Review of Dolphin Tale (2011) by Robyn M — 30 Jul 2012

I believe I have seen this film before, except back in the 90s it was called "Free Willy" and was about a boy and his whale, rather than a boy and his dolphin. Of course, before then we had a boy and his dog. A boy and his horse. A boy and his... you get the picture.

Dolphin Tale stars Nathan Bramble as young Sawyer. He is a virtually personality-less, paint-by-the-numbers leading kid who is a bit of a troublemaker, but then finds his turnaround when he discovers a wounded dolphin on the beach. And, with all honesty, this kid is my biggest hangup with this film. Simply, I've seen this character before. As a matter of fact, I've seen all these characters before (and anyone who's read my reviews of Avatar or The Blind Side or Edward Scissorhands will know that this is a problem for me). This is one of those films that fails to draw me in as an audience member by failing to bring any fresh characters to the table. And without fresh or interesting characters, I cannot enjoy a film.

The most interesting sections of the movie revolve around an engineer of prosthetic limbs who builds the dolphin in the film a new tail. This is what the film should have been about, but instead we are subjected to seventy or so minutes of film before the engineer (played, thankfully, by Morgan Freeman) even enters the film. The rest of the film is about the relationship between the dolphin and the boy. Again, this would be mildly entertaining if we had not seen this before in a hundred other films before this one. The boy and the dolphin have a connection. The dolphin only responds to the boy. Only the boy understands the dolphin. The boy can make the dolphin do the right things. They can play together. Etc. Etc. Etc. The writers of this film have the E.T. and How To Train Your Dragon playbooks open on their laps and are following them step by step. The difference is that both films had far more luck putting new spins on the same story.

Perhaps ninety minutes into this two hour film, the audience is introduced to a young army soldier/Olympic-level swimmer who recently lost use of his leg. HIS story was the first story that I got somewhat invested in. Somewhat. I feel like if a greater effort had been put into making this film about his story and struggles, I feel like we would have had a fresher picture.

But instead of the struggles of a swimmer who's lost his leg in a war and how a tailless dolphin inspires him to keep pushing forward in life, we get the story of a boy who is failing summer school until he makes a connection with a dolphin that we have seen since Old Yeller.

I didn't even get to the plot of the film involving saving the aquarium from being sold and demolished. Essentially, the "If we don't raise enough money, our building will be destroyed" Plot, a plot so rehashed that I can barely throw a dart at a wall listed with movies without hitting the title of one that features this plot: Burlesque, Yogi Bear, The Country Bears, Shakespeare In Love, and so on and so forth.

I don't care if this is based on a true story. Not every true story needs to be told.

4/10.