March of the Penguins

Went to see what all the hoopla was about regarding this film. Nice to see and somewhat surprised that a National Geographic/French production hit the mainstream film circuit, especially in my neck of the woods where blockbusters, summer sequels, and low brow comedy films generally rule the day. Really, really, enjoyed the film, especially the narration by Morgan Freeman, the soundtrack and the amazing story of the ongoing propagation of the emperor penguin species. Some of the photo shots seemed a bit below quality standards which leads me to suspect that they may have been obtained from other filmakers in the past but the wonderful story and the incredible scenes of penguins marching from the ocean to their birthing grounds more than compensated for any lack of professionalism on the photography front. There were a significant number of tender moments between the baby and it's parents and even a few romantic moments were captured between the penguins during the mating ritual in the coldest place on earth. Hard to imagine any living thing could even think about love making in such brutal conditions let alone actually do anything. Cudos for the penguins because somehow they amazingly keep the life cycle of their race going and have apparently done so now for thousands of years. In the end, big thumbs up and hope the industry pays attention to the potential pay off of such efforts. I am really getting tired of one summer sequel after another and it was really a pleasant surprise to see something so majestic given an opportunity on the big screen. Hopefully we will see more in the future.......