Ok…so who’s seen it? Dish.
I’m waiting to watch it while visiting my girlfriend in N. Dakota. I leave on Friday :D…for over two weeks 
Pengy-san pengy-san pengy-san! [/sakura kinomoto]
I want to see this ASAP. I love penguins. My husband loves my reaction to penguins, along with being a general animal-lover himself, so I don’t think it will be too hard to convince him to take me to see this.
I don’t care what the storyline is, I just want to see the penguins!
Saw it last night. Hint: Make sure you’re not sitting in front of a row of five-year-olds when you pick your seats.
But, day-um – is there anything cuter than a baby penguin?
Yipes…I’ve been so busy playing the Movie Game that I forgot to chime in after seeing the film last weekend. I thought it was great. They are fascinating critters. I can only imagine what the film crew endured to get the footage.
I left with tons of questions about penguin behavior though. Not that I expected the film to be the last word on the subject or anything. For example,
while the males were pulling their first solo duty, there were many individuals waddling around with no eggs on their feet. Were they prevented from returning to the sea because of the harsh weather? Are there always a few individuals who feel compelled to stick it out with the rest of the would-be fathers, even if they’ve lost their egg, instead of returning to the sea and eating? Are there ever any cases of adoption of abandoned chicks by adults who have lost their egg/chick?
Ah well, more google fodder.
Yeah, my friend and I left with a slew of questions also.
For instance: Are these all the Emperor Penguins, or are they just one tribe, with another crowd doing the same thing elsewhere?
(Yes, the flick was more fun and informative than I’d expected a nature documentary to be. Two thumbs up!) As I recall from the film:[spoiler]To survive storms, all the adults in the flock had to huddle together, taking turns in the center. A solitary penguin “has no chance”, I think it said. An unpaired male can try again next year, if he survives.
I was wondering why the penguins mate so far from shore, until the springtime scene when the ice shelf breaks away. There still has to be a better way - and the species that abandoned Antarctica before it drifted so far south sure seem smarter.
I used to think seals were cute. Not after looking at those teeth, though.
It’s hard to avoid anthropomorphizing emotions when you see the couples rubbing necks etc. before doin’ the nasty (which Jacquet spared us).
Speaking of Jacquet, I understand he still has no feelings in his fingertips after a nasty round of frostbite. But art knows no pain.[/spoiler]
twickster, I’d have to say that having every last member of your species converge on the same point every year is an extraordinarily bad survival technique. I also seem to remember hearing the word “tribe” at several points during the movie, so I’m convinced there are other groups of penguins out there.
I saw the movie a couple weeks ago. Excellent work. Beautiful images. Great drama.
I wondered the same thing twickster.
Some good facts here.
He claims there are 150000 breeding pairs of emperor penguins and also says,
So, we got footage of one of the colonies. I suspect there were maybe 500-1000 pairs in that colony. Just a WAG though. Some, presumably walk more or less than these.
I wonder if sometimes they miscalculate and have the metling ice encroach upon them, perhaps creating the tragedy of losing an entire “crop” of chicks.
Yeah, that’s what I thought – the narration was a bit short of facts, though, which was my main beef with the movie. (That, and their using the term “disappear” to refer to the death of some old penguins who, well, died during the winter. I had to listen to quite a discussion amongst the five-year-olds on the meaning of “disappeared,” which I thought was a singularly ill-chosen euphemism.)
I’m expecting to spend some time googling tonight!
Oooh, nice site, trunk! I look forward to reading it when my boss isn’t walking by every five minutes… 
Those things are about 4 feet tall. Hold your arm out at 4 feet. That’s a HUGE freakin’ bird.
I also found no way (personally) to distinguish males from females, in markings or size. I imagine this kind of thing plays out quite often. . .
*Penguin A: Cooo, penguin.
Penguin B: Cooo, right back atcha.
A: Cooo. Purr.
B: Cooo. Cooo. Cooo.
*
[A attempts to mount B]
*
B: YO! What the HELL are you doing?
A: Oh, dude. . .sorry. I thought you were a girl penguin. You know, same size and all.
B: Shit man, that’s just wrong. Penguin tryin’ to mount my ass. Shit.
A: Well, I’ll see ya around. . .uh. . .you sure you’re not into it?
B: Get your cold-ass ass out of here!
A: Hah! Gotcha. Just kidding.
*
[A attempts to mount B again]
Just saw it today. Wow! I loved the penguin cat fights. You’d think they would put that guin-fu to work when that raptor showed up. They were bigger than it and outnumbered it.
I want a stuffed baby penguin!
A doll, geez. Don’t look at me like that.
Saw it this afternoon with littlecats. Outstanding photography-a wonderful film. They’re really 4 feet tall? That’s one big ass bird!