March of the Penguins

March of the Penguins. Produced by Warner.

Plot: The movie follows an extraordinary event in Antarctica. Every March, emperor penguins leave the comfort and safety of the ocean and slowly move across land. They travel to their breeding grounds, where they mate. While the females return to water to recover from the egg-producing process, the males wait on land for the entire winter. When warmer weather finally returns, the females arrive to feed and tend the newly-hatched chicks. Both the parents care for the young bird until it is finally ready to live on its own.

Genre: Documentary, Animals

Reading Level: Rated G. However, there are some "Bambi's mom"-esque moments, so be prepared.

Similar Titles: Winged Migration

Personal Thoughts: A rare, commercially successful full-screen documentary. The popularity is not difficult to understand. With beautiful photography, narration by Morgan Freeman, and classical music,  the film manages to capture the audience in the life and death struggles of an otherwise comical bird.

The film won several awards, including an Academy Award, Cesar Award, and Southeaster Film Critics Association Award.

Meerkat Manor

Meerkat Manor. Produced by Animal Planet.

Plot: A part documentary, part soap opera, the series follows the daily life of several meerkats in the Whiskers group. Several other groups, such as Commandos and Vivian, regularly come in contact with the Whiskers, often with violent results. Yet, drama also occurs within the group itself. Flower, the original dominant female, shamelessly uses aggression to ward off all up-and-coming meerkats, including her own daughters. Likewise, Zephod, Flower's main mate, must constantly battle to maintain his position within the group. Additionally, all the meerkats must defend themselves against hunger, whether, and predators. Eventually, Flower is replaced by her daughter, Rocket Dog, as the dominant female. Yet, the drama of the desert-dwelling meerkats continues.

Genre: Documentary, Documentary Series, Animals

Reading Level: Not rated, but predation and infantcide does occur, so younger viewers may need to be cautioned.

Similar Titles: Nature, March of the Penguins

Personal Thoughts: After viewing a few episodes, the popularity of the show does not surprise me. The series balances drama, characterization, and biology nicely. However, some of the terms seem to anthropomorphize a bit too much. For those unfamiliar with the term, "anthropomorphizing" means to give an inhuman object (such as an animal) human-like qualities. While many shows utilize this to attract the audience, it seems like a stark contrast to the book that the series spawned.

Newbury Books

Well, this concludes our week of Newbury books.

Next week's theme is somewhat more complicated. Usually, a book series inspires the creation of a documentary or a series of documentaries. Recently, documentary series began producing the creation of books. We will look at the series and the books they inspire next week.

Property of Olaf Leillinger
Taken from Wikimedia Commons