40% Penguins, 60% Work

[nfotxn]

`Tis the season to spend and the work at Local Unionized Grocery Franchise of a Larger National Company has been brisk. In fact so uniform and brisk that there hasn't been much action. Nobody stealing stuff, using counterfeits or coming in drunk and abusing our cashiers. Could this be holiday cheer? Probably not just yet. Although I am wondering why I crave the harmless drama we regularly have.

I saw March of the Penguins which had some of the best footage of penguins and the Antarctic I've ever seen. But I am wondering who the fuck wrote the narrator Morgan Freeman's dialogue? It goes a little something like this:

panning across frozen beautiful wasteland towards marching penguins. Majestic string pad swells... majestically

"These penguins have always been penguins. And they are likely to be so for a long, long time."

"It's cold. Colder than before for these penguins. But it's likely to get even colder."

Come on! Give me some meat, what percentage of penguins die? Do they eat the dead ones? What about gay penguins?

What happened National Geographic? You used to be cool. Still a recommended watch despite the narration being entirely useless.

Comments

[werecub.livejournal.com]

Apparently, it was a french documentary that was re-narrated in English.

In the french version they had people doing voices FOR the penguins.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

That makes sense that the French would turn a documentary about Penguin matting into a a romantic drama. And frankly I think that would have been more interesting.

[dakoopst.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, I didn't hear much of the dialogue due to the loudmouth queens sitting around me.

Seems like I didn't miss much.

[satarnion.livejournal.com]

God the dialogue in that movie grossed me out too. Afterwards we talked about how you have to anthropomorphize nature to make it appealing to families. I'm guessing it was a compromise they made to get people to go and see a nature film, but one I don't think they really had to make given the amazingness of the footage.

Don't knock it

[pxtl.livejournal.com]

US Film and TV media have a long standing tradition of publicising wonderful, fantastic footage but having no idea what to say with it.

Examples: America's Funniest Home Videos (with the comedic stylings of Bob Saget), Blade Runner (with Harrison Ford's narration) and Takeshi's Castle (with the two biggest douchebags I've ever seen).