Jean-Michel Cousteau Movies

As emceed by Jean-Michel Cousteau - eldest son of the late French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau and his wife Simone - this PBS documentary springboards from the assumption that one of the Earth's most immense bodies of water, South America's Amazon River, will dramatically reshape (and is now dramatically reshaping) the entire global climate and ecosphere. It is scarcely a coincidence, as Cousteau reminds us, that the said river flows through some of the planet's most immense rainforests - home to the broadest ecological diversity imaginable, where evolution has literally run rampant. Now, a quarter century after Jean-Michel and Jacques first visited the Amazon, destructive and potentially irreversible consequences have unfurled, including the "deforestation" of an immense area of land that can be equated geographically, with the size of Texas. Along with his children and the Ocean Adventures team, Jean-Michel travels to the Amazon and takes stock of the ecological damage wrought there by corporate and industrial expansion - both locally and on a global scale, above ground and under water - while surveying the aesthetic and biological glories of the said region. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

IMAX director Greg MacGillivray's 2003 film, Coral Reef Adventure, follows the exploits and crusades of the husband and wife underwater filmmaking duo of Howard and Michelle Hall as they embark on a ten-month expedition of the world's most vibrant and endangered coral reefs. Beginning at the Great Barrier Reef off the Australian coast, the Halls explore the vast underwater ecosystem and the scores of wildlife that thrive off of it. Traveling on throughout a number of the South Pacific's most spectacular reefs, the filmmakers also visit some reefs on the verge of extinction, making the sobering point that an entire reef's death occurs very quickly, while its creation takes thousands of years. Coral Reef Adventure marks the third oceanic, ecologically-themed IMAX film from MacGillivray, following The Living Sea and Dolphins. Also featured in the film are famed sea explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau (son of the pioneering oceanographer Jacques Cousteau) and noted ichthyologist Richard Pyle. ~ Ryan Shriver, Rovi

Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997) spent much of his lifetime devoted to the water--first as a French naval officer in World War II, then as a marine explorer, oceanographic museum director, and founder of the Underseas Research Group. After winning two Academy Awards for his documentary films on ocean life, Cousteau introduced TV audiences to the fascinating underwater world of sharks, whales and dolphins as well as sunken treasure and coral reefs in the series "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau." In his 1991 documentary "Journey to a Thousand Rivers," Cousteau introduces us to life on the Amazon River--both above and below the surface. ~ Kathryn Tamms, Rovi

World famous biologist and oceanographer Jacques Yves Cousteau journeys the mighty Amazon River to examine its fragile and fascinating ecosystem. Amazon: River of the Future recounts Cousteau's final leg of his 1984 expedition. The second longest river in the world, the Amazon snakes through the entire northern half of the South American continent. Cousteau's team investigates the river system's exotic plant life and the intriguing creatures that live there. The team also visits a tropical forestry operation, a project which may foreshadow the end of this beautiful and significant region of the planet.


~ Sally Barber, Rovi

This documentary video covers the beautiful fragile world of the many species of animals by the Bering Sea. ~ Rovi

This video features world-famous underwater adventurer Jacques Cousteau, this time on a journey in which the treasure is on the surface of the sea. Along with Lucien Malavard and Bertrand Charrier, Cousteau invented a new kind of sailing vessel using a state-of-the-art, high-tech turbo sail. The tall, computer-controlled cylinder of metal sails the ship much like a conventional canvas sail, but is up to six times more efficient. The viewer follows Cousteau on the windship's maiden voyage from Tangier to New York, which ends in disaster when the turbosail is lost two days from the boat's destination. Cousteau then builds a second ship, the Alcyone, with two turbosails and more sophisticated controls. This time, his revolutionary boat makes the passage safely, and Cousteau and his crew sail victoriously into New York harbor. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, Rovi