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Those silly French and their silly penguin movie

Personally I loved March of the Penguins, but one poster here who saw it in France asked how I could possibly tolerate the soundtrack. Now I know what he meant. Here's an excerpt from the EW review:

For avian epic on multiple counts of anthropomorphic hooey, and
acquired, understandably, on a wager that it could become the next
Winged Migration, the docu has at least been relieved of its
original Teletubby-style French music and Hello Kitty script (much
of it involving penguins "talking" about their hopes and dreams)
with which the film was shown at Sundance this past January. In its
place is a less-French score by Alex Wurman and a calmer narration
written by Jordan Roberts and spoken, with elegant trustworthiness,
by Morgan Freeman. But the movie still pins its appeal on the
nobility of penguin "love." The courting couples no longer whisper
foreplay poetry to each other—I remember wondering whether
they'd indulge in a postcoital smoke when I saw the
original — and the baby chicks no longer sing a ditty along the
lines of "How lucky to be a baby chick!" Yet the refurbished March
of the Penguins continues to indulge in the whole "Penguins are
heroes, too" world-view, in which we are encouraged to look at the
birds not as Aptenodytes forsteri but as cute little guys who waddle
around in penguin suits, doing amazing things out of the goodness of
theirhearts. As if the creatures weren't camera-worthy enough just being
creatures who do things their way with a constancy profound enough
to inspire theologians.

Here's the thing: Extreme as their living conditions are and as
arduous as their reproductive routines may be, emperor penguins are
not "brave" or "resolute" or moved by romance and commitment. They
are birds, miraculously designed, as all living things bright and
beautiful are, to reproduce.


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Topic - Those silly French and their silly penguin movie - clarkjohnsen 10:20:02 07/15/05 (5)


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