No ordinary documentary. Steve is the live penguin with personality voiced by the fun and funny Ed Helms. Sorry Morgan Freeman. He’s Red Carpet ready with his stylish black and white coat, but his purpose is made clear by Disneynature directors Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wyatt Wilson with sharp cinematography by Rolf Steinmann (Expedition China, Planet Earth II), that is absolutely amazing. It’s Steve’s first time trying to find his mate for life to start a family in frigid Antarctica.
They picked Steve out of the millions of Adélie (named for the wife of the explorer who found them) penguins migrating to mate. He stood out. He was the straggler. The little engine that could kept having to try harder to keep up on his first trip without his parents. Steve is 5 years old when we first see him scampering to a frantic, upbeat tune, breathlessly trying to catch up with the other males who are already well on their way. He’s trying so hard not to be left behind as he slips and slides over the frozen Antarctic landscape filled with the black and white penguins you see from various angles that stand out against the vast white landscape of frozen ice and snow.
Fothergill and Wyatt Wilson followed these creatures for 4 years and they take you up close and personal with this most entertaining and engaging waddler and the rest of the colony. They followed millions of males on their annual sojourn to makes nests and court females. Steve finds making a nest out of rocks and pebbles to attract his lady love an uphill battle. So is finding a mate. Most are already spoken for. This is Steve’s first time at this rodeo and with the clever script written by David Fowler (Growing Up Wild) and voiced by Helms, you laugh at his trials and tribulations. The way Steve’s quest for a partner is presented by the filmmakers, you really feel for this guy. There is no dating service and his buddies are no help.
You see how males and females attract each other and want to cheer when Steve finally meets the love of his life, Adélie, the adélie penguin and their courting is hilarious as REO Speedwagon’s song, “Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore,” swells in the background. Clever. But Steve’s work has only begun. Keeping his gal happy include trekking for food for them both as she, and he, take turns keeping their 2 eggs warm in the freezing polar surroundings. Hurricane winds don’t help, especially when it gets to be 112 below zero.
The use of contemporary music by Fothergill and Wyatt Wilson Average White Band, Patti LaBelle and Whitesnake used in the film effectively lightens the tone. Seeing Penguins swim is exhilarating. We first saw them do so in person in a zoo in Monaco jumping in and out of the water like they’re flying. They swim so fast. But be warned. Little ones might get alarmed as the filmmakers show predator birds going after their eggs, and follow Steve and other males to holes in the ice where killer whales, walruses and leopard seals target the little guys swimming while they’re all looking for food. It’s scary and tense, but ends up as more a chase. No violent images.
Seeing the babies hatch is fun, especially as Mom and Pop penguin take turns going miles for food and then regurgitate their eats from mouth to mouth so that the babies can chow down. It’s all part of parenthood but thank goodness you don’t have to do that for your own offspring. Then the males and females take off in different directions, with a good chance Steve may hook up with his Adélie again next year.
Stay through the credits to see the filmmakers interacting with the penguins as they shoot the remarkable scenes you have just seen with them working under the coldest, harshest conditions imaginable. It all looks so sharp and beautiful. And if you can see this film in IMAX, it will be even more impressive. Just watching penguins is entertaining enough. But you’ll also learn so much about them in this film. And Steve will melt your heart.
Disneynature 76 minutes G
