| Director | Alastair Fothergill, Jeff Wilson |
|---|---|
| Genre | documentary film |
| Runtime | 76 min |
| Country | United States |
| Box office | $7.7 million |
In Antarctica, Steve, an Adelie Penguin, is preparing to start a family. He tries all day to impress a mate, but fails. As he is ready to give up, he meets Adeline, a female who has not yet found a mate. Together, they start to love each other.
Sometime later, Adeline has two eggs. Steve goes off with the other males to look for fish, while Adeline huddles in her eggs in a rock nest. Later, as the other males head back to the colony, Steve, who did not realize he was the only one left, is still looking for fish. He is chased out by a killer whale, and luckily he escapes. As he makes his way back, a blizzard covers the colony, including Adeline and the eggs, but they, along with Steve, who was still in the cold, survive, and Steve and Adeline reunite. As time passes, the eggs hatch into chicks, and Steve is excited by his new children. As the chicks grow, they are threatened by skuas, who are out searching for food to feed their chicks, Steve comes to the rescue, and the skuas retreat.
As the months go by, the chicks grow into young adults, and as summer ends, the penguins return to the waters for the rest of the year. During the trip across the new ice pack, the family is soon hunted by a Leopard Seal. One of the chicks plays a trick on the predator by playing dead. The seal departs and the family reach the ocean and go their separate ways. The chicks start a new life with the others, Adeline bids farewell to Steve till the next year, and Steve takes a walk in the Antarctic beach, congratulating himself for his first year of being a father.
A year later, Steve and Adeline reunite on a rocky hill, before waddling down to the nesting grounds to start their new family.