March of the Penguins is a simple, pleasant tale of the year in the life of the Emperor Penguin of Antarctica. We follow the penguins as they march 70 miles from the sea to their breeding grounds, where they endure the harshest winter conditions in hopes of bringing about the life of a single penguin.

March of the Penguins plays along the line between a more traditional nature documentary and pure visual fascination the likes of Winged Migration. Narrating the story, Morgan Freeman gives us the basic facts of what’s going on and provides us with interesting tidbits about the penguins, but is surprisingly silent for stretches of time. Though I enjoy the more natural periods of time where we see and here the penguins as they are, I think I would have liked to hear more about exactly what was going on and why.

Knowing that its viewers aren’t zoologists, however, March of the Penguins is intent to provide us with a visual spectacle. The plain white scenery isn’t quite as fun to look at as the scenery in Winged Migration, but the film does its best considering. Cameras get remarkably close without the least bit of a sense of intrusion and underwater scenes, where the water must be as cold as water physically can be, are impressive.

Though it’s fun to see the little penguins trip and fall, March of the Penguins is at its most endearing as it shows us the human side to the animals. Freeman talks a lot about love, and after witnessing the amazing lengths that the animals go to breed, it seems as if love may just be the thing going on beneath the fur. The penguins go for months without food and bear out the deepest cold to protect their chicks, and many penguins die of starvation or cold in the process.

It’s also quite astounding to see the intelligence of the creatures. They know where to meet the other penguins for breeding, and then they know how to find their respective mates and chicks after they’ve been away – vocally recognizing each other. They know where the ice is the thickest, so their collective weight won’t break through. And while they huddle together to find warmth from the cold, they even manage to find a system to rotate so everyone has a turn in the middle of the pack. Though the film anthropomorphizes the animals considerably, you have to wonder if they aren’t a little more human than we think.

The only problem with March of the Penguins is that we can only watch penguins walk and huddle together amidst a blanket of white for so long. The film is only 80 minutes, but after the hour mark, I had seen enough. But it’s still an amazing trip to the south pole, one that’s genuinely unforgettable, and one that, for most of us, would be an impossible sight to see if it weren’t for film.

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