Parent reviews for March of the Penguins

I am baffled by the reviewers who this this movie is appropriate for 5 year olds. We had to turn it off and both my kids were crying hysterically after they showed a pile of dead baby penguins. I don't know how I'm going to get my kids to bed tonight. My oldest is almost 10 and she's too upset to go to bed.

Great movie to watch with an old 4 and 6 year old.

My four year old loved this movie. My two year old didn't care much. It was long for her and she doesn't particularly like animals. Neither noticed the mating and the death isn't very scary or obvious. We talked about it and have no problem discussing the basic life cycle of animals. It was short enough to be a passing moment and quick conversation. I would show this to my children again before most animated children's movies I've seen. We spent a lot of time talking about how the parents were caring for their babies and it is nice to have that be about how the daddies are involved.

I took my six year old to see MotP in the theaters when it first came out. We were the only family with children there, the rest of the patrons were all retirees. It was fairly brutal for the kids. It is very, very long with long slow scenes of penguins walking across the ice. Dramatic, maybe, but definitely a trial for the younger kids. Also, the best part for most of the other movie goers that day was when my six year old saw the mating scene and asked loudly "Mom, what are those penguins doing?" and every pair of eyes in the theater turned to see how I'd handle it! (Which was, of course, directly and matter-of-factly!) At the time, the film was touted as great for kids and a good family film. There was nothing terrible or terribly offensive, it was just too long, overdramatic, and a little depressing. When the penguin, after about an hour of build-up, drops his egg leading to its instant demise, my eight year old sighed and said "Kinda wish I got dropped on my head on the ice about now." Again, not a bad film, but for the kids, better to watch a 30 minute National Geographic special instead.

I tend to like a good documentary. However, this film nearly bored me to sleep. While it has plenty of educational value, I have yet to meet a person who actually LIKED the film, much less wanted to buy it. Some of the shots were fantastic, but it dragged on endlessly and never managed to catch my interest. I would suggest you save yourself the time and watch a shorter documentary.

Amazingly shot and superbly narrated by Morgan Freeman. This is a great window into what happens in the real wild to what normally would be seen as otherwise adorable creatures that walk funny. It shows what life as a penguin is like without getting too graphic. There are, however, some emotional moments that you may want to make sure you touch base with your kids.

After hearing NPR's Terry Gross interview with the creators of the movie Earth opening on Earthday 2009, I thought back about my two boys reaction to the beautiful and inspiring "March of the Penguin". All three of us enjoyed it in 2005, but the attack and death scenes were quite upsetting to my then 6 year old who still loves penguins. As gorgeous as "March of the Penguin" and its gripping story, he has not asked to see it again. This coming from a precocious and sensitive child who has watched "Ratatouille" and "Finding Nemo" at least 12 times, including all of the special features in the DVDs!

Educational and entertaining for the whole family

the movie is so boring

boring the movie is very boring