Seriously interesting view into the life of the Emperor Penguins…

And I like documentaries. This one just didn’t really hold my interest. It was all ten minutes of cheesy flute music between bits of narration, and it was depressing as hell. That part is hardly the filmmaker’s fault, but man, must it suck to be a penguin. I was expecting something cute and uplifting from all the promos — I found it to be neither.

Morgan Freeman’s narration is superb; the scenery is awesome; the story is moving and memorable. See it!

It’s a documentary, so it’s hard to really rate this. Coupled with the fact that I only half-watched it, this isn’t an entirely accurate star rating. However, the questions I had were answered by Morgan Freeman with, “We don’t know why they do this, but…” I want to know WHY!! All in all, really beautiful footage of the penguins and scenery, and worth watching.

An informative, beautiful and touching movie about Antarctica’s Emperor penguins’ mysterious breeding ritual. It will warm your heart and make you cry. In fact, I had a hard time stomaching some parts, not knowing when a cute moment would fade away and natural selection would rear its ugly, but necessary head. Never fear, the sad parts are never very long. If you have no interest in penguins, there’s little of interest for you here. Otherwise, you need to see this one!

beautiful. i want penguin love.

Staggeringly beautiful. Those who were disappointed by the movie clearly expected something funny. That’s not real life which is what a documentary is all about.

I love penguins, but I am tired of this film! It’s so misadvertised. I saw it in the theatre and was highly disappointed. It was really depressing and in my opinion, not appropriate viewing for children. Who wants to see close-ups of dead penguins? I understand it’s part of life, but I feel this film has been advertised in an inappropriate manner. I did not enjoy the film.

My husband and I watched this movie while we rung in the New Year. It was very beautiful and they did a good job of engaging you in cheering on the penguins. And of course baby penguins are adorable. The only bad thing that was immediately obvious was some statements made in the narration that over-anthropomorphized the penguins. For example, they referred to the loss of the chick as “unbearable” for the mother penguin.

After the movie, we watched all of the DVD extras and they ended up calling a lot of the movie into question. The documentary “Of Penguins and Men” seemed like a complete documentary of the penguins on its own, like perhaps it was the original product but they redid it later to remove the humans and turn it into a more emotionally sensitive story. Aside from the redundancy and a few small discrepancies, it also revealed the harshness and the holes in their observation of the penguins. We then went on to watch the included National Geographic “Crittercam” documentary and I found that to be the most informative and seemingly accurate. It made a lot more sense and had a lot less hyperbole.

Anyway, the movie was still very good. Just keep in mind it is a story and don’t take it as 100% accurate and reflective of all emperor penguins’ cycles.

An amazing look at the life cycle of the emperor penguin. The documentary reminds us of that we are not the only species that is capable of tragic loss, extrodinary self-sacrifice, and deep love.