March of the Penguins (La Marche de l'empereur) is a 2005 French feature-length nature documentary directed and co-written by Luc Jacquet, and co-produced by Bonne Pioche and the National Geographic Society. The documentary depicts the yearly journey of the emperor penguins of Antarctica. In autumn, all the penguins of breeding age (five years old and over) leave the ocean, which is their normal habitat, to walk inland to their ancestral breeding grounds. There, the penguins participate in a courtship that, if successful, results in the hatching of a chick. For the chick to survive, both parents must make multiple arduous journeys between the ocean and the breeding grounds over the ensuing months.
Background[]
After it's premiere at Sundance Film Festival, March of the Penguins was acquired for English-language distribution by Adam Leipzig of National Geographic Films, who partnered with Warner Bros.' indie film arm, Warner Independent Pictures, to release the film. While the English version of the film is mostly uncut from the French version, various changes were made:
The original French-language release features a romanticized first-person narrative as if the story is being told by the penguins themselves. The narration alternates between a female (Romane Bohringer) and a male narrator (Charles Berling) speaking the alternate roles of the female and male penguin, and as the chicks are born, their narration is handled by child actor Jules Sitruk. In contrast, the English version goes for a more traditional third person narration done in the vein of a nature documentary, with Morgan Freeman providing the narration. The French version also carried an electronic music score with some songs composed and performed by Émilie Simon, however, as National Geographic felt that style of music may come off too challenging for American audiences, it was replaced by an instrumental score by Alex Wurman.
Cast[]
| Character | Original Actor | Dub Actor |
|---|---|---|
| Narrator | Charles Berling Romane Bohringer Jules Sitruk |
Morgan Freeman |
Video Releases[]
| Distributor | Year | Format | Region | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warner Home Video | 2005 | 
|
1 NTSC |
United States | 
|
| 2006 | 2 PAL |
United Kingdom | 
| ||
| 2007 | 
|
A DVB-T |
United States |
| |
| B DVB-T |
United Kingdom |
| |||
| 2010 | A DVB-T |
United States |
| ||
| Alliance | 2012 | +
|
A DVB-T 1 NTSC |
Canada | 
|
| Roadshow Entertainment | 2014 |
|
4 PAL |
Australia | 
|
| Reel |
|
B DVB-T | |||
See Also[]
External Links[]
- March of the Penguins at the Internet Movie Database