Narrated by Morgan Freeman ; aka La Marche de l’empereur
A nature documentary about penguins in the Antartic, this has been making the news as it is doing fantastic business, the surprise blockbuster of 2005. But after watching it I am really left wondering why. Don’t get me wrong, it has cute fluffy penguin chicks, and is worth watching, but is it just me or are there numerous nature documentaries that are as good, if not better, shown all the time on the BBC?
Also, I didn’t like how the penguins were constantly given human feelings. And I fully appreciate that what the penguins go through is incredibly harsh and unforgiving, but did there really need to be so much “awe and wonder”.
The one thing I really disliked though came at the very start, while describing how millions of year ago Antarctica used to be a wonderful place to live, but as it drifted south the temperature changes and all its inhabitants left or died, apart from the penguins who decided to stay. Decided?
But I really have no idea how anyone could watch this film and then believe in Intelligent Design. I mean, if penguins were designed in an intelligent way then surely they could give birth and raise their young in the water where they are so at home? And what’s the deal with the whole deal being made out of the fact that penguins are monogamous. They aren’t, they have a different partner every year. So serial monogamy maybe.
Still despite those complaints this is a film that is very easy to watch. Nothing like balls of fluff falling around on ice. Most of my complaints are actually about the media-spin around the film.
IMDb | Official WB site | London Filter review | Steve’s Movie Reviews
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