Exploring the Reef

Plot

Cousteau is narrating about the ocean. As he starts talking about coral reefs, Dory starts bothering him by entering the frame. The scene then cuts to an anemone that Nemo and Marlin come out of and Cousteau sighs for not being able to do his documentary. The scene cuts to real cuttlefishes, which Dory tries to speak to. When Cousteau tells Dory to stop it, 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 Cousteau so much that he yells "Stop!" and proceeds to make a quick rant about the water cycle, concluding that "Everyone, everywhere, affects the ocean!". Dory expresses amazement and at first, Cousteau is satisfied, but when it is revealed that she was listening to the echo inside a conch shell, Cousteau loses his temper and starts ranting in French. For a few seconds, a cartoon still image of Cousteau in a swimming suit appears while Musak-style music plays, on a title card which reads "Please Stand By."

When Cousteau comes back, he has calmed down and talks with the three fish about coral that have suffered from coral bleaching, while the whitened coral appears on screen. The next topic is coral reproduction. Dory frantically swims to each new egg to say "Happy Birthday", Marlin paternally covers Nemo's eyes and Cousteau talks about how there are so many eggs, that even the hungriest fish cannot possibly eat all of them. He concludes by talking about how we must all work to preserve the beauty of the coral reef. Suddenly, Nemo and the other two fish interrupt him, inadvertently summarizing the message of the entire film during their arguing. Jean-Michel gets mad again and the camera cuts to him aboard his boat at night. Humiliated that he has been up-staged by fish, Cousteau mutters that "this would have never happened to Papa." Before the credits, Nemo tells the viewer about Jean-Michel Cousteau's website: oceanfutures.org.

Cast