the cold, males and females sharing food foraging duties, and chubby birds diving to great depths for fish. It's a remarkable system of survival.
The French filmmakers shot on super 16mm film for one year (with 120 hours of images), which is a whole winter cycle for the emperor. They saw none of the images as they progressed. Nobody left until it was done and director as LUC JACQUET SAYS; "It took a year to recover. Re-entry is a long process." The result is, no doubt, some the most remarkable footage ever filmed on the subject. What they do, of course, to reel in their audience is to anthropomorphize these creatures. Like the recent "Parrots of Telegraph Hill" we see the penguins take on the attributes of 'love' and 'caring'.
The baby penguins toddle along just like little people, except that they do so braving extreme minus degree temperatures.... Read more ›
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4.4 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heart wrenching, heart warming, life affirming and humbling
The March of the Penguins had never really appealed to me, mostly because I thought it would be a bit schmaltzy. Read more
Published 25 days ago by Petragal
1.0 out of 5 stars
didn't work :O
it didn't work at all !!!
I forgot from whom I bought it and now it is a long time passed. shame because it is a good DVD, if it works of course.
I forgot from whom I bought it and now it is a long time passed. shame because it is a good DVD, if it works of course.
Published 2 months ago by Ma
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing!
Fantastic film, what these penguins have to go through to keep their young alive its amazing. Great present for all ages!
Published 2 months ago by HAYLEY EVANS
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent!!
Very interesting to watch. I'm not really one for this type of film but it certainly makes you think that nature is truly fantastic.
Published 3 months ago by Ms. C. A. Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars
ok
ok the product suited my needs at the time - this review is by the purchase David Ploss 18 February 2013
Published 4 months ago by David Ploss
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Film.
This was a fascinating and moving tale about penguins and I learnt more about penguins that I had ever known before.
Published 5 months ago by 4 Pete's Sake
5.0 out of 5 stars
amazing
excellent service arrived really quickly and thoroughly enjoyed watching the dvd again and again, my grandson loves it as well, as good as any cartoon
Published 6 months ago by fiona
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ah, bless!
A wonderful family film that our grandchildren watch over and over. A feel good factor that brings a tear to the eye!
Published 6 months ago by Heather Oliver
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant
Brilliant for all ages, amazing footage and voice over, amazing creature to watch and learn about. Great value stocking filler for any member of the family.
Published 6 months ago by AJG
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great
Stocking filler for my boy, he loves penguins and enjoyed the DVD of these loveable creatures , he said he would recommend and watch again
Published 9 months ago by Ssusie
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