Dolphin Taleis not really a movie that needed a sequel, but here we are. It’s summer, parents need a family-friendly movie to take their kids to now that school is back in session, everyone loves dolphins. No real other explanation for Dolphin Tale 2 exists. Not really.
Everyone from the 2011 original film (which told the real-life story of the dolphin Winter, whose use of a prosthetic tail has made her an inspiration to disabled children and wounded veterans alike) is back for Dolphin Tale 2, but that reunited casting doesn’t make the film any less vanilla. The gist is this: Years after Winter was rescued, she’s beloved by practically everyone who visits her new home, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. The owner of the aquarium, Dr. Clay Haskett (Harry Connick Jr.); his daughter Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff); and the boy that found Winter when she was injured, Sawyer Nelson (Nathan Gamble), are the most constant people in Winter’s life, but when her female dolphin companion dies, they know they’re in trouble. It’s against the law for female dolphins to be unpaired in captivity, and if Dr. Clay doesn’t find another female dolphin soon, Winter could be removed from the aquarium.
This is devastating news, of course, not only for Sawyer (who is essentially Winter’s best human friend), Hazel and Dr. Clay, but also for the aquarium’s investors, who have been seeing dollar dollar bills, y’all, in revenue since Winter became famous. So there are competing motivations at play here regarding Winter’s future, and at the same time, Sawyer has been invited to a prestigious semester-at-sea program that could take him away from Winter … and Hazel, his sort-of-kind-of crush.
You know how this ends, right? Of course you know how this ends. So the point of the film isn’t the foregone conclusion, but the journey, which is … bland. In light of the documentary Blackfish, it feels like Dolphin Tale 2 has a lot of language about how dolphins are wild animals, but Sawyer and Winter seem to have a great time doing underwater spins and twirls together; you’ll have a variety of these inspirational swimming montages. Every so often the aquarium will save another animal, like a turtle, that will do absurd things for children to laugh at. And Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman are still lurking around, providing benevolent wisdom while collecting their paychecks.
For very young children, Dolphin Tale 2 will be fine; it has a straightforward narrative that’s easy to follow, and the dolphins are cute, and Florida looks very pretty. It’s an inoffensive-enough way to spend nearly two hours, and if you do, stay for the credits. The real-life footage of Winter and the aquarium employees that plays during the credits sequence is more inspirational and compelling than practically any of the other stuff that comes before it.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Guttenbergs
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