''Exploring the Reef with

Jean-Michel Cousteau Jean-Michel Cousteau (born 6 May 1938) is a French oceanographic explorer, environmentalist, educator and film producer. The first son of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, he is the father of Fabien Cousteau and Céline Cousteau. Life and care ...

'' (also simply referred to as ''Exploring the Reef'') is a

live-action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...

CGI animated Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images m ...

short

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

included on the fullscreen version of disc 2 of the ''

Finding Nemo ''Finding Nemo'' is a 2003 American computer-animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Andrew Stanton with co-direction by Lee Unkrich, the screenplay was wr ...

'' 2-Disc

Collector's Edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, ...

DVD, which was released on November 4, 2003.Finding Nemo , Now On DVD & Movie Download , Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
It features

in a documentary film he is trying to make about coral reefs, but Nemo ( Alexander Gould), Marlin (

Albert Brooks Albert Brooks (born Albert Lawrence Einstein ; July 22, 1947) is an American actor and filmmaker. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for 1987's '' Broadcast News'' and was widely praised for his performance as a ...

), Dory (

Ellen DeGeneres Ellen Lee DeGeneres ( ; born January 26, 1958) is an American comedian, television host, actress, writer, and producer. She starred in the sitcom ''Ellen'' from 1994 to 1998, which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for " The Puppy Episode". Sh ...

) and the Tank Gang (

Willem Dafoe Willem James Dafoe (; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, in addition to receiving nominations for four Academy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, t ...

, Brad Garrett,

Stephen Root Stephen Root (born November 17, 1951) is an American actor. He has starred as Jimmy James on the television sitcom '' NewsRadio'', as Milton Waddams in the film ''Office Space'' (1999), and provided the voices of Bill Dauterive and Buck Strickl ...

Vicki Lewis Vicki Lewis (born March 17, 1960) is an American singer and actress of film, stage, and television. She is best known for her role as Beth in the NBC sitcom ''NewsRadio''. Personal life Lewis was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, the daugh ...

Austin Pendleton Austin Campbell Pendleton (born March 27, 1940) is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and instructor. He is known as a prolific character actor on the stage and screen who has appeared in films including '' Catch-22'' (1970); '' W ...

Allison Janney Allison Brooks Janney (born November 19, 1959) is an American actress. In a career spanning three decades, she is known for her performances across multiple genres of screen and stage. Janney has received various accolades, including an Academ ...

and Joe Ranft) keep interrupting him.

Plot

Mr.

Jacques Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful Aqua-Lung, open-circuit SCUBA ( self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). T ...

's son, is narrating about the ocean. As he starts talking about

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of Colony (biology), colonies of coral polyp (zoology), polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, wh ...

s, the regal blue tang fish, Dory (

), starts bothering him by entering the frame. The scene then cuts to an

anemone ''Anemone'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Plants of the genus are commonly called windflowers. They are native to the temperate and subtropical regions of all continents except Australia, New Zealand an ...

that two

clownfish Clownfish or anemonefish are fishes from the subfamily Amphiprioninae in the family Pomacentridae. Thirty species of clownfish are recognized: one in the genus '' Premnas'', while the remaining are in the genus '' Amphiprion''. In the wild, t ...

es, Nemo ( Alexander Gould) and his father, Marlin (

), come out of and Mr. Cousteau sighs for not being able to do his documentary. The scene cuts to real

cuttlefish Cuttlefish or cuttles are marine molluscs of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell, the cuttlebone, which is used for control of ...

es, which Dory tries to speak to. When Mr. Cousteau tells Dory to stop it, the scene cuts to a live Spanish dancer. This makes Gurgle, Bloat and Jacques think of dancing and soon the tank gang, and all three animated fish are dancing to some music. This infuriates Mr. Cousteau so much that he yells "Stop!" and proceeds to make a quick rant about the

water cycle The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle or the hydrological cycle, is a biogeochemical cycle that describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth. The mass of water on Earth remains fairly co ...

, concluding that "Everyone, everywhere, affects the ocean!". Deb and Bubbles expresse amazement and at first, Mr. Cousteau is satisfied, but when it is revealed that they were listening to the

echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

inside a

conch Conch () is a common name of a number of different medium-to-large-sized sea snails. Conch shells typically have a high spire and a noticeable siphonal canal (in other words, the shell comes to a noticeable point at both ends). In North Am ...

shell, Mr. Cousteau loses his temper and starts ranting in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

causing the two fish to drop her conch, but they catch it. For about 6 seconds, a

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of imag ...

still image of Mr. Cousteau shrugging in a swimming suit appears while Musak-style

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

plays on a title card which reads "Please Stand By". When Mr. Cousteau comes back, however, he has calmed down and talks with the three fish about

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...

that have suffered from

coral bleaching Coral bleaching is the process when corals become white due to various stressors, such as changes in temperature, light, or nutrients. Bleaching occurs when coral polyps expel the zooxanthellae ( dinoflagellates that are commonly referred to as ...

, while the whitened coral appears on screen. The next topic is coral reproduction. Dory frantically swims to every new egg to say "Happy Birthday", Marlin paternally covers Nemo's eyes and Mr. Cousteau talks about how there are so many eggs, that even the hungriest fish cannot possibly eat all of them. He concludes by talking all about how we must all work hard in order to preserve the beauty of the

. Suddenly, Nemo, Gill, Peach and the other fish interrupt him again, inadvertently summarizing the message of the entire film during their talk. After they're done talking, Mr. Cousteau gets really furious again and the camera cuts to him aboard his boat by night. Humiliated that he has been "Upstaged by fish", Mr. Cousteau mutters that "This would have never happened to Papa." In a before-credits scene, Peach tells the viewers about Mr. Cousteau's website: ''oceanfutures.org''.

Cast

* Jean-Michel Cousteau — Himself * Voice of Marlin —

* Voice of

Dory A dory is a small, shallow-draft boat, about long. It is usually a lightweight boat with high sides, a flat bottom and sharp bows. It is easy to build because of its simple lines. For centuries, the dory has been used as a traditional fishin ...

—

* Voice of Nemo — Alexander Gould * Voice of Gill —

* Voice of Peach —

* Voice of Bloat — Brad Garrett * Voice of Gurgle —

* Voice of Deb (& Flo) —

* Voice of Jacques — Joe Ranft * Voice of Bubbles —

References

External links

*
Finding Nemo DVD page at Disney.comJean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Future Society page on the filmMooviees page
{{Finding Nemo 2003 short films American films with live action and animation Disney documentary films Documentary films about marine biology Pixar short films Finding Nemo 2003 documentary films Coral reefs 2000s American animated films American documentary films 2000s English-language films American animated short films Animated films about fish