March of the Penguins
2005 documentary movie by Luc Jacquet
March of the Penguins (La Marche de l'empereur) is a 2005 French feature-length nature documentary about the yearly journey of the emperor penguins of Antarctica. In autumn, all the penguins of breeding age (five years old and over) leave the ocean, which is their normal habitat, to walk inland to their ancestral breeding grounds. There, the penguins participate in a courtship that, if successful, results in the hatching of a chick. For the chick to survive, both parents must make multiple arduous journeys between the ocean and the breeding grounds over the ensuing months.
- Directed by Luc Jacquet. Written by Luc Jacquet, Michel Fessler and Jordan Roberts. (English Version)
In the harshest place on Earth, love finds a way.
Narrator
edit- [first lines] There are few places hard to get to in this world. But there aren't any where it's harder to live. The average temperature here at the bottom of the Earth is a balmy 58 degrees below. That's when the sun is out. It wasn't always like this. Antarctica used to be a tropical place densely forested and teeming with life. But then the continent started to drift south. And by the time it was done drifting, the dense forests had all been replaced with a new ground cover, Ice. As for the former inhabitants, they had all died or moved on long ago. Well, almost all of them. Legend has it that one tribe stayed behind. Perhaps they thought the change in weather was only temporary. Or maybe they were just stubborn. But whatever their reasons, these stalwart souls refused to leave. For millions of years they have made their home on the darkest, driest, windiest and coldest continent on Earth. And they've done so pretty much alone. So in some ways this is a story of survival. A tale of life over death. But it's more than that, really. This is a story about love.
- There is a mysterious ritual that dates back thousands of years. No living creature has survived it except the penguin. They have wings but cannot fly. They're birds that think they're fish. And every year, they embark on a nearly impossible journey to find a mate. For twenty days and twenty nights the emperor penguin will march to a place so extreme it supports no other life. In the harshest place on Earth loves finds a way. This is the incredible true story of a family's journey to bring life into the world: March of the Penguins.
- [last lines] And they will march just as they have done for centuries, ever since the emperor penguin decided to stay, to live and love in the harshest place on Earth.
Cast
edit- Morgan Freeman - Narrator.
