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MARCH OF THE PENGUINS

"Dramatic Survival"

NoneLightModerateHeavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

IN BRIEF:

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS is an incredible dramatic story of survival, love and new life. After four years of swimming in the waters of the Antarctic, the Emperor Penguin, a flightless bird, jumps up on land from the water and marches more than 70 miles to its birthplace. There, after finding a mate, it procreates with great tenderness and love, and goes through an extraordinary process of giving birth and raising its chicks against all odds, under extreme climactic conditions. The father, mother and child all face starvation and death from the elements and other creatures, and this is just the beginning of the trials these incredible birds face.

The camerawork, music, editing, and documentary storytelling of MARCH OF THE PENGUINS are excellent. The movie avoids anthropomorphizing the penguins and avoids environmental hysteria when the penguins are killed by other creatures or by the weather itself. Thus, the movie treats the story of the Emperor Penguins as a story, not a soapbox. The only problems are some opening references to evolution. This is a wonderful movie for families, but parents should prepare their children to deal with the evolutionary ideas in the beginning

Content:

(BB, Ev, M) Strong implied moral worldview overall celebrating Creation and seeming to support theism and Intelligent Design, with brief, but light evolutionary introduction; and, nothing objectionable shown, although it is implied that the penguins are mating.

More Detail:

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS is an incredible dramatic story of survival, love, procreation, and new life. Except for the opening comments about a million years of evolution, the rest of the movie is a classic wildlife documentary about and extraordinary bird, the Emperor Penguin.

After four years of swimming in the waters of the Antarctic, the Emperor Penguin, a flightless bird, jumps up on land from the water and marches more than 70 miles to its birthplace. There, after finding a mate, it procreates with great tenderness and love, and then goes through an extraordinary process of trying to give birth and raise its chicks against all odds, under extreme climactic conditions.

First the mother gives birth and passes the egg to the father. She rushes against time to march the more than 70 miles back to the water to feed. She is on the verge of starvation, having lost much of her body weight to give birth. If they fumble the egg exchange, the egg quickly freezes and dies. If successful, the father sits on the egg for weeks until the mother returns. He has to brave the harsh Antarctic winter. The mother comes back just when the father is on the verge of starvation. Some of the fathers and some of the newborn chicks do not make it, and this is just the beginning of the trials these incredible birds face.

The camerawork, music, editing, and documentary storytelling of MARCH OF THE PENGUINS are excellent. The movie avoids anthropomorphizing the penguins and avoids environmental hysteria when the penguins are killed by other creatures or by the weather itself. Thus, the movie treats the story of the Emperor Penguins as just what it is – a story, not a soapbox. The only place where there is the proclamation of a political view is the opening brief references to evolution.

And, of course, there are no references to God. However, people coming out of the screening were talking about how incredible God’s Creation is. This is a wonderful movie for families that indirectly supports theism and the view of Intelligent Design, but parents should prepare their children to deal with the evolutionary ideas in the beginning.