Product Description

In the Antarctic, every March since the beginning of time, the quest begins to find the perfect mate and start a family. This courtship will begin with a long journey - a journey that will take them hundreds of miles across the continent by foot, in freezing cold temperatures, in brittle, icy winds and through deep, treacherous waters. They will risk starvation and attack by dangerous predators, under the harshest conditions on earth, all to find true love.

DVD Features:
Documentaries:CRITTERCAM : EMPEROR PENGUINS: penguin diving and feeding
Documentary:OF MEN AND PENGUINS: The incredible filmmaking process of the movie
Other:8 BALL BUNNY: A classic WB animated short with Bugs Bunny and a penguin

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4431 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-11-29
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 80 minutes

Amazon.com
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

From The New Yorker
The French wildlife filmmaker Luc Jacquet spent more than a year chronicling the course of an emperor-penguin colony in Antarctica, and what he discovered was a touching, self-sacrificing ritual of parenthood. Trekking for miles through stunning ice-castle landscapes, Jacquet frames the penguins' mating cycle-from courtship through the birth and raising of their newborns-as a severe and forbidding ballet that demonstrates the true meaning of survival and determination. Narrated by Morgan Freeman. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Horrible, It is not entertaining for any ages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March of the Penguins (Widescreen Edition)
The movie is about a group of penguins who travel throughot the artic and survive most but not all problems that nature brings them.THe movie has many,mANY PENGUINS.
The movie has mainly one character. They are the penguins. THere are alsoone of the problems which is a polarbear which tries to eat them. Since animals cannot talk there is a narrator telling what they are doing.
The theme is to entertain which they are not doing a good job at.I would not reccomend this movie because it was made for people who need to know about penguins life style. Otherwise this movie is not interseting.I reviewed many people and they all did not like it.

A formal affair, Antarctic style
This ia a profound, sublime film that shows--close-up--the intense life-force and personality of Emperor penguins. At turns tender, funny, sad, and inspiring, it made me appreciate even more how we humans are sharing this great ark called Earth with amazing and wonderful creatures. Narrated with graceful style by Morgan Freeman. A must-have film for nature lovers.

Wildly overrated but nicely filmed.
I saw this finally with great anticipation. It was one of the highest grossing and best-reviewed documentaries in years. Wow, was I disappointed.

NOTHING. HAPPENS.

There is one, I repeat one, moment of suspense in the entire show (when a mother who has lost her chic tries to steal another). In a 15 second flash, it's gone, and we are back to Morgan Freeman's soothing-yet-sleep-inducing narration.

Otherwise, there is no great revelation in this piece. There no moment of amazement.

I love nature shows. I watch all those discovery, national geographic, Nature, shows, etc. I thought this was a good, albeit long and boring one. So I give it three stars. But there isn't any of the sense of wonder or enlightenment that you find in other, better productions.

The cinemetography is brilliant. Some amazing shots. And the idea of having a crew sit in Antartica over winter is a fascinating story itself. But the Penguins just don't have any interest for me.

I will give one example, but this is how the whole movie is.

Of course not all penguins live through each year and each breeding season. Of course some eggs do not hatch and some young do not make it. In a good documentary, though, there would be foreshadowing of this fact before and exposition after. Not here. Here, we get 10 minutes of the father penguin hiding his egg in silence, and then Morgan Freeman breaks the silence with "of course, not all eggs make it" and two seconds later, we get a picture of a freezing/frozen egg. And then that's it. No exposition, no foreshadowing = no emotional reaction.

I give it three stars for the photography. But good documentaries establish an emotive experience and build a relationship between the subject and the viewer. This -- especially in light of how wildly it's liked -- was a great disappointment for me in that respect.