My Octopus Teacher Review

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Photo by Pia from Pexels

Written by Emily Maier, Features Editor

My Octopus Teacher is a Netflix documentary about Craig Foster, a filmmaker, and his friendship with an octopus. It starts out with Foster free diving in South Africa and meeting an octopus and following her around for nearly a year. The bond they made was much like a mentor-student relationship. The octopus taught Foster about the connection between his life and nature, which ultimately changed him for the better.

This documentary quickly gained popularity, and many people loved it. It has a 4.9 star rating out of 6,958 reviews, it won the Best Documentary Feature at the 93rd Academy Awards, Best Edited Documentary at the American Cinema Awards and many more. 

Although it got great reviews, it still wouldn’t be my first choice of documentaries to watch. I enjoyed the message it gave, but just didn’t have enough to keep my attention. If it was cut shorter, it would have been more enjoyable, otherwise it would be nice to have in the background while cleaning or doing homework. 

The reason it seemed boring to me was because it would be more entertaining for younger children. I feel like a younger audience would be more appropriate for watching a relationship between human and an animal. It would also teach them about human’s connections with nature and animals.

My Octopus Teacher has valuable messages, but would probably not be a good choice to watch if you enjoy things with more action.