With a bit more action and humor than "Winged Migration," "March of the Penguins" is set in majestic Antarctica, where we are dropped into a world that many of us are curious about but few ever know from personal experience. In winter, temperatures drop to 80 degrees below zero, before factoring in winds up to 100 mph.

The Emperor penguin is technically a bird who can’t fly but can plunge to 1700 feet in the icy water and hold its breath for up to 15 minutes before resurfacing. This love story about nature entertains and informs, with minimal overtones concerning man’s abuse of natural resources. We follow the life cycle of these impressive though amusing looking penguins as they use teamwork to protect themselves against the brutal elements, search for a mate, court, make love and care for their young in ways that many humans could learn from.

"March of the Penguins" is presented by Warner Independent Films and National Geographic, hence the astonishing photography. We are drawn into this magical world of images and sound with the story "as told by Morgan Freeman," we are informed as the film opens. Personally, we were enchanted by Freeman’s voice and felt his narration lent a folk tale quality.

The fact that the Emperor penguins find a way to survive and prosper under these harsh conditions is a wonder of nature. Once the mother incubates the egg for the newborn for a certain period, she carefully passes it to the father, who takes over the nurturer, caregiver role, as she then returns to the sea to find food. It’s almost four months before she returns from her 140-mile round-trip journey with nourishment for her newly born chick, which she has never seen. Yes, the chick hatched while the male had the egg nestled beneath his body. Now begins the slow, awkward relay for life the parents perform for survival, returning alternately to the sea to feed and bring food for their young.

When the chicks finally swim for the first time, they are now young adults who must fend for themselves without the aid of their parents, who have now gone out to sea. The young will remain at sea for four years. In their fifth year they will begin their own long trek to their place of birth. And so the cycle continues.

At times this icy plane appears to be a desolate wasteland, yet is clearly an oasis of much of what represents the best of life, whether human kind or otherwise.

This is a must see movie-going experience for the entire family.