It was originally scheduled to be released theatrically on April 20, 2018, in the United States under the title Dolphins with narration by Owen Wilson, but was confirmed to be taken off the theatrical calendar the week of release.[4] It was then announced that the film would be released at the launch of Disney+, making it the first Disneynature film to be released exclusively on the streaming platform in the United States, with Natalie Portman narrating,[5][2] but Disney+ launched without Dolphin Reef being available to watch.
The film was finally released alongside Elephant as a Disney+ exclusive on April 3, 2020.[1]Dolphin Reef received largely positive critical reviews.
Plot
In the reefs near a group of French Polynesian islands in the South Pacific, Echo is a young and playful bottlenose dolphin who isn't like the rest of his pod. He believes he's just not ready to grow up, but his mother, Kumu, tries teaching him to find his own food. Just as they depart for their coral reef home, Echo's favorite neighbour, Mr. Mantis, a peacock mantis shrimp, is being disrupted by other sea creatures of his pile of coral.
One night while the rest of the pod is asleep, Echo is surprised to be greeted by a female mother humpback whale named Mo'orea, who has traveled miles to Echo's homes to find a male partner to help protect her newborn daughter, Fluke (who doesn't seem sure about Echo at first, but eventually accepts him as a friend). Kumu soon calls out for her son, and Echo bids farewell to the two whales. Kumu then grounds Echo for hanging out with the whales miles away, much to Echo's dismay. Many male humpback whales are about to set off to fight over Mo'orea and Fluke, but the largest one is more determined.
Mr. Mantis, meanwhile, is having his own problems trying to get his coral together and trying to get his fellow gardeners to work, but to his surprise, a school of green humphead parrotfish comes to the rescue to clean out the coral, while Mr. Mantis and his neighbors are confronted by a cuttlefish, who strikes a small crab trying to invade Mr. Mantis' home. Meanwhile, a pod of killer whales arrive on the island looking for prey; for Fluke's safety, Mo'orea makes contact with the male humpbacks, and they all set off for their rescue, just as the killer whales are about to charge for Fluke. The large male fends off the invaders, and wins over Mo'orea and Fluke's hearts.
As night falls, Echo and his pod are confronted by another pod of rival dolphins. The home team and rivals fight each other, while Echo swims off and is lost. Kumu and the rest of the pod spend hours looking for him. Echo, who has become lost in the dark sea, meets a sea turtle, and the two escape up to the surface for air. Echo survives the night, and is reunited with Kumu. Kumu starts to teach her son how to hunt fish, she uses her tail to make a mud ring to block the fish. Echo successfully copies the same, and he and the rest of the pod enjoy their meal of fish. Back on Coral Reef, Mr. Mantis is confronted by the Cuttlefish. Before it can catch him with its mouth, Echo comes to the rescue.
Echo has now learned the importance of how to survive the ocean, thanks to his mother. Mo'orea and Fluke begin a new life with the large male, who fathers Fluke, and Mr. Mantis continues to enjoy his pile of coral. Soon, Echo and Fluke become best friends and live a happy life together with their families.
The whole idea of the film is actually based on very hard-nosed ecology. The coral reef can actually only functions with a lot of participants doing different roles in a very ordered and organized way ... If anyone who watches the film comes away thinking, 'if you live in the ocean, you need friends', that for us is a success story. Then, we hope that will translate into you can't just start overfishing certain species because the community will not survive if you kind of do that. So, there is a bigger message in the film.
Through the antics of Echo, the film asserts that children should listen to their parents.[7] Producer Roy Conli said that "it was clear that the way that a mother and young dolphin react is that the mother is truly the supervisor and is responsible, post weaning, to bring a male or female young dolphin to maturity".[7]
The film also promotes conservation of the reefs. Its "making-of" documentary, Diving with Dolphins, revealed that in the three years of production of the film, one-third of the reef used on location died.[8] Despite this, Scholey said: "If the young people can fall in love with the ocean and its creatures, the oceans have a hope. That's why I make these films. That's the goal".[6]
Development
The heroes of these films are the cinematographers who are out in the field.
Producer Roy Conli in an interview with Collider.[7]
Owen Wilson was slated to be the original narrator, before the job went to Natalie Portman.[9] Disneynature had invited her to a screening of one of their previous projects, back when Portman was living in Paris, and she brought her child along for the viewing.[7] At the event, she expressed a desire to voice one of their documentaries in the future.[7] In her 20s, she learned to scuba dive with dolphins (off the coast of Eilat, Israel, situated on the Red Sea) and was excited to join the cast.[10]Keith Scholey is the director, who also directed Disneynature's Bears,[11] and Roy Conli is its producer.[7]
It required research to find a dolphin pod that would allow humans to film.[6] The featured pod is in the Red Sea.[6]
Production
It took over three years to make the production.[8] The filming was done in French Polynesia, Hawaii, and Florida by cinematographers Roger Horrocks, Paul Atkins, Didier Noirot (who previously worked on Jacques Cousteau's crew) and Jamie McPherson.[8] Scientists on hand were Angela Ziltener, Laura Engelby and Joe Mobley.[8] The fact that dolphins are always in motion and can move very quickly presented a challenge during filming.[8] Horrok said that while dolphins are the "most welcome" animals he's ever filmed, he conceded that "filming dolphins is the most physical because they're constantly on the move".[8] Along that same vein, Conli said "that it's really difficult to stay up with one dolphin. There was one Echo, who was the guiding force, and then I like to say that Echo had a lot of stunt doubles".[7] For fast moving scenes, shots were captured on a scooter fitted with a torpedo-like propeller.[8] As it is impossible to follow a dolphin for an extended amount of time, cinematographers would film as long as they could, gathering thousands of hours of footage.[6] They would also film elements from the dolphins' environment. The editing team (led by Martin Elsbury)[12] then pieced together a narrative that, according to Scholey, is "true to the life of a dolphin".[6]
Photography not taken underwater was done by bot, from jet ski, or from helicopter.[8]
Portman recorded her narration in a studio in Los Angeles.[6] The directors provided notes on the behavior happening on screen to inform her narration.[6]
Release
The film was released in 2018 in France with the title Blue and with Cecile de France as its narrator.[9] Original trailers for the American release (under its formal title Dolphins) indicated a release date of Earth Day 2018.[13]
Diving With Dolphins is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Dolphin Reef.[8] The documentary shares a director in Keith Scholey, but is narrated by Celine Cousteau, the granddaughter of oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.[8]
Reception
Critical response
Review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes assigned the film a score of 100% based on 20 reviews,[14][note 1] while Metacritic assigned it a 79 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[15]Owen Gleiberman with Variety called the film "a puckish, bedazzling, and memorable entry in the Disney nature canon".[16]
Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter commented on the film's "gorgeous cinematography and canny editing typical of Disney nature docs as well as Portman's soothingly lighthearted, bedtime story-style narration that turns serious at just the right times".[17]Steve Pond with TheWrap called it "the Goodfellas of nature docs", saying "'Dolphin Reef' is a satisfying entry in the Disneynature slate, albeit one where the dolphins in the title are upstaged by some of their supporting cast, and the reef itself is even more spectacular than the creatures who get the most screen time".[9] In his review, Daniel Rutledge said the film was "the delightful, wondrous joy", adding that "Natalie Portman is ideal as the voiceover star", and "the photography is also consistently brilliant with the camera operators getting right up amongst the dolphins and whales and in amazingly tight on the little coral creatures".[18] Owen Gleiberman of Variety found that the film depicts a stunning vision on the ecosystem of marine life through its sequences, praised the film for its educational value, and found the movie emotional and authentic with its narrative.[19] Jennifer Green of Common Sense Media graded the film 4 out of 5 stars, acclaimed the film for its educational value, stating it provides the hallmarks, behaviors, and ecosystem of marine life, praised the depiction of positive messages, such as loyalty and teamwork, while complimenting how the film explains the roles of sea creatures.[20]
Music
Steven Price (of Gravity, Our Planet, and Suicide Squad) composed the film's original score.[citation needed] He said scoring the film was "fun" since the "flow of water is so musical" and Disneynature still "values tunes ... and emotional music".[21] He also noted that, historically, Disney has produced nature films as "family-based thing", but that this story focused on being ecologically sound, about "the interconnection of everything", and character driven.[22] He says this approach led him to approach writing in a different way.[22] Price led a 76-piece orchestra with a choir of 24 female voices at Abbey Road studio.[21][22] He also employed the use of synthesizers to capture the "colors" of the underwater story.[22]
Soundtrack
Disney made the soundtrack available for digital release on April 3, 2020.[citation needed] The following is a list of tracks on the commercially available original soundtrack.[23]
No.
Title
Length
1.
"A Different Set of Rules"
2:21
2.
"Flook"
3.
"The Clam Shell Challenge"
4.
"Introducing the Dolphins"
5.
"The Nightmare of Mr. Mantis"
6.
"The Coral Clean Up Squad"
7.
"Safety in Numbers"
8.
"When They Meet It Is Magical"
9.
"There Is Unexpected Treasure Here"
10.
"Fine Sand Evacuation"
11.
"Get Off My Lawn"
12.
"The Great Contest Has Begun"
13.
"The Cleaning Station"
14.
"Strongest of the Humpbacks"
15.
"Ambush"
16.
"Lionfish in the Moonlight"
17.
"The Largest Breath of Air"
18.
"The Largest Breath of Air"
19.
"High Speed Hydroplaning"
20.
"A Very Special Trick"
21.
"Times of Crisis"
22.
"Echo Fires Up Another"
23.
"The Pulsating Blob of Death"
24.
"A Great Example"
25.
"Out to Sea"
Footnotes
Notes
↑ With only 20 reviews as of July 25, 2020, the website does not consider the score a consensus.
1 2 Michael Hollands (December 8, 2019). A conversation with Steven Price(video). Sound-Of-The-Movies. Event occurs at 42:08. Retrieved May 4, 2020– via YouTube.
Moʻorea, also spelled Moorea, is a volcanic island in French Polynesia. It is one of the Windward Islands, a group that is part of the Society Islands, 17 kilometres (11 mi) northwest of Tahiti. The name comes from the Tahitian word Moʻoreʻa, meaning "yellow lizard": Moʻo = lizard ; Reʻa = yellow. An older name for the island is ʻAimeho, sometimes spelled ʻAimeo or ʻEimeo. Early Western colonists and voyagers also referred to Moʻorea as York Island or Santo Domingo.
The New England Aquarium is a nonprofit organization located in Boston, Massachusetts. The species exhibited include harbor and northern fur seals, California sea lions, African and southern rockhopper penguins, giant Pacific octopuses, weedy seadragons, and thousands of saltwater and freshwater fishes. In addition to the main aquarium building, attractions at Central Wharf include the Simons Theatre and the New England Aquarium Whale Watch. More than 1.3 million guests visited the aquarium each year prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jean-Michel Cousteau 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.
Alastair David William Fothergill is a British producer of nature documentaries for television and cinema. He is the series producer of the series The Blue Planet (2001), Planet Earth (2006) and the co-director of the associated feature films Deep Blue and Earth.
Earth is a 2007 nature wildlife documentary film which depicts the diversity of wild habitats and creatures across the planet. The film begins in the Arctic in January of one year and moves southward, concluding in Antarctica in the December of the same year. Along the way, it features the journeys made by three particular species—the polar bear, African bush elephant and humpback whale—to highlight the threats to their survival in the face of rapid environmental change. A companion piece and a sequel to the 2006 BBC/Discovery/NHK/CBC television series Planet Earth, the film uses many of the same sequences, though most are edited differently, and features previously unseen footage not seen on TV.
The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary is one of the world's most important whale habitats, hosting thousands of humpbacks each winter.
Disneynature is an independent film studio that specializes in the production of nature documentary films for Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The production company was founded on April 21, 2008, and is headquartered in Paris, France.
South Pacific is a British nature documentary series from the BBC Natural History Unit, which began airing on BBC Two on 10 May 2009. The six-part series surveys the natural history of the islands of the South Pacific region, including many of the coral atolls and New Zealand. It was filmed entirely in high-definition. South Pacific was co-produced by the Discovery Channel and the series producer was Huw Cordey. It is narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch. Filming took place over 18 months in a variety of remote locations around the Pacific including: Anuta, Banks Islands, French Frigate Shoals, Papua New Guinea, Palmyra, Kingman Reef, Tuvalu, Palau, Caroline Islands, Tuamotus and Tanna Island in Vanuatu.
Exploring the Reef with Jean-Michel Cousteau is a live-action/CGI animated short documentary film included on the fullscreen version of disc 2 of the Finding Nemo 2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD, which was released on November 4, 2003. It features Jean-Michel Cousteau in a documentary film he is trying to make about coral reefs, but Marlin, Dory and Nemo keep interrupting him.
The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos is a 2008 British-American nature documentary that explores the great gathering of lesser flamingos which occurs every year at Lake Natron in Tanzania and along the salt lakes of the African Rift Valley. It was the first film released under the then-new Disneynature film label through Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It premiered in France on 26 October 2008, with narration by Zabou Breitman. The film was released in theatres in the UK on 29 September 2009 and direct-to-video in the United States on 19 October 2010 with narration by Mariella Frostrup.
Keith Scholey is a British producer of nature documentaries for television and cinema, and a former television executive. He is currently a joint Director of Silverback Films Ltd and Studio Silverback Ltd.
Oceans is a 2009 French nature documentary film directed, produced, co-written, and narrated by Jacques Perrin, with Jacques Cluzaud as co-director. The film, produced in association with the Census of Marine Life, explores the marine species of Earth's five oceans and reflects on the negative aspects of human activity on the environment, with Perrin providing narration.
Wings of Life is a 2011 French-American nature documentary film directed by Louis Schwartzberg and released by Disneynature. It was released theatrically in France on 16 March 2011, with narration by Mélanie Laurent, and in home media markets across the US on 16 April 2013, with narration by Meryl Streep.
Bears is a 2014 American nature documentary film about a family of brown bears living in the coastal mountain ranges of Alaska. Directed by Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey and narrated by John C. Reilly, Bears was released theatrically by Disneynature on April 18, 2014, the seventh nature documentary released under that label. It generally received positive reviews from critics.
Natalie Portman is an Israeli-American actress and filmmaker. She made her film debut in Luc Besson's action thriller Léon: The Professional, which starred her as the young protégée of a hitman. She followed this by appearing in Michael Mann's crime thriller Heat (1995), Ted Demme's romantic comedy Beautiful Girls (1996), and Tim Burton's science fiction comedy Mars Attacks! (1996). Three years later, her supporting role as the precocious, responsible daughter of a narcissistic mother played by Susan Sarandon in the drama Anywhere but Here earned Portman her first Golden Globe Award nomination. In the same year, she played Padmé Amidala in the first of the Star Wars prequel trilogyStar Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, which brought her international recognition. She reprised the role in its sequels Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002), and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005).
Dolphins - Spy in the Pod is a British factual television series that was first broadcast on BBC One on 2 January 2014. The two-part series was narrated by David Tennant and produced by John Downer Productions. The series was also broadcast by Discovery Channel in the US.
Valerie May Taylor AM is an Australian conservationist, photographer, and filmmaker, and an inaugural member of the diving hall of fame. With her husband Ron Taylor, she made documentaries about sharks, and filmed sequences for films including Jaws (1975).
Elephant is a 2020 American nature documentary film about elephants directed by Mark Linfield and Vanessa Berlowitz and narrated by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. It is the fifteenth nature documentary to be released under the Disneynature label. The film was released alongside Dolphin Reef as a Disney+ exclusive on April 3, 2020.
Polar Bear is a 2022 American nature documentary film about polar bears directed by Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson. Narrated by Catherine Keener, it is the sixteenth nature documentary to be released under the Disneynature label. The film was released as a Disney+ exclusive on Earth Day April 22, 2022.
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