Movie Review: 'Dolphin Tale 2'
By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio 1060
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The original was a dolphin movie, true, but it was really a story about a boy trying to find his porpoise in life.
Dolphin Tale (2011) was a solid inspirational drama for the family audience that was emotional but not manipulative. Based on a true story about the friendship between a lonely boy and a seriously injured bottlenosed dolphin, it focused on coping with disability and loss.
This followup is sweet, sensitive, wholesome, and uplifting in the same way. It is also, like the original, based on true events.
The Clearwater Marine Hospital is now thriving as an aquarium, a popular tourist attraction under new ownership. Its shining star is Winter, the dolphin that was rescued and fitted with a prosthetic tail after his tail was amputated in the original film.
When cherished Winter's elderly surrogate mother dies, he spirals downward into a deep depression while the aquarium managers debate spending the funds necessary to find him a new companion.
And find him a new companion they must, because safety regulations prohibit a dolphin living alone.
Meanwhile, the two youngsters who care for Winter come of age by deciding on their own how to proceed and do the right thing.
They are Sawyer Nelson as Nathan Gamble, whose mother is played by Ashley Judd, and Cozi Zuehlsdorff as Hazel Haskett, the daughter of the facility administrator played by Harry Connick Jr. Each of the youngsters lost a parent at a young age, as did Winter, so their bond with the dolphin runs deep.
Charles Martin Smith, also a veteran actor probably best known for American Graffiti, returns to the director's chair (Dolphin Tale, Air Bud, Stone of Destiny, The Snow Walker, Trick or Treat) and this time co-wrote the screenplay with Karen Janszen and Noam Dromi.
Smith employs dolphin point-of-view shots to engage his young audience and even joins the ensemble to contribute a functional cameo of his own.
Connick, Freeman, and Judd provide the film with marquee-enhancing names, but it's actually returning youngsters Gamble and Zuehlsdorff who do the heavy lifting.
And it should be said that both are admirably natural.
As he did the first time around, director Smith ignores the contemporary attention-deficit inclinations of his young audience and appropriately takes his time to tell his story.
In the tradition of Flipper and Free Willy, Dolphine Tale 2 focuses on a community in Tampa Bay trying to be helpful and thus transforming itself, while the staff at the aquarium try to live up to their motto -- to "rescue, rehab, and release" -- which is easier said than done when external forces converge and complicate matters.
As a sequel, the film doesn't have quite the narrative thrust of its predecessor, but it's sufficient to generate both empathy and suspense.
This heart-on-its-sleeve kidflick involves rescue, recovery, courage, kindness, perseverance, change, and Hope (the latter capitalized because it becomes the name of a rescued dolphin).
But let's face it: Dolphin Tale 2 is also just an excuse for kids to watch sensitively shot footage of dolphins and turtles and pelicans, oh my!
And what's wrong with that?
So let's recue 2½ stars out of 4. At the end of the day -– or even in the middle of the day -- Dolphin Tale 2 is the equivalent of a day-at-the-aquarium for youngsters as a tail-waggingly heartwarming, perfectly-acceptable family entertainment.
