''Exploring the Reef with Jean-Michel Cousteau'' (also simply referred to as ''Exploring the Reef'') is a live-action/animated short documentary film included on the fullscreen version of disc 2 of the ''

Finding Nemo ''Finding Nemo'' is a 2003 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, co-directed by Lee Unkrich, and produced by Graham Walters, from ...

'' 2-Disc Collector's Edition

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

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

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 ca ...

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

Albert Brooks Albert Brooks (born Albert Lawrence Einstein; July 22, 1947) is an American actor, director and screenwriter. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1987 comedy-drama film '' Broadcast News' ...

), Dory (

Ellen DeGeneres Ellen Lee DeGeneres ( ; born January 26, 1958) is an American former comedian, actress, television host, writer, and producer. She began her career in stand-up comedy in the early 1980s, gaining national attention with a 1986 appearance on '' ...

) and Nemo ( Alexander Gould) keep interrupting him.

Plot

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 open-circuit self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA), called the ...

's son, is narrating about

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...

s. While he is talking, 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 regions except Australia, New Zealand, and ...

that the two

clownfish Clownfishes or anemonefishes (genus ''Amphiprion'') are saltwater fishes found in the warm and tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific. They inhabit mainly coral reefs and have a distinctive colouration typically consisting of white vertical bars on ...

es, Nemo 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 (ocean), marine Mollusca, molluscs of the order (biology), suborder Sepiina. They belong to the class (biology), class Cephalopoda which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique ...

es, which Dory tries to speak to. When Mr. Cousteau tells Dory to stop, the scene cuts to a live Spanish dancer. This makes Marlin think of dancing and soon 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 (or hydrologic cycle or hydrological cycle) is a biogeochemical cycle that involves the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth across different reservoirs. The mass of water on Earth remains fai ...

, concluding that "Everyone, everywhere, affects the ocean!". Dory expresses amazement and at first, Mr. Cousteau is satisfied, but when it is revealed that she was hearing 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 (mollusc), spire and a noticeable siphonal canal (in other words, the shell comes to a noticeable point on both ...

shell, Mr. Cousteau loses his temper and starts yelling at Dory to stop disturbing him in French, causing Dory to drop her conch, but she catches it. For about six seconds, a

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...

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

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

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 colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

that have suffered from

coral bleaching Coral bleaching is the process when corals become white due to loss of Symbiosis, symbiotic algae and Photosynthesis, photosynthetic pigments. This loss of pigment can be caused by various stressors, such as changes in water temperature, light, ...

, 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 and the other two fish interrupt him again, inadvertently summarizing the message of the entire film during their talk. After they're done talking, Mr. Cousteau gets mad 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, Nemo tells the viewers about Mr. Cousteau's website: ''oceanfutures.org''.

Cast

— Himself * Voice of Marlin —

* Voice of

Dory Dory most commonly refers to: * Dory (boat), a small, shallow-draft boat * Dory, the common name of several fish; see List of fishes known as dory * Dory (''Finding Nemo''), a fictional character Dory may also refer to: Arts and entertainmen ...

—

* Voice of Nemo — Alexander Gould

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 2003 animated short films English-language documentary films English-language short films Films produced by Osnat Shurer