BootsnAll Travel Community

I've just seen "The March of the Penguins". It's absolutely brilliant in its simplicity.

Mature Emperor Penguins waddle over 70 miles to their breeding grounds on the utterly infertile and hostile cold wastes of Antartica, couple up, make an egg, and then slowly starve to death together for 5 months until the egg is hatched. Then the male takes the egg, keeps it warm, and the female penquins march BACK 70 miles to keep from starving to death. Eventually, the females come back take back the hatched penquin, and the males then march to the sea so THEY don't starve to death. They come back around the time the Females are nearly starving. For a total of 9 months the Emperor Penquin is always freezing, either starving and watching offspring, waddling over miles of ice, or gobbling fish frantically in preparation for feeding the offspring.

Then, when the water reaches the edge of the breeding ground, and the little ones are all fed up, the Mature Penguins plop into the water for three months of frenzied eating in preparation for the next starvation period. The litle ones plop into the water for five years of eating fish, at which time they get the thankless job of reproducing for the rest of their natural life. They probably never do see their parents again.

I really do hope they enjoy their life. I know that watching this epic just makes me wonder what's so brave about going about with a few thousand dollars in ones pocket and following guidebooks in search of tame adventures. In fact, it makes me wonder what's so brave about going around places where one can always get a meal, one way or another, and there's always another bus to catch.

I also got to see two hours of gorgeous Antartic landscapes, the southern Lights, all populated by oddly beautiful and strangely missplaced birds on a large movie screen. I kept on wishing I was a member of the film crew for that one.

Its a great film, and it gives one a lot to think about when applied to our own lives. See the movie.

Excellent movie. Everyone in my office has been going to see it since I've been recommending it.

Plus, there's nothing funnier than one of these penguins slips on the ice and falls. 100 million years of evolution and they can't walk on the ice any better than I can.