Exploring the Reef with Jean-Michel Cousteau

Mr. Jean-Michel Cousteau, Jacques Cousteau's son, is narrating about the ocean. As he starts talking about coral reefs, the regal blue tang fish, Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), starts bothering him by entering the frame. The scene then cuts to an anemone that two clownfishes, Nemo (Alexander Gould) and his father, Marlin (Albert Brooks), come out of and Mr. Cousteau sighs for not being able to do his documentary. The scene cuts to real cuttlefishes, which Dory tries to speak to. When Mr. 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 Mr. 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, Mr. Cousteau is satisfied, but when it is revealed that she was listening to the echo inside a conch shell, Mr. Cousteau loses his temper and starts ranting in French causing Dory to drop her conch, but she catches it. For about 6 seconds, a cartoon still image of Mr. Cousteau shrugging in a swimming suit appears while Musak-style music 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 that have suffered from coral bleaching, 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 coral reef. Suddenly, Nemo and the other two fish interrupt him, inadvertently summarizing the message of the entire film during their talking. Suddenly still, Mr. Cousteau gets mad again and the camera cuts to him aboard his boat by night. Humiliated that he has been "Upstaged by fish", Cousteau mutters that "This would have never happened to Papa." In a before-credits scene, Nemo tells the viewer about Jean-Michel Cousteau's website: oceanfutures.org.[2]

• Jean-Michel Cousteau as Himself
• Albert Brooks as Marlin (voice)
• Ellen DeGeneres as Dory (voice)
• Alexander Gould as Nemo (voice)

• Exploring the Reef with Jean-Michel Cousteau at IMDb
• Finding Nemo DVD page at Disney.com
• Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Future Society page on the film
• Mooviees page