March of the Penguins/La Marche de l'Empereur (2005, documentary) - Incredible Antarctic recordings appended to grating animal narration

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The majestic emperor penguin with its chick makes up this poster for Luc Jacquet's March of the Penguins

On the South Pole lives a clan of emperor penguins, where almost no other living being can survive. They walk the long way across the ice to arrive at the mating spot and go through hunger and pain for the sake of their chicks.

 

March of the Penguins is written and directed by feature-debuting Luc Jacquet (Antarctica: Ice and Sky/La Glace et le Ciel (2015)). The original French title translates to 'the march of the emperor'.

It is an incredibly shot chronicle about some moving, beautiful animals. The stunning footage is enjoyed, but unfortunately the film doesn't spice the images up; neither with interesting, supportive information, nor with a good story (as for instance in the case of The Bear (1988).) Instead we are treated to insipid animal narration (in the English version though, Morgan Freeman (Driving Miss Daisy (1989)) handles narration that is not supposed to be from the penguins.) This choice makes March of the Penguins a sometimes dull watch.

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 8 mil. $

Box office: 127.3 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 15.91 times its cost)

[March of the Penguins premiered 21 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 86 minutes. Shooting took place over the course of 13 months in Antarctica. Freeman was paid 1 mil. $ for his narration, which was recorded in one day. The film opened 28 to a 137k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #6 and in 2,506 theaters (different weeks), grossing 77.4 mil. $ (60.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 12 mil. $ (9.4 %) and Germany with 9.2 mil. $ (7.2 %). The film won the Best Documentary Oscar. It was also nominated for 2 BAFTAs, a European Film award, won 1/4 César award nominations, was nominated for a David di Donatello award and won 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Jacquet returned with The Fox and the Child/Le Renard et l'Enfant (2007). Jacquet later made the much less successful sequel, March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step/L'Empereur (2017). March of the Penguins is certified fresh at 94 % with a 7.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of March of the Penguins?