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I'm sulking because the only place I can find it in Canada is in Quebec.

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Not even in Toronto?

EDIT: Here we go- my favourite Toronto theatre is showing it. Pity I'm not going to be there for another two months...
 

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Posted by Miro (Member # 1178) on :
 
I saw it on Friday. So Freaking Cute. Seriously.

Not to mention amazing. I had no idea what it takes to hatch and raise a baby penguin. It's amazing they're still around!
 

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Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
 
A bump to say that March of the Penguins has been opening at more theaters in some areas. Here in the twin cities its at a nearby multiplex instead of just the arthouse/indy theater. Saw it with ElJay and the 'rents. Very good. Incredibly cute. Absolutely amazing story.

Also, it turns out penguins are serial monogamists. Who knew?

--Enigmatic
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
It finally opened near me!

Powerful film.

Powerful.

Truly a great movie.

Though those leopard seals scared the living daylights out of me!
 

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Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
 
I went to see it on a seriously hot day, as a way to escape the heat.

I was very impressed. I believe that the hardest job in the world is being a penguin. You wouldn't think it to see the captive penguins playing around at the zoo, but they lead a tremendously difficult life.

Speaking of captive penguins, at the Central Park Zoo in New York City, there are a pair of homosexual penguins. They had meant to get a mating pair, but landed up with two males. So they got a penguin egg, and now the two male penguins are hatching and raising their baby together, and show all signs of being very much in love.
 

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Posted by Bob the Lawyer (Member # 3278) on :
 
Umm, EL? It's playing at the Princess Twin at 3, 5 and 7 this week.

Edit: Ah, you posted a long time ago. Nonetheless, it is playing at those times
 

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Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
 
Cuuuuuute! Cute, cute cute! SO cute!

But you should say it's the hardest job in the world to be an Emperor penguin, Tante. I don't know that the others have it as bad.

(Cute!)
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
If there's one thing I did take issue with, it was the tendency of the narration to anthropomorphize the motivations of the penguins more than a bit.

Even if the narrator was Morgan Freeman.
 

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Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
 
Tante, that doesn't seem that surprising to me. I just watched the movie and I still have no idea how the penguins even figure out what gender the other penguin is.

--Enigmatic
 

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Posted by Theaca (Member # 8325) on :
 
I KNOW this movie will be wonderful. But I have a problem--I can't stand to watch birds being hurt or birds dying, even though I know it is a part of nature. I really can't handle watching a bird I've become attached to, even on screen, die. So I suppose I should definitely skip this movie, right?
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
Yes, there are some onscreen deaths.
 

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Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
 
Theaca,
First, rent Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". Once you have changed your mind about the birds, go to see "Penguins".
 

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Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
 
Puffy, I'd read somewhere that in one of the early versions of the movie they had actors providing voices for the penguins, instead of just the narration. There was a bit more anthropomorphization than seems likely to be accurate, but I'm glad they ditched that other idea and didn't have the penguins talking.

Theca, yes there are some sad bits that are very hard to watch. I'm glad they didn't leave it out though, because those bits show just how serious the struggle to survive and reproduce is.

--Enigmatic
 

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Posted by Theaca (Member # 8325) on :
 
I haven't watched The Birds. But I suspect you are being evil. EVIL.

And I agree, the sad bits are important. I just can't handle the sad bits. I'm not sure why I handle human deaths so much better than bird deaths. Practice, I guess.
 

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Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
 

 

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Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
 
Yeah, I'm one of those people who can watch a horror movie with people getting chopped up or eaten by alien monsters but will say "Hey, not the cat!" in the same movie.
First noticed this tendency with Son of the Blob

--Enigmatic
 

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Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
 
And, like, the only week I could have seen it all summer, and I don't see your message till too late. Crap.

EDIT: This COMING week? Oh man. Don't tempt me, I can't afford the drive in, nor the time... No tempting... Yarg.
 

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Posted by Hmm216 (Member # 8403) on :
 
Wow, I always wondered how in the world they could make a movie about Penguins (with out being a cartoon). Now that I have seen the Trailer I think I understand. I really want to see it, it looks excelent. Probably a real tear jerker (actually I almost cried durring the trailer, it doesnt take much for me).

I cant wait, I will probably have to though.
 

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Posted by Beanny (Member # 7109) on :
 
I saw it several days ago - and it was amazing!
But like everyone else here have already said - man, it's tough to be an Emperor Penguin!
Without eating for months, in scorching cold...

The saddest part for me was when a penguin got lost in the vast icy plains, and couldn't find it's tribe. It was calling, and calling, and you could feel it cry. This animal has a soul.
 

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Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Beanny:


The saddest part for me was when a penguin got lost in the vast icy plains, and couldn't find it's tribe. It was calling, and calling, and you could feel it cry. This animal has a soul.

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And the evil camera man was just watching and filming and not giving it a hand to say, "Hey 'giun, your homies are down there."
 

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Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
 
I think filming a nature documentary has got to be really heart wrenching. You have to watch the animals starve or get eaten or otherwise die, and not only do you not interfere but you have to be working to best capture it all on film and convey the emotion, etc.

The shot of the lone penguin walking across the barren ice plain and disappearing behind a big chunk of ice made me think about that. It was a really well-done and poignant shot, and they had to set up the angle right so that they penguin just seemed to vanish in the ice and snow. I bet there were a lot of frozen tears during this filming.

--Enigmatic
 

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Posted by firebird (Member # 1971) on :
 
Puffy .. that is gorgeous. Thank you for the link. This will def get onto my wish list. I loved the bit when the girl penguin lifted her 'skirt' to show her mate the egg! BLESS

Tasty Shvester ...
How did you get so funny?

That leopard seal looks evil. Evil I say.

I don't know if they cover it in the movie but I understand that when Penguins huddle they keep a constantly rotating pattern so that you get just a little time in the middle and then rotate out again. These birds are WISE.
 

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Posted by ambyr (Member # 7616) on :
 
I enjoyed March of the Penguins, but after a certain point you want to grab the birds by their cute little flippers, shake them, and shout, "You know, there's lots of land in Australia, so why don't you just MOVE?"

But. Yes. Cute.
 

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Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
 
I kept thinking about the penguins from Madagascar: huge roaring blizzard... "Well, this sucks."

--Enigmatic
 

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Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
 
Saw it with my two oldest kids. We loved it!

I thought it was pretty amazing when the one mother who lost her baby tried to steal another mother's baby, the community of mothers stepped in to protect the mother of the living chick. It was as if to say, "We understand that you are suffering a loss, but we cannot allow you to take another mother's chick. That is wrong." They seem to have a sense of morality.

The serial monogamy is absolutely essential. The partnership of the two mates is just enough to support one chick. Any more than that, and there would be unnecessary deaths. Though, IIRC, there is one kind of penguin that usually has two chicks but can only support one, so one must *always* die. That wouldn't make such a good movie, eh?

It was interesting how this whole family bond was set up, but if at any time the chick died or something else went wrong with one of the partners, it was all over. The adults go back to the sea and call it off.

Considering the intense suffering these penguin parents go through, it is a wonder there aren't more that just throw in the towel saying, "Screw this! I'm going back to the ocean to gorge myself!" But they put the welfare of their chicks above all else. Though the fathers who's "wives" don't return will abandon their chicks in order to survive themselves. Makes a cold sort of sense since without the returning mother, the chick can't survive anyway.

And the father's make a sort of "milk" for their babies! Cuuuute! I say, for the mothers *and* fathers to continuously feed the chicks from their own bodies, that almost has mammalian undertones. I mean, they aren't feeding them the food in their stomach. That would've long since been digested or rotted. They must be secreting something glandular from their own body's nutrition stores--like making milk.
 

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Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
 
Bev, that first milky meal that the fathers' give the babies was "stored in a fold in his throat" according to the film. It didn't sound like they were actually producing it. The later meals were definitely regurgitated, and only needed to be stored for a week or two. I'm guessing penguins have slow metabolisms and digestion. They must, for the fathers to make it 4 months without eating.

Still, all very impressive.

--Enigmatic
 

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Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
 
Hmmm, I wonder. It wasn't all that clear from the film's explaination. And it is possible that nobody knows.

I had just assumed it was impossible to still have viable food in the stomach after so long.
 

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Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
 
It seemed like that first baby penguin meal was some sort of nutritious penguin phlegm. It can sustain the baby for "a day. Maybe two" according to the film. And the Papa Penguin only has one phlegm glob to cough up. After it is gone, there's nothing.

I've been told before that I'm funny. But I'm not sure if people are referring to the way I look or the way I smell.
 

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Posted by firebird (Member # 1971) on :
 
Tasty Schevester ... no the way you taste?


Enough!

- You really are a comic genius! Black Adder has nothing on you.

Take a compliment ... go on I dare ya!
 

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Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
 
Taken!
 

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Posted by firebird (Member # 1971) on :
 
Phew!
 

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Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
 
We just saw it.

Penguins penguins penguins!
 

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Posted by Astaril (Member # 7440) on :
 
I just want to step in and defend the seals. They have a hard life too! Come on, altogether now, a nice, sympathetic "Awwwwwwwwww!" for all the leopard seals...
 

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Posted by firebird (Member # 1971) on :
 
I tried ... I wrote it and everything ... but I just bring myself to do it.

Didn't you see those teeth?


(bad me?)
 

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Posted by Astaril (Member # 7440) on :
 
I haven't seen the movie yet, actually. I'm familiar with seals though (I mean, not personally, unless you count 500 year old seal bones in which case I'm *very* personally familiar with them, but still...) and they have a tough life too. I mean, take the movie I saw in a class last winter. For five minutes, we watched a seal pup frolic around on the ice, cavorting about, happy and free, then THWACK! In goes the harpoon from a nearby camouflaged hunter, and out goes the light of that seal pup's happy existence, floating along with the outgoing rush of blood from the fresh head wound. You'd feel sorry for a seal *then*, wouldn't you? Everyone likes a cuddly carnivore. Look at tiger cubs.

By the way,

quote:

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but I just bring myself to do it.

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I think this shows your subconscious desire to do it...
 

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Posted by Space Opera (Member # 6504) on :
 
Boy Opera wants to see this movie quite badly, as do I. I'm glad to hear that it's as good as the previews look. Hopefully it's playing somewhere in Louisville!

space opera
 

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Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
 
I just saw it with my mom and grandpa. Cute movie. It never let me get too happy or sad before ripping me back in the other direction.

I thought the music was very well done, and in general it was a great movie, as well as an informative documentary. I'm glad it's doing so well, I wish they'd make more things like this.

I never knew how incredibly hard Penguins have it. Maybe they'll get more credit in cartoon animal movies from now on.
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Tante Shvester:
Speaking of captive penguins, at the Central Park Zoo in New York City, there are a pair of homosexual penguins. They had meant to get a mating pair, but landed up with two males. So they got a penguin egg, and now the two male penguins are hatching and raising their baby together, and show all signs of being very much in love.

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