Dolphin Reef is a Disneynature documentary featuring the dolphin calf and the Carribbean reef community. It is currently streaming on Disney+. The documentary is co-directed by Alastair Fothergill, who also directed Penguins (2019) and Bears (2014) with co-director Keith Scholey. It is written by David Fowler. The narration is given some fun and character by Natalie Portman who is in the Hollywood documentary, This Changes Everything (2018). I’ve seen the IMAX documentary, Dolphins (2000) and many others, read several books, and had some encounters in the wild.
I know by heart, that the bottlenose dolphin is known as Tursiops truncatus from the sub-order odontoceti, or toothed whale. There is a sea-pen in the Red Sea named Dolphin Reef. So of course this documentary was intriguing. It is set off some Polynesian islands, it looks untouched by people, this opens the film and then shifts from the waves to the blue of the sea. It has a pod of dolphins bow wave riding and then passing the island. Their shapes are hydrodynamic, built for water, which makes their speed optimal.
This moves to the whistle of a lone dolphin drifting in the blue. It seems like the dolphin called Echo is interested in a shell. Echolocation is sophisticated in dolphins, the clicks originate in its nasal sacs located in the blowhole and projected out and received by the dolphin’s melon, the curved fore part of the dolphin. Echo’s name seems to refer to it and also reminds me of the Sega video game, Ecco the Dolphin (1992). A very fun game fighting extraterrestrials in the oceans, it should be made into an animated film. He is three years old, still a calf, and has about three years to mature. Echo seems to be a loner and separates from the rest of the pod, kinda dangerous.
His mother, Kuma, has to watch over him and tries to teach him how to get fish on his own. There is no scene showing Kuma feeding her calf fish. Also, the animals of the film don’t seem to have fathers. This shifts to the reef, always a mass of colors, it always interesting to see the tropical life in a coral reef. Then, we get to the bizarre eyes of a peacock mantis shrimp, it is grooming itself which the narration says is “showering.” It is difficult to not anthropomorphize, give human qualities to animals. Mr. Mantis, as he is dubbed, checks on his coral home.
The documentary notes the life cycle of the coral which ends with the reef sharks that pare away the coral population. Then, it goes to a tiger shark, “the shark that eats sharks.” The pod is about to sleep and it is noted that dolphins sleep with one eye open. The visual part of dolphins is fascinating since they use their echolocation in tandem with their sight. Echo breaks away from the pod to hear the moaning of a humpback whale. It is a mother, Maraya, and her calf, Fluke. Echo looks at the whales, but is called back by Kuma. There is a pod of male humpback whales interested in Maraya. Also important is the bumphead parrotfish that turn dead rock into “sand poop”, think of that the next time you are relaxing on a beach. It is just a wonder to see the beauty of this dolphin world through the cinematography of Paul Atkins. It must be a long shoot to assemble footage to construct Echo’s story. Dolphin Reef is a charming and beautiful documentary
Five Shells out of Five!
#DolphinReef, #Disneynature, #NataliePortman, #AlastairFothergill, #KeithScholey
No comments:
Post a Comment