This movie is extraordinary in that there are no human actors, it is a documentary, there are no special effects, and yet it manages to enchant, enthrall, excite, and bring an audience to the brink of tears. Though "March of the Penguins" has a feel-good quality to it, rest assured it is not Disney-fied and will not nauseate you with Hollywood's mawkish sentimentality. The joys of two penguins falling in love (do birds fall in love? I don't know but it sure looks like it) and successfully raising a chick is neither subdued nor overdone. When a penguin couple loves, you can feel it, when a penguin suffers -100° snowstorms for the sake of its egg, you can feel it, when a penguin grieves over the loss of a chick, you grieve as well.
Perhaps a little guilty of anthropomorphizing these creatures, Jacquet nonetheless demonstrates that penguins and humans are a great deal alike. There were moments when I wondered if the birds' behaviors could be interpreted as humanly as Jacquet leads you to believe, but by the end of the film he fully convinces that penguins and people are a lot more alike than we could have imagined.
A film like this can make you start wondering if we are genetically more related to penguins than chimps! "March of the Penguins" creates an amazing sense of kinship between the viewer and these tough, admirable, imperfect, and courageous birds.
Perhaps a little guilty of anthropomorphizing these creatures, Jacquet nonetheless demonstrates that penguins and humans are a great deal alike. There were moments when I wondered if the birds' behaviors could be interpreted as humanly as Jacquet leads you to believe, but by the end of the film he fully convinces that penguins and people are a lot more alike than we could have imagined.
A film like this can make you start wondering if we are genetically more related to penguins than chimps! "March of the Penguins" creates an amazing sense of kinship between the viewer and these tough, admirable, imperfect, and courageous birds.