BLACK-AND-WHITE BIRDS BECOME COLORFUL DRAMA.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

IN THE CURRENT computer-animated romp ``Madagascar,'' a group of penguins who have escaped from a New York City zoo commandeer a freighter bound for Kenya so they can go home to Antarctica. Upon arrival, there's this wonderful shot of the birds standing in the middle of a blizzard, wondering what in the world they were thinking. They immediately pull up anchor and head to warmer climes.

You can't help but think about those birds while watching Luc Jacquet's epic, operatic animal movie, ``March of the Penguins.'' Aside from constantly wondering how Jacquet's team pulled off capturing a never- ending series of amazing shots, you're left with the constant, inescapable thought that it ain't easy being a penguin.

Start with the obvious: Antarctica, where on a good day, it's minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit. Not that the penguins really mind. They've adapted. But once they turn 5, they more or less give their lives over to continuing the species, which means 70-mile treks to breeding grounds, finding a mate, laying the egg, somehow keeping it warm against the brutal conditions, marching back to an ice break to get food, hiking back to the breeding grounds to feed the little ones, and fending off predators and the elements in the process.

It's an amazing journey, one that has been captured before on camera, but never with the depth or beauty that Jacquet manages here. Without turning the movie into a Disney-fied anthropomorphic cartoon, ``March'' shows the romantic rapture that exists - however briefly - between the penguins once they mate. Staring longingly, lovingly, into each other's eyes, these birds seem to know that this is as good as it's going to get for several months, so why not enjoy it while they can?

After this, ``March'' turns into a gripping survival story. Narrator Morgan Freeman outlines the hardships as we watch the males shelter the eggs under their potbellies (would that human men could find some equally productive use for their flab), protecting them against blinding snowstorms while the females head back to the water for food. Some eggs are exposed to the elements. Some females never make it back, dooming the chicks. The movie never shies away from painful realities.

But the focus is, of course, primarily on the success stories. Jacquet's gorgeous photography captures these strange creatures in a way that has to be seen to believed. It's just as good as ``Winged Migration,'' a soaring achievement, even if these particular birds never actually make it off the ground.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS - Three and one half stars

(G)

Director: Luc Jacquet.

Running time: 1 hr. 20 min.

Playing: ArcLight in Hollywood; Laemmle's Monica in Santa Monica.

In a nutshell: Epic, operatic animal movie; the ``Winged Migration'' for our flightless friends.

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Photo:

Luc Jacquet skillfully captures the lives of Emperor penguins in their brutal Antarctic habitat in his new film.