ign logo IGN.com | AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | GameSpy | FilePlanet | TeamXbox | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | Direct2Drive

RottenTomatoes.com

RT Bug Squash
Home Movies DVD Celebrities News Critics Photos & Trailers The Vine Forums
Box Office | Best Of | Certified Fresh | Showtimes
Register for free site & special features! | Log In | What is RT?
                       
MOVIES / ON DVD / MARCH OF THE PENGUINS
March of the Penguins

Rate This Movie

Write a Review
Share This Movie
Add to List
Buy Poster

Bookmark and Share

March of the Penguins (2005)

94%
100%
88%
N/A
N/A
N/A
94 %
Reviews Counted: 155 Fresh: 145  Rotten:10 Average Rating: 7.8/10
 
Consensus: Only the most hardened soul won't be moved by this heartwarming doc. Only the most hardened soul won't be moved by this heartwarming doc. more
 
Rated: U
Runtime: 80 mins
Theatrical Release: 09-12-2005
Synopsis:
Coming from a French director, Luc Jacquet, the miraculous MARCH OF THE PENGUINS would have to be a love story. And so it is. The film explores the mating rituals of the emperor penguin, one of the most resilient animals on earth. Each summer, after a nourishing period of deep-sea feeding, the... [More]
Coming from a French director, Luc Jacquet, the miraculous MARCH OF THE PENGUINS would have to be a love story. And so it is. The film explores the mating rituals of the emperor penguin, one of the most resilient animals on earth. Each summer, after a nourishing period of deep-sea feeding, the penguins pop up onto the ice and begin their procession across the frozen tundra of Antarctica. Walking doggedly in single file, they are a sight to behold. Hundreds converge from every direction, moving instinctively toward their mating ground. Once there, they mingle and chatter until they find the perfect mate--a monogamous match that will last a year, through the brutal winter and into the spring. During that time, the mother will give birth to an egg and then leave for the ocean to feed again. The father will stay to protect the egg through the freezing blizzards and pure darkness of winter, which would be deadly to practically any other species. Finally, with spring, the egg hatches and the baby penguins are born. Mothers return from the sea to reunite with their families and feed the starving newborns, while the fathers are finally relieved of their protective duties after months without food. This remarkable story is narrated by Morgan Freeman, whose dignified voice gives the penguins the grave admiration they deserve. But even more incredible is the photography, which shows the penguins hunting underwater, sliding on the ice, and even what definitely looks like kissing. At one point the camera even zooms inside the mouth of a penguin as it regurgitates food for its young. A story of love and, more strikingly, survival, MARCH OF THE PENGUINS is a stirring, eye-opening, and educational experience. [Less]

Genre: Education/General Interest

Director: Luc Jacquet
Screenwriter: Luc Jacquet, Michel Fessler
Producer: Yves Darondeau, Christophe Lioud, Emmanuel Priou
Composer: Alex Wurman

DVD Info

Release:

Mar 3, 2009

[DVD Details]

Reviews

 
T-Meter Critics
 
 
Top Critics
 
 
RT Community
 
 
My Critics
 
 
My Friends
 
 
DVD
 
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Arrange By: Name | Fresh | Rotten | Date | Source
 
 
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
06/24/06 04:26 AM
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
04/01/06 04:26 AM
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
12/10/05 03:20 AM
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
12/09/05 03:15 AM
David Edwards
Daily Mirror [UK]
Ratings Image

Luc Jacquet's March Of The Penguins is, astoundingly, the second most successful documentary ever made.

Full Review | Comment
12/06/05 07:29 PM
Paul Arendt
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

Secondly, it's been horribly sanitised, as if all the good bits have been removed for a pre-watershed TV screening. We do, in fact, get to see penguins doing it, but the narration neglects to mention it, lest children in the audience start asking

Full Review | Comment
11/03/05 03:15 AM
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
Ratings Image

We know a documentary about penguins will be entertaining simply because they're so silly ... [but this] is not, actually, that exceptional.

Full Review | Comment
09/30/05 12:55 AM
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
11/01/07 03:15 AM
David Ansen
Newsweek
Ratings Image

It's a rather offensively human-centered approach to what should be a mystifying and beautiful experience.

Full Review | Comment
09/27/07 05:57 PM
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
08/16/07 03:16 AM
Dave Calhoun
Time Out New York
Ratings Image

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
07/14/07 06:19 AM
Joe Lozito
Big Picture Big Sound
Ratings Image

Director Jacquet has cleverly figured out a way to anthropomorphise his wondrous, web-footed subjects, as they deal with hunger, rejection, loss, loneliness, and sensuality.

Full Review | Comment
06/27/07 08:08 PM
Kam Williams
Princeton Town Topics
Ratings Image

plays like a high-end Discovery Channel special, but it's compelling and beautiful just the same

Full Review | Comment
08/27/06 03:36 PM
Jay Antani
Perihelion Journal
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
05/26/06 03:17 AM
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid
Ratings Image

A miracle of a film, March of the Penguins is one of the year's joys. This extraordinary glimpse into the life of the emperor penguins is far more than a story of survival: it is a unique love story of immense proportions.

Full Review | Comment
03/22/06 02:49 AM
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Ratings Image

To human observers, the ways in which animal behavior variously resembles or contrasts with human behavior is an inexhaustible source of fascination.

Full Review | Comment
02/10/06 04:53 PM
Steven D. Greydanus
Decent Films Guide
Ratings Image

Contando com dois diretores de fotografia, A Marcha dos Pingüins traz um cenário impressionante, com suas geleiras imensas e a sempre fascinante aurora austral.

Full Review | Comment
01/13/06 02:41 AM
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena
Ratings Image

Anthropomorphic study with brilliant cinematography

Full Review | Comment
12/10/05 03:04 PM
Louis Proyect
rec.arts.movies.reviews
Ratings Image

Who would've guessed that one of the hottest summer movies takes place in Antarctica and stars penguins?

Full Review | Comment
12/10/05 03:20 AM
Ellen Marshall
Film Threat
Ratings Image

The film goes beyond a nature movie with excellent photography and the determination of the animals it documents.

Full Review | Comment
12/10/05 03:20 AM
Jeremy Mathews
Film Threat
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
See More Topics...

Related Forums

Movie shows nine months of a Penguin's life...
by: Maven 8/3/07


REEL_REVIEWER
DOCU-"March of the Penguins" marches into four theaters on Friday, June 24, 2005!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/28/06


REEL_REVIEWER
DOCU-"March of the Penguins" marches into four theaters on Friday, June 24, 2005!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/28/06


REEL_REVIEWER
DOCU-"March of the Penguins" marches into four theaters on Friday, June 24, 2005!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/28/06


REEL_REVIEWER
DOCU-"March of the Penguins" marches into four theaters on Friday, June 24, 2005!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/28/06
all

Pictures

all

News

Disney, Warners Taking Filmgoers Back to Nature
posted by April 29, 2008
No longer the sole domain of Marlin Perkins and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, nature documentaries have become big...


Critical Consensus: "Casino Royale" Fresh, Certified Fresh; "Happy Feet" Shows Fancy Footwork; Guess The Tomatometer for "Prison"
posted by Tim Ryan November 16, 2006
This week at the movies prompts several questions. Will the latest Bond movie ("Casino Royale," starring...


Weekly Ketchup: "Crocodile Hunter" Remembered; "A-Team" Rumors; Uwe Boll's New Calling!
posted by Nick Hershey September 08, 2006
In this week's Ketchup, The "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin was eulogized by RT users, and the Bruce...


Box Office Preview: "Crank" Closes Up Summer Movie Season
posted by Gitesh Pandya August 31, 2006
The summer movie season comes to an official end with the Labor Day holiday weekend unleashing three new releases plus...

Around the Network

• March of the Penguins at Rotten Tomatoes
• March of the Penguins at IGN
• March of the Penguins at AskMen
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Celebs List| Newsletter
IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | ModCenter | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive

By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2008, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.