March Of The Penguins (DVD) Review

One of the more surprising films of 2005, and perhaps the most intriguing, was March Of The Penguins, a full-length feature film documentary cut from the same mold as a PBS National Geographic special. Directed by Luc Jacquet, the film had its origins in France, but the narrative theme is neither French, nor English, or for that matter, reflective of any nation's cultural influence. Instead, March Of The Penguins is a truly rare cinematic masterpiece that transcends borders, language, and culture. Its brilliant portrayal of the Emperor penguin in his natural habitat offers universal appeal to audiences everywhere by reinforcing the themes of love, companionship, life, and the struggle to overcome the hardships of an oftentimes cruel and unforgiving world.

The US version of March Of The Penguins is narrated by Morgan Freeman, a stellar choice for the role as his precise, yet folksy, voice serves to underscore the magnitude and the magic of the annual journey endured by these fascinating animals. The visuals of the film are powerful in their own right, but I doubt the movie would've enjoyed the massive commercial success it did without the strength of Freeman's performance. In the opening scenes, Freeman introduces us to the Emperor penguin and its icy homeland of Antarctica. As winter approaches, penguins from all over the continent make an instinctive annual voyage across rugged and inhospitable terrain in search of the ancient Emperor penguin mating ground.

Along the way, audiences learn every particular detail of the arduous task that awaits the Emperor penguins. With thousands gathered together, each must find a mate. Once the relationship has been consummated, a single egg is the product of their pairing. But the egg is fragile, subject to easy fracture and the hazardous conditions of extremely low temperatures. As such, the male penguin must protect the egg while the female returns to the ocean in search of food for herself and her yet to be born offspring. In the interim, high winds, driving snow, and freezing elements pound away at the swarm of male penguins as they desperately protect their respective eggs. Amazingly, the herd instinctively protects itself from the relentless cold by rotating those on the outside into the middle and vice versa, so that the burden of the cold weather is shared equally by all.

Once winter subsides and the females return, the newly hatched baby penguins face the additional threat of predators. The males must make their own journey to the ocean, and the budding toddler penguins must be initiated into the ways of their world, all so the process can take full-circle and start all over again next year...

One of the highest grossing theatrical documentaries ever released, March Of The Penguins is an utterly fascinating film. In contrast to the usual mind-numbing action-packed blockbusters produced by Hollywood (and demanded by those of us in the viewing public), March Of The Penguins is both educational and entertaining. You'll find yourself perched on the edge of your seat in anticipation as these rugged creatures engage with the harshest elements of nature. You'll root for the heroes and boo the villains, but despite the absence of a contrived Hollywood plot, you'll find yourself truly captivated by this charming film - the story of struggle, the story of triumph, the story of life... March of the Penguins.

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a movie review site [http://thedvdreport.blogspot.com] where you can find more reviews like this one of the March Of The Penguins (DVD) Review [http://thedvdreport.blogspot.com/2006/03/march-of-penguins-dvd.html].

Mr. Popper's Penguins

Sean is a senior critic for Filmcritic.com.

Mr. Popper's Penguins might be the closest Jim Carrey will come to making a third Ace Ventura film.

Not that Carrey's latest character ever gets as boisterous as his beloved pet detective. And his new catchphrase "Ya'absolutely" isn't nearly as memorable as "Alllllrighty then!" But Mark Waters's harmless comedy does allow Carrey the freedom to abandon societal norms and mug with endearing birds in the name of child-friendly entertainment, and he does it without styling his floppy hair into an Olympic-level ski jump or talking out of his butt. Whether that's better or worse is up to you to decide.

Instead of a poor house painter, as the character was in Richard and Florence Atwater's 1938 children's novel, the modern Tom Popper (Carrey) specializes in impossible real estate acquisitions. After convincing skeptical Mr. Gremmins (Jeffrey Tambor) to part ways with Manhattan's famous Flatiron building, Popper is told by his crusty supervisors (expert curmudgeons Philip Baker Hall, Dominic Chianese, and William Charles Mitchell) that he'll only make partner at their firm once regal Mrs. Van Gundy (Angela Lansbury) sells him Tavern On the Green, which has been in her family for ages.

Popper's Monopoly-board exercise is complicated by two related happenings. First, his estranged wife, Amanda (Carla Gugino), requires that he finally spend more time with their children, Janie (Madeline Carroll) and Billy (Maxwell Perry Cotton). And second, Popper's papa -- an absentee explorer of far-away lands -- passes away, leaving his son a penguin that, through the "miracle" of family-film screenwriting, quickly turns into six birds nesting in our protagonist's penthouse.

The dysfunction in Penguins is lightweight, presenting broken families, daddy issues, and a damaged bird egg in bite-sized lessons sculpted for young audiences. My young boys, in particular, were amused by soccer-playing penguins, a waterslide trick in the Guggenheim Museum, and Carrey's verbal interactions with zookeeper Clark Gregg (wait, is Penguins part of the Avengers initiative?!) and secretary Ophelia Lovibond, who speaks in alliteration. Pippi starts 90 percent of her words with the letter "P," which prompted me to think of "P" words that described Popper's Penguins. Let's go with "predictable," "painless," "periodically pleasant" and "poop" -- the latter of which fuels too many of Popper's punchlines for this parent's tastes.

In fact, the alliteration became addictive, so I'll close my Penguins review with one more example and leave it at that. Waters's adaptation of Mr. Popper's Penguins offers adorable animal mayhem that's aided by Carrey's animated antics, which appeal to adolescents and an array of adults asking only for adequate amusement.

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Q&A - Carla Gugino on Jim Carrey, Family Films, and Mr. Popper's Penguins

Sean is a senior critic for Filmcritic.com.

The summer movie season typically is characterized by big stars driving massive special-effects-laden blockbusters. Mr. Popper's Penguins takes the opposite approach, hanging its hopes on six pint-size leads who dream of swimming circles around the competition. Bitey, Lovey, Loudy, Stinky, Nimrod, and Captain are the tuxedo-clad birds joining Jim Carrey and Carla Gugino for an adaptation of Richard and Florence Atwater's classic children's novels. Gugino spoke to FilmCritic.com about her live-action kid-friendly roles and the joy of sharing scenes with a gifted comedian like Carrey.

Q: Did Jim ever say at any point during the shoot, "This isn't how we did it on Ace Ventura"?

A: [Laughs] No. I think he's only interested in breaking new comedic ground and being as creative as he can. So no, but that is really funny.

Q: How is it that you guys have never worked together before?

A: I don't know. I agree that it seems like we should have worked together. I worked with Ben Stiller on Night at the Museum, but he and I knew each other for a long time. With Jim, bizarrely, we'd actually never even met before working on this film.

Q: How did your acting styles mesh? We've heard he can be a handful, in a good way.

A: You know, I think we were a really good balance for one another. In most of our scenes, we needed to just ground our relationship and make it something that you really care about. We want you to want them to get back together. As for the comedy, he's such an improviser and obviously is amazing, but there's a rhythm to that approach, which led to some fun volleys between us in scenes.

Q: I think it's important to point out that the penguins in your film aren't always CGI. You guys used real penguins for most of this shoot.

A: That is definitely true. We did have to use CGI for certain scenes, but I have to say that, in an impressive way, it's really an amazing combination of real penguins and CGI. The sequence in the Guggenheim Museum, obviously, where the penguins are doing crazy stunts, is CGI. But there are a lot of scenes in Jim's apartment and various other places where we use real penguins. I do think it's a beautiful marriage of the two.

Q: Your résumé has plenty of family-friendly titles, from the Spy Kids franchise to Night at the Museum and Race to Witch Mountain. It appears that you actively seek out this kind of material to balance films like Watchmen, Sin City, or Sucker Punch.

A: You know, it's funny because I think when I got cast in Spy Kids I was still too young to pull off what that role was supposed to be. I was 27 at the time, but it still worked. And now I did feel that there weren't a lot of films I had done for the kids in my life to be able to see. From that, because Spy Kids turned out so well, came for me a love of movies that the whole family could go to. Don't get me wrong. I love doing serious movies for adults. But we're in this weird climate where movies are supposed to be PG-13, yet I feel like those movies aren't always appropriate for kids. I don't know if I seek them out, but certainly when I see a good script I'm really excited to be a part of it.

Q: You've also stuck with live-action family films as opposed to lending a voice to animation.

A: It's so funny that you'd say that because earlier today I actually mentioned just that [fact] because I do think that it's hard to do stories like this well in live action. I was lucky enough to be part of Spy Kids and Night at the Museum, two films that did do it well. But it is harder because, tonally, you are trying to discover something that is fantastical while also keeping it grounded in reality. That can be a tricky balance, but when it works it can be really special.

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