March of the Penguins

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about March of the Penguins' classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of March of the Penguins completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 26 March 2006.

Overall comments and recommendations

March of the Penguins is visually stunning and its remarkable story will entertain both young and old. However there are a few disturbing scenes which could upset young children.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie March of the Penguins contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Written and directed by Luc Jacquet, March of the Penguins is a documentary narrated by Morgan Freeman, about the extraordinary ritual of the Emperor Penguins, who walk 70 miles to reach their ancient breeding grounds annually.

Each year in March, the Emperor Penguins leave their coastal home and begin their walk across the “darkest, driest, windiest and coldest” continent on Earth to reach their ancient breeding grounds 70 miles away. The walk can take up to a week as they don't walk terribly fast. The Penguins all arrive on the same day and begin the task of finding a mate with whom they'll stay throughout the breeding season. When the penguins find their partner, the breeding ritual begins. Later when the egg is hatched there is the tricky and dangerous task of transferring it from Mother to Father who will ‘incubate' it throughout the long, harsh winter. Some eggs are lost during this process, cracking in the extreme cold. The mother then returns to the sea to feed as she is starving by this time. The fathers all stay looking after the eggs for four months without food. When the mothers return their chicks are eagerly awaiting their return and some food to eat. At this point the fathers can then return to the sea so they can eat, however many do not make the journey as they are starving. Eventually the fathers return and the family is reunited for a while until it is time for the parents to leave.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Death and distress of animals.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is a little violence in this movie:

• females fight over the males as there are fewer of them.
• a leopard seal chases the penguins in the water and is shown capturing one in its mouth.
• a large bird circles, then chases the chicks. It pecks at them and its apparent it takes one although this isn't shown.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children under the age of eight could be upset by the above mentioned scenes and also the following:

• a lone penguin straggler is shown dying
• the fathers all huddled are frozen and covered in ice during a blizzard
• on the return journey one of the father penguins is shown dying from exhaustion
• chicks who are born too early don't survive waiting for their mothers – one is shown dead.
• chicks often perish in the blizzards – some are shown frozen.
• a distressing scene in which the mothers find their dead chicks and try to make them wake up.
• mother penguins who lose their chicks often try to steal another's. The group gathers to protect the mother and chick and chase the other away.

Aged over the age of eight

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Children over the age of eight won't be frightened, but some sensitive children could be upset by the animal distress and deaths shown.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in this movie.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity or sexual activity.

Use of substances

There is no use of substances.

Coarse language

There is no coarse language.

The movie's message

There is no real take home message in this movie. However, the effort involved by the parent penguins to rear their young is quite inspiring.