Thursday, October 25, 2012

The Penguin King – review

The South Georgia penguins in this Attenborough-narrated doc might take issue with being Disneyfied

David Attenborough narrates this family feature documentary in 3D about the life of a King Penguin on the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. There are some nice images of the teeming penguin population, and great fun to be had witnessing the love life, and indeed sex life, of penguins. It does have to be said, though, there is a fair bit of Disneyfication going on. A blaring orchestral soundtrack keeps telling us what to feel and how to react, and a Hollywood-style narrative has clearly been created in the edit. The closing credits announce that the "penguin" in the story is, in fact, a composite of a number of different penguins – well, they do look rather alike – and a "story writer" and a separate person responsible for "original story" are listed at the end. Hmm. The penguins themselves may wish to retain lawyers and agents, and dispute these authorial claims.

Rating: 3/5


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/oct/25/penguin-king-review

a a team Aaliyah Aaron Katz

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