March Of The Penguins

That was seriously a brutal film to watch. From the beginning of the movie, they were attempting to personify these animals because thinking of them as people with people feelings allows us humans to sympathize with them a lot easier, so it's easy for me to say this. I know it's nature and evrything, but I was less uplifted by the beautiful natural world of the antarctic and more horrified by all the death, killing, and backstabbing going on. Some of those chicks were stealing babies, sea lions and large birds were circle of life-ing all over the place and the mothers leave to find food, come back home with a throat-full, and one of the idiot dads is like "Sorry, I kilt ares!" as she looks over at the penguin icicle that used to be her baby. All unfun stuff. Everybody knows baby animals are the cutest kind of animals, and I've seen one dead baby animal too many. All in this one movie.

And that sex scene? How weird. It was like watching a porno, except they sort of wanted us to like it and think it was sensual and sweet. Like they were super connected on this deep emotional level. Like I was watching Zak and Miri Make A Porno. That's how it came off to me. But these are animals people. Doesn't that convey bestiality in some way? Probably not but whatever.

When it comes to production, that was a hard shoot. It deserves the Oscar for the shoot alone. It was beautifully shot and I can't imagine doing something like this myself. Th foley was perfect and really added to the enjoyment of the film. That's an underrated skill on nature docs like these. People always underestimate sound. It, like editing, is something you take for granted when it's there, but notice right away when it's done badly.

On another note, I find it strange that God does so much voice over work when he has such a thick, at times distracting, Mississippi accent. It's super there all the time.