With the exception of Flipper from 1960s television, or maybe the talking Fa and Bea from Mike Nichols' 1973 movie The Day of the Dolphin, few cinematic dolphins have displayed quite as much personality as Echo, the main character in Dolphin Reef, Disneynature's new documentary premiering on Disney+, narrated by Natalie Portman.
Behaving like a typically free-spirited adolescent, Echo adores his mother Kumu and the members of his extended family, or pod ("If he could hug them, he would," Portman informs us, adding that Echo has to settle for slapping flippers instead).
He's not a model student, as evidenced by his being endlessly distracted by his fellow denizens of the deep. And he isn't merely exploring the coral reef where he makes his.