i highly reccomend it.

I highly reccomend you post more often.

No kidding.

Well, just because Rachel suggested it, I went out and saw it last night. It was really freakin' cool (pun intended). I can't remember the last time I saw a G-rated movie, much less paying to see one in the theater. It was well worth it, however.

I was skeptical about a 90 minute expose on a bunch of pengins waddling around on ice, but when it was over, I was left wanting at least 10 more minutes!

how flattering!

Very sweet film.

We really enjoyed it, however, I have some problems with it being labeled a documentary. Now, I am always the first to say that a documentary and journalism are two different things, but I think this crossed the line and is more in the vein of "Flash the River Otter" or whatever that Disney film was about cute cuddly river otter families.

The filmmakers (backed by Nat'l Geographic!?!?!) went over the line to anthropomorphize these penguins. The sound sweetening bordered on ridiculous to me, especially the wailing cries of the mother over her dead chick. Her beak wasn't even moving at this moment. There were also a couple of very suspect shots of the penguins playing and hunting underwater that looked a bit to perfect. Sure enough, in the end credits there's a whole gaggle of special effects coordinators and artists. Something tells me if Michael Moore put in an sfx shot of Bush having lunch with Bin Laden, there would have been a national uproar. The thing that baffles me is, they didn't have to do that. They had such wonderful shots anyway, why was there a decision to make animated penguins? Very odd.

I know I sound like a total stick in the mud, and my wife has been beating me up about it all weekend, but as a a fan of the documentary genre, and a filmmaker with three docs under my belt, its a bit tough to separate work from pleasure here.

Go see the film, its a fantastic narrative story, just don't walk away from it thinking you've watched an in depth study of a the emperor penguin.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Of course, it didn't bother me too much.

Isn't it true that this movie was originally released in France with voices given to the penguins?

I'm not sure about the release in France part, but the original cut had voice actors, and it was "not working" so they brought in Morgan Freeman. Which was a fabulous choice BTW, I kept turning to my life and saying in my worst Freeman impression, "It was longest May of that poor penguins life"

When it comes time for Token and me to have kids, now we know how to raise them. We're both getting flaps grafted on us so we can keep our egg warm while the other walks 70 miles to catch some fish.

What a heart-warming Fruedian Slip.

To funny... except that our lives now revolve around a 5 tooth, ten month old whirling dervish, who took his first 7 steps today... our lives as we have known it are officially over.

Man, the feel-good moments just keep on coming! That's awesome, man.

a little bit of the ice around my heart just melted.

I'm not sure they did any more anthropomorphizing than many discovery channel docs do with other animals. You know, the ones where they give the lion in the doc some african name, like Mutumbai, and then follow him around while he eats and humps.

Plus, the narrativizing was really what it took to get the doc in theatres. That's why it was widely distributed, because it took documentary footage and turned it into something that created viewer identification, albeit in a sappy way.

I really enjoyed the film. It's nice to see penguins slipping and busting ass on the ice. Makes me feel a little less embarassed to do it as a human.

I have no problems with them doing that... just don't call it a documentary... it's not. Like I said, great film, just don't go and take to many "facts" away from it.