March of the Penguins (La marche de l'empreur)

Question: Who cares about penguins in Antarctica ? Answer: French people, somehow these people have plenty of ressources and free time to go spend time with these noble animals, the coolest species in my opinion, in terms of swagger and attitude, the result is an interesting documentary, "the march of the penguins"

Emperor Penguins are observed in their natural Habitat, Antarctica, as they "march" from the ocean, their natural habitat, inlands in an ardous and difficult journey to their breeding ground, where they establish a colony, find a partner, following by the female laying an egg, the parents then have the difficult task to keep it warm from winds that can reach 190MPH, predators, all that while they starve since the ocean is far, and it's the only place where they can find food, a journey that takes several months, and which many of them will not survive.

The educational value of this documentary is dense, interesting and metaphorical, both the male and female empror penguin take turns in keeping the egg safe, after the laying, the female goes back to the ocean to bring food, while the colony sticks together agains the cold and dark Antarctic winter, and if they make it to the ocean, they are preys of many predators and dangers, it's really fascinating, i'm far from being an enviromentalist myself, but the whole experience is worth watching.

What torpedoed the experience was the dubbing (french in my case) where famous voice actors, Charles Berling and Romane Bohringer took speak for the male and female penguins, it's almost silly, since they want to make it look like a romantic comedy or tragedy or something, the kid's voice to the baby penguin was beyond silly, these birds are too cool to sound like french brats.

The music is adequate, except maybe the techno pop thing to illustrate the "love story", but I still think the original version narrated by morgan freeman is more interesting, and anyways, minus the narrative, which is a plus if you are into tear jerking, it's a movie worth watching by all means, some people will try to see it in a metaphorical sense for strong family values, and parental sacrifice, but these creatures are just birds, they are genetically programmed to do what they are doing, but watching these noble animals, with their tribe values and patience beyond tough times, is inspiring in a sense, these animals are not called emperors for nothing, they have royal value.

This documentary/movie won the oscar for best documentary, well deserved, well done, and try to think about the penguins right now preparing for their endless trip, boy are they cool !