Monday, March 13, 2006

chilling at sea world


This weekend I saw March of the Penguins. Growing up with fun PBS channels (all 2 of them: 13 and 21 - Woo hoo! Go Marty Stauffer!!) and watching a lot of National Geographic, this was a great movie but I am surprised that it got so much hype. It's no less great a film than so many National Geographic films out there.

So are nature programs going to go main stream now that this was such a hit?

That may not be such a bad idea, considering all the work, especially the years of filming, watching, and studying/noticing patterns and making sense of what's really going on (especially in such harsh temperatures). This may be the perfect opportunity to get the public interested in actually learning something other than blowing up stuffing, learning how to be drama kings and queens, and finding new actors/actresses with lives to be nosy about (no offense).


Maybe this is the perfect opportunity for geologists/scientists to make it big and raise money for more research. Maybe this is the perfect opportunity to get kids out there interested in other fields. That would certainly help the country's declining number of smart people.

If you haven't seen this movie, you may want to see it first before reading the rest of this post.

Anyway, these poor penguins go for months without food in the freezing cold with the seasonal goal of walking 70 miles away to procreate. Many of them die and "fade away" from the harsh weather or starvation. So, with all these dead penguins lying on the ice, where do they "fade away" to? I'm thinking that they freeze and just get snowed over.

So if the ice caps were to melt, would these penguins "unfade" and litter the earth? Probably not - sea creatures would feast before it got to that point.

babypenguin

So, anyway, these penguins walk forever to reach the water to eat for the first time in 4-6 months and bring food back to their significant others and babies. Sometimes they don't make it. As they take turns doing this with their partners, I can't help but think, "Man, what a life."



Penguins at Sea World must be chilling!

Not only do they have nice weather, but they don't have to worry about being eaten while swimming, having their eggs/babies frozen, sending off their significant others to the corner store for food with the chance that they may not make it back, and having freezing sub-zero wind blowing on you ALL THE TIME!! The penguins at Sea World [most likely] get fed everyday, have an easier time taking care of their eggs/babies, enjoy the weather... If you tried to place that penguin back in its natural habitat, it would probably commit suicide.
marchofthepenguins9


Anyway, go see this movie! Penguins are SO CUTE! Look at them snuggle!!! SO NICE!

Bronx Zoo anybody?

This is my favorite movie about penguins now...more like the only movie I've ever seen about penguins. On an un-related note, my favorite movie about monekys is People of the Forest: The Chimps of Gombe. I LOVE that one!

SUCH A GOOD DOCUMENTARY!

Update: I have another question about the penguins. They showed a part of the movie where one accidentally killed their unborn child (the egg froze) and the penguin tried to steal another's egg but the other penguins wouldn't allow it and butted in (talk about morals). Do you think she tried to steal the egg because she was having separation issues or was it that she didn't want to get in trouble by the father? Afterall, the father went on a dangerous journey and all she had to do was stand there nursing the egg while starving.

chicago
Oh! And I also went to see Chicago! I loved the movie and the play, although had minor differences and went about some of the character/relationship development a little differently, was still excellent!!!

5 comments:

noel said...

i take offense!

i used to watch all those marty stauffer documentaries too. i'm trying to hum the theme to wild america, but somehow towards the end i always end up humming the jurassic park theme.

zoo trip! i'll probably take a NY trip sometime in early summer.

actually, i think this movie is relatively successful in the public, precisely because it centers around the drama kings (emperors) of the animal kingdom. their story (as you've noted) has elements of humanity, just with beaks and furriness instead. in general, i think documentaries which focus on the (anthropomorphizing) human elements of science will garner more mainstream popularity than those that focus more on the more abstract qualities.

noel said...

apparently, dr. friend dismisses me as "too smart for my own good"

Shaman8933 said...

I think they did mention an emperor, but I didn't really see any leader of the pack...when a new obstruction got in their normal path they just kinda doped around and didn't go anywhere until one got fed up and started going in a different direction and everyone followed....hmm, sounds like corporate america...

noel said...

march of the penguins tracked the migration of the emperor penguins in antarctica. citing emperors when referring to drama kings was a bad attempt at humor.

speaking on the madness of crowds, you should pick up the latest issue of harper's. i only grabbed it because there was the "impeach bus" cover story, but there was a really interesting story about the the flash mob:

noel said...

what you really want to ask is: are penguins evil? lol.

with the egg snatching, if you think that she went to steal it because she was afraid of the father's frozen retribution, then that necessarily attributes not only a sense of revenge in penguins, but also recognition of impending revenge. while that could be the case (i could believe it in dogs or dolphins, birds maybe), i think the seperation issues are more probable.

actually both suspected motivators for the egg snatching require an animal "ethics". depending on your perspective of animal souls, "tropisms" may be a better descriptor.

either that or she felt stupid.