Fridae

Here’s a pro-tip for Resorts World Sentosa: if Disney gets all serious and starts making family dramas advocating marine mammal conservancy, maybe you should pay attention to it too. The world’s most injured and hard luck dolphins may be permanent residents at these conservancy-centred institutions but they are definitely not the world’s saddest dolphins [Facebook link] captured by fishermen, sold to big money tourist attractions, penned in virtual fishbowls for life, and taught to perform tricks for our amusement – but not before some of them die in captivity before the opening of said attraction!

In Dolphin Tale, Harry Connick Jr, Ashley Judd, and Kris Kristofferson operate the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, whose dolphins are rescued from beaching incidents, rehabilitated, and set free into the wild. (They do not, however, perform a country music number in the film.) Nathan Gamble is an underachieving young boy who skips summer school to bond with a severely injured dolphin in their care, finds his place in the grand scheme of things, and in doing so, heals more than just a tail-less dolphin.

This being a Disney family film, Nathan Gamble’s bonding with the injured dolphin (Winter the real-life tail-less dolphin playing herself) and its difficult rehabilitation is mirrored with his relationship with a depressed elder cousin who lost the use of a leg in an unnamed war. The symbolism and plot development may come across as obvious but the drama and emotional payoff is no less effective.

Dolphin Tale is a film that is earnest, has its heart in all the right places, and advocates all the right causes. I highly recommend watching this with your favourite nephews and nieces of impressionable ages.