March of the Penguins

"La Marche de l'Empereur" redirects here. For the soundtrack, see La Marche de l'Empereur (soundtrack).

March of the Penguins
North American release poster
Directed byLuc Jacquet
Written by
Produced by
  • Yves Darondeau
  • Christophe Lioud
  • Emmanuel Priou
Narrated by
Cinematography
Edited bySabine Emiliani
Music by
Production
companies
Distributed byBuena Vista International France
Release dates
  • 21 January 2005 (2005-01-21) (Sundance)
  • 26 January 2005 (2005-01-26) (France)
Running time
86 minutes[1]
CountryFrance
LanguagesFrench
English (United States)
Budget$8 million[2]
Box office$127.4 million[3]

March of the Penguins (French La Marche de l'empereur ; French pronunciation: [lamaʁʃ dəlɑ̃ˈpʁœʁ]) is a 2005 French feature-length nature documentary directed and co-written by Luc Jacquet, and co-produced by Bonne Pioche[4] and the National Geographic Society. The documentary depicts the yearly journey of the emperor penguins of Antarctica. In autumn, all the penguins of breeding age (five years old and over) leave the ocean, which is their normal habitat, to walk inland to their ancestral breeding grounds. There, the penguins participate in a courtship that, if successful, results in the hatching of a chick. For the chick to survive, both parents must make multiple arduous journeys between the ocean and the breeding grounds over the ensuing months.

It took one year for the two isolated cinematographers Laurent Chalet and Jérôme Maison to shoot the documentary, which was shot around the French scientific base of Dumont d'Urville in Adélie Land.

March of the Penguins was released in France on 26 January 2005 by Buena Vista International France and in the United States by Warner Independent Pictures on 24 June 2005. The documentary won the 2006 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.[5] On 1 June 2010, a home video release in France included the movie in the Disneynature collection. A direct sequel titled March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step (aka March of the Penguins 2: The Call) was released in France in 2017 by Disneynature. It was released in the United States exclusively on Hulu on 23 March 2018. It is named as one of the most successful documentaries in North America and France.[6]

  1. ^ "MARCH OF THE PENGUINS (U)". British Board of Film Classification. 21 June 2005. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  2. ^ Eller, Claudia; Dawn C. Chmielewski (22 April 2008). "Disney gets back to nature". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
  3. ^ March of the Penguins at Box Office Mojo
  4. ^ "March of the Penguins". Turner Classic Movies. Atlanta: Turner Broadcasting System (Time Warner). Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  5. ^ "March of the Penguins". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2008. Archived from the original on 15 January 2008. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
  6. ^ "March of the Penguins". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 8 September 2008.