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Review of March of the Penguins (Alex Wurman)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you prefer your penguin music to be intimate, and your Antarctic music to be minimalistically desolate.

Avoid it... if you expect to hear the epic sounds of George Fenton or John Barry representing the grand scope of Antarctica's vistas.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

March of the Penguins: (Alex Wurman) Not the first and probably not the last documentary made about the yearly cycle of life for a penguin, French filmmaker Luc Jacquet's March of the Penguins was originally released in his own country with a quirky electronic score by Emilie Simon. Picked up for a major theatrical release in the United Stated, it features the narration of Morgan Freeman and a new score by Media Ventures product Alex Wurman. With word of mouth publicity that eventually spilled over into major network news, March of the Penguins became the second-highest grossing documentary of all time in America and was still raking in theatrical profits six months after its release. While the quality of the film is very strong, humanity's fascination with the cute and cuddly penguins persists (even when we see some of those old National Geographic shows when hundreds of them slide down giant ice mountains over cliffs... sometimes to their deaths, and people still seem to love it). As lovable as any IMAX style nature documentary, March of the Penguins is well executed on every level and truly merits its financial reward. After the monumental success of some of the television and feature film documentaries relating to other water creatures in recent years, it's hard not to become attached to George Fenton's massively orchestral approach for the Blue Planet stories. Quite to the contrary, Alex Wurman tackled March of the Penguins with a far more intimate touch in mind. Rather than scoring the vistas in the usual IMAX fashion of flowing orchestral beauty, Wurman interprets the desolate realities of Antarctic weather rather than the perspective of that scenery from the warmth of a theatre seat. He splits his attention between this and the intimate and cute portrayals of the penguins themselves, with a rhythmic movement that mirrors that of those penguins.

Therein exists the extent of the "marching" heard in the score. Not bombastic processions, but rather one bubbly, simple rhythm for light percussion after another. The instrumentation is limited to moderate string and woodwind sections, accompanied most notably by piano and a few solo woodwinds and electronic, ambient sound design. A very soothing score, Wurman's March of the Penguins is not demanding at any point, with flute and piccolo flutterings over calming strings and gentle piano. Several melodic ideas are woven into very subtle styles influenced by several world cultures (the flute is good at carrying over sounds from many exotic locales) due likely to the lack of the penguins identity with any one human culture, as well as the fact that Antarctica is divided into many territories controlled by countries around the world. Percussively quirky rhythms hail some of Thomas Newman's more lighthearted works, and the minimalist styles on piano are a nod to Mychael Danna. The highlight of the album is "The March," which features a boundless optimism in its rhythmic sounds and use of polar ends of the orchestral spectrum. In the end, though, there is a nagging problem that pulls at March of the Penguins, and that is the programming that listeners will have to detune when watching this film. There are moments when the scenery screams out for some John Barry treatment; something close to Fenton or Alan Williams' work in the area that would go well with the taste of the popcorn in the theatre. The lack of epic proportions in the orchestral presence, even for only a few vistas throughout the film, is an issue that doesn't seem to bother many professional listeners of this Wurman music. But if the smaller scale music of Wurman cannot sustain the warmth of the animals, nor represent the grand scope of the location (despite its desolation), then the score for March of the Penguins could conceivably fail. A good balance between the epic sounds that documentaries of this size inevitably demand and the effective personal nature of Wurman's music for the penguins themselves was a worthy possibility to investigate.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 41:31

• 1. The Harshest Place on Earth (3:56) • 2. Walk Not Alone (0:41) • 3. The March (5:22) • 4. Found Love (3:59) • 5. The Egg Arrives (2:27) • 6. The Mothers' Second Journey (2:01)

• 7. Arrival at the Sea (3:12) • 8. Walk Through Darkness (6:19) • 9. First Steps (3:19) • 10. The Dangers Remain (3:15) • 11. Reunited (2:17) • 12. Going Home for the First Time (4:43)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes a list of performers and a note from Wurman about the score.

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