For the Love of Penguins

A great penguin movie featuring real penguins is called Mr. Popper’s Penguins starring Jim Carrey. The movie is based on a children’s book by the same name. It is about a divorced businessman who inherits six penguins and winds up turning his New York City apartment into a winter wonderland for the penguins. This movie used real Gentoo Penguins and was filmed on a refrigerated soundstage. Gentoo penguins have a wide white stripe stretching like a bonnet across the top of their heads. When they reach adulthood these penguins stand at a height of 51 to 90 cm (20 to 36 in) which makes them the largest penguins outside of the two giant species: The Emperor Penguin and the King Penguin. One of the reasons I especially want to see this film is because one of my all-time favorite actresses is in the cast, Angela Lansbury, in the role of Mrs. Van Gundy. I also enjoy the antics of Jim Carrey who was super in the film The Mask.

March of the Penguins is a French documentary released in 2005 that follows an Emperor Penguin colony during their annual inland migration in Antarctica. In the autumn, the penguins of breeding age (five years old and older) leave the ocean to walk inland to their ancestral breeding grounds. There, the penguins participate in a courtship that hopefully results in the hatching of a chick. It took two cinematographers, Laurent Chalet and Jerome Maison, one year to shoot this film. It won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Farce of the Penguins is a parody of the above-mentioned film. It was written and directed by the actor Bob Saget who could be seen on Full House and America’s Funniest Home Videos. The film also features R-rated commentary on some live-action footage of penguins. It is the story of a group of male penguins making a 70-mile trek to their breeding grounds. The two main penguins are called Carl and Jimmy who talk about relationships and other things while making the trek and they meet new characters on the way. Meanwhile, the female penguins who are waiting for them, Melissa and Vicky, argue about men and other women who bother them.

Happy Feet is a 2006 American-Australiancomputer-animated film featuring the voices of some talented actors and actresses such as Robin Williams and Nicole Kidman. This movie won the Oscar for the Best Animated Feature Film of the Year. In this movie, every penguin sings a unique song to attract a mate, and if accepted, the mate responds with another song of their own.

Surf’s Up, which was released in the summer of 2007, is an American computer-animated movie featuring surfing penguins. The movie is about a 17-year-old Rockhopper Penguin called Cody Maverick who, after meeting surf legend Zeke “Big Z” Topanga, decides that he wants to become a famous and respected surfer himself.

Madagascar: This was an animated film produced by DreamWorks Animation about four Central Park Zoo animals. However, in the film, there is a scene with four sneaky adorable penguins. The penguins, having found that Antarctica is not for them, ultimately land their boat on Madagascar where they meet up with the film's main characters.

The Pebble and the Penguin is directed by the legendary animator Don Bluth who was the genius behind such films as An American Tail and The Land Before Time. This is an animated musical film released in 1995. It is based on the true-life mating rituals of the Adelie Penguins in Antarctica. These penguins are common along the entire Antarctic coast. The French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville named them for his wife, Adelie, in 1840. The film features the voices of Martin Short, Jim Belushi, Tim Curry, and Annie Golden.

Wallace and Gromit in The Wrong Trousers is the second adventure of Wallace and Gromit. The story in the film revolves around a plot that was cooked up by a mysterious penguin. This animated film was released in 1993.

Cry of the Penguins, a British film released in 1971, was originally called Mr. Forbush and the Penguins. It starred John Hurt and Hayley Mills about a womanizing biologist who studies life in a colony of penguins.

Batman Returns... if anyone has seen this movie, it is unforgettable with Danny De Vito as Batman’s archenemy the Penguin and all those many adorable penguins. While filming this movie, the penguins involved had a refrigerated trailer, their own swimming pool, half-a-ton of ice each day, and of course, all the fresh fish they could eat.

My memories take me back to the 1960s and the film I enjoyed most of all: Mary Poppins with that wonderful scene where Dick Van Dyke danced with some animated penguins.

One way or another, penguins are quite interesting animals—and the real ones are not half-bad actors.