The Adventures of the Penguin King (now on video)

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Holy hoping-lightning-strikes-twice, Batman! Or...Penguin! Remember, it was just about ten years ago, wasn't it, when the Cleveland International Film Festival dropped me as a promo-writer. Yes, to commemorate the milestone you are all ordered to wear black, until I recover from the rejection, heartbreak and humiliation (and I never recover from rejection, heartbreak and humiliation, not really). But also on the subject of wearing black, it was about the same exact time that a sleeper-hit nature movie called MARCH OF THE PENGUINS came out

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, a National Geographic release, was actually a French documentary on the seasonal lifestyle of the emperor penguins of Antarctica, whose title translated more accurately as THE EMPERORS' MARCH. With new, poetic English-language narration by Morgan Freeman (I heard the original French narration was pretty bad, but then again, Hollywood would spread that kind of rumor), MARCH OF THE PENGUINS became a genuine must-see nature documentary, of a kind seldom patronized since BORN FREE. It even inspired (under comic Bob Saget) an adults-only, profane comedy redub of penguin footage entitled FARCE OF THE PENGUINS, and no higher tribute can be paid.