March of the Penguins

March of the Penguins follows emperor penguins across a single breeding season in Antarctica. Each year the birds leave the relative safety of the ocean and travel inland, away from food, to reach the frozen ground where they mate and raise one chick. The journey is long and punishing, made through darkness, cold and blizzards. Once the egg is laid, the parents take turns: one balances it on its feet beneath a fold of skin while the other walks back to open water to feed, then returns so the partner can go. Predators and storms threaten them along the way, and the survival of the young depends on the pair keeping to this exchange through the polar winter.

Luc Jacquet directed the film, his first, from a screenplay he wrote with Jordan Roberts and Michel Fessler. It is a French and American documentary co-production. The French-language version features Charles Berling, Romane Bohringer and Jules Sitruk as the voices of the father, mother and baby penguin, while Morgan Freeman narrates the English-language release. Jacquet returned to Antarctic subjects in March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step and Antarctica Calling, with The Fox and the Child in between.

Made for about eight million dollars, the film took roughly 127 million worldwide, an exceptional return for a nature documentary. Audiences have received it warmly: on IMDb and on TMDB it holds a solid rating across a large body of votes, reflecting its broad appeal to general viewers as well as documentary audiences.