While a 3-D version was released, we went for the 2-D version since we had three-year-old George along. He has only been to a movie theater once before, and the dark room and hugeness of the screen are stimulation aplenty for him. While the film is rated PG, I have to say I highly recommend it for all kids, even the young ones. In fact, I wonder why it was rated PG? I really didn’t see anything scary, sexy or troubling about it for young audiences. Go figure.
Dolphin Tale falls in the category of Hollywood inspirational tearjerker, a departure from some of the more artsy stuff I’ve been reviewing here. Despite being somewhat formulaic, I think the film was well done, with good acting and a plotline that definitely held all of our attention.
Dolphin Tale tells the story of a boy named Sawyer who comes upon a beached dolphin entangled in a crab trap. While waiting for a rescue team from a local aquarium to arrive, he develops a bond with the injured animal. Later he sneaks into the aquarium to check on his new friend, only to learn that the dolphin, named Winter by a girl whose Dad (Harry Connick, Jr.) runs the operation, won’t take food and is giving up. When Winter sees and hears Sawyer, however, she miraculously perks up, and so the boy becomes part of her rehabilitation.
It turns out that Winter also has a therapeutic effect on Sawyer—a picked-on loner who is failing school and spends his time tinkering in the garage workshop of his father, who has recently run off on the family. Sawyer’s loneliness is compounded by another loss—his beloved older cousin, a champion high school swimmer, has just been deployed to the Middle East. Tending to the injured dolphin, and developing a friendship with Hazel, the girl at the aquarium, Sawyer starts to become a happy and engaged child, a change noted by his supportive mother (Ashley Judd).
Along the way, some suspenseful plot twists arise. First, Winter’s tail becomes infected and must be amputated, possibly endangering her life. She survives and learns to swim tail-less, but it soon becomes obvious that the side-to-side motion she has adopted is going to destroy her spine, and ultimately end her life. About this time, Sawyer’s cousin returns home after a bomb blast partially paralyzes him. During a VA hospital visit, Sawyer meets a prosthetics specialist (Morgan Freeman) and enlists him in making a tail for Winter. However, the dolphin rejects the first two prosthetic devices, and it starts to seem as if all is lost. Then, there’s a hurricane! And the aquarium is up against financial ruin!
For the kids, Pearl and her friend Sasha (both six) and George (three), all of these setbacks definitely held their attention. The film shows that success doesn’t always come easily, and underscores that persistence and hard work can turn things around. It shows that grown-ups don’t always have the answers, and that with fresh minds and lots of energy, children can make a difference—a great message for kids to hear.
Talking with them about the plot, I realized afterwards that none of the kids understood that Sawyers’s cousin had been in a war, which I suppose was handled somewhat subtly. I think they also didn’t catch that Sawyer’s dad had disappeared, or that Hazel’s mom had passed away—all things alluded to in conversations between adults. I think this is fine. Ultimately what captured their hearts and attention were the friendship between Sawyer and Winter, and the story of kind humans working hard to help an injured animal—themes that I think most kids will embrace.
As for me, I was seriously choking back the tears on several occasions, but as I said in the beginning, I am a sucker for this stuff!
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