March of the Penguins - Luc Jacquet [DVD] [2005]

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.

The visual imagery, the sheer visual genius of the film is extraordinary, and often commentary enough. It literally features a cast of thousands, every one of them typecast as a loveable little character. And, let's face it, penguins are about as loveable as they come.

If you like nature photography, if you love penguins, this is a must-watch film which, despite the voice over, will keep you entertained and amazed for hours. And maybe, just maybe, it'll waken up a few more people to the threat of global warming - somebody needs to ensure that George Bush sees this and recognises that the world we have needs protecting!

''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. lol

Alas, ''March of the Penguins" is a sensitively made family film about how families are created and maintained. The bulk of the footage shows us what a nightmare parenting is, a never-ending trudge back and forth for sustenance. The single egg is laid (only is one produced per rotation) in the thick of winter. Mum, who is depleted and famished, trudges back to the sea for food enough for her and baby, entrusting the fathers to keep the eggs safe from freezing and from predators.

For two months, and as 100 mile an hour winds hit them in 80-below temperatures, that's enought to turn us human beings into human snowman pretty damn quick lol the males huddle in a large, heat-generating mass that, from above, resembles a black-and-white jetty. The eggs remain in a pocket cradle atop the father-to-be's claws and beneath a flap of warm belly flesh. Some penguins lose the egg, which freezes on the ice.

''March of the Penguins" doesn't hide the dangers of being a penguin. It shows the feeding mothers, who plow through the water like torpedoes, under a hungry leopard seal's attack. Kids might blanch at some of the more upsetting images, but ultimately the movie will delight and uplift more families than it will scare.

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. Miles of these cute birds march across landscapes like little wind up toys in a John Ford snow desert. The story is assisted by cloying music and narration, and the dulcet tones of the ubiquitous Morgan Freeman. But any criticism of the manipulative aspects of the film would be irrelevant in the face of the achievement. These are stunning images beautifully assembled to serve a remarkable story. If your going to get the paying public into a nature flick, this is the way to do it.