Dolphin Tale

Dolphins, swimming around, investigating things, discussing various topics, demonstrating interest, responding playfully, gregarious and cheerful, mischievous, resilient, diligent, ebullient. I've always enjoyed watching dolphins go about their dolphin related business and Charles Martin Smith's Dolphin Tale provides plenty of dolphin focused activity.

There's just one problem.

Winter, the dolphin about whom this tale is told, has had to have her tail removed after complications resulting from being entangled in a crab trap. The Clearwater Marine Hospital is dedicated to her rehabilitation, but after she learns to swim by moving her back from side to side instead of up and down (as she would had she a tail), it becomes apparent that her spinal cord won't be able to withstand the unnatural movement, meaning her future is in jeopardy.

Enter Sawyer Nelson (Nathan Gamble), the boy who helped save Winter from the crab trap. Winter takes a shine to Sawyer and responds more positively to his care than to that of her other attendants. Sawyer's cousin (Austin Stowell as Kyle Connellan) unfortunately has his legs damaged in an explosion which sends him to a hospital specializing in prosthetics.

Which gives Sawyer an idea.

Perhaps a prosthetic tail can be made for pesky Winter, thereby saving her spinal chord and ensuring that she will be able to swim till an old age.

Will this tail be ready in order to showcase Winter at an event designed to raise funds to prevent the Clearwater Marine Hospital from being sold to a corporation and turned into a hotel?

Only time will tell.

Watching the film will also tell, and if you want to see a somewhat cheesy yet inspiring and uplifting story wherein a shy disengaged youth learns to make friends and become a contributing community member (even though he has no love for prepositional phrases), full of plenty of exciting shots of a dolphin who won't let things like not having a tail keep her down, Dolphin Tale is for you. And even though there are two single parent families within and their children become good friends, the father and mother don't establish a romantic relationship, which is where I thought the script was headed.

To learn more about the Clearwater Marine Hospital Aquarium and follow Winter's adventures, visit here.