Official Synopsis
The inspiring true story of Winter isn’t over. Several years after receiving a prosthetic tail, Winter loses her surrogate mother, leaving her alone, grieving and unwilling to engage with anyone, even her best human friend, Sawyer. Worse, she may have to be moved from her home at the aquarium due to regulations requiring dolphins to be paired. When Dr. Clay Haskett and his dedicated team can’t find her a companion, it looks like they may lose their beloved Winter…until an unexpected turn of events brings them Hope.
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I hadn’t seen the first film prior to Warner Home Video sending it to us in a double-feature pack. I have to say, the first film, while it has its flaws, is a wonderful movie for kids to watch. My middle-daughter, who is 10 years old, had to catch me up on what’s going on with Winter and how her tail had to be removed. This is all before I sat down and watched the first movie. Her remembrance of the first movie tells me quite a bit about how good it is. Kids her age apparently attached to it and that certainly says something about its story and quality.
My personal opinion of the first film is that it’s led by kids, contains a very serious and nearly tragic story, and while it doesn’t have the best delivery or flow to it, it comes off as a decent movie that has a competent three-act arc. It’s a kid’s film that is made for a younger audience, so it does its job well.
Having said that, the second film is a bit of a different story — literally and figuratively.
The movie starts out with our main man Sawyer (Nathan Gamble) grown-up and moving on to college. It’s a ‘coming of age’ film where his life is changing and he has to say goodbye to his childhood. Tough stuff for a teenager to deal with, especially one that has meant so much to the people he has surrounded himself with (and a dolphin named Winter).
Anyway, as Sawyer prepares his life for the next step, Winter’s surrogate mother passes away, leaving Winter heartbroken and by herself. On top of this, Dr. Clay Haskett (Harry Connick Jr.) and his staff have to find a suitable companion to replace her lost mother or otherwise Winter has to leave the care of the aquarium, as it’s considered cruel and out of code by the government to let a dolphin live alone (they require companionship). As Winter struggles with her emotions, Sawyer is doing the same, as he needs to make sure Winter is okay before he leaves her.
Everything up to this point happens so quickly and doesn’t really get enough time to develop. Winter’s mother basically is okay one day, struggling the next and then dies. There is almost no gradual build to the situation and it seems far too rushed, though I know the rest of the film has to be spent on finding someone new for Winter. That is the drive of the movie and the one thing that affects everyone in the movie, who has emotionally bonded with the dolphin. Unlike the first movie, which takes great time and care to develop characters, the dolphin and a bond, this one just seems a bit too hurried, at least up to this point.
As the movie springs towards the predictable conclusion (nothing wrong with that), everyone around Sawyer and Winter just seem like they’re getting in the way of the story’s progression. If you’re going to make a movie about a dolphin’s struggle then keeping focused on the dolphin would be the safe bet. Instead, we have struggles with a sea turtle we don’t fully understand what’s wrong with. We have another dolphin that is released into the wild, which has some connection to Winter, but not enough to truly care about. We basically have situations and characters that get in the way of the overall story, which seem like they add to it, but come off as space fillers instead of well developed plot points that focus back on our main story.
Having everyone and everything around Winter focus back to her would have been a better way to go. Also, I wanted more focus on Winter and her relationship with Sawyer. I wanted to see both their struggles, as they try to figure out how to survive in the world alone (Sawyer is about to lose his security blanket. Winter already lost hers). This movie should have been completely about them with occasional side shows. It wasn’t and it felt a bit messy and rushed because of those story decisions.
With that said, guess what? My kids still loved it. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters. My 10-year old daughter wanted to watch it again prior to this review and I’m sure she’s going to wear at the disc before the end of the holiday season. That’s a great sign about how kids are going to react to it and that’s worth more than my critical opinion…some days.
If you enjoyed the first film, then you’ll probably enjoy the sequel. I personally don’t think it’s a strong follow-up, but it fits right into the universe that was built around Winter’s untimely tail accident from the first movie. A lot of returning characters and creatures from the first movie help to make that connection to the sequel. Having familiar faces always helps a struggling story, and I have to admit the pelican was good comedy relief sometimes.
Anyway, the sequel isn’t strong, but it’s good enough for a view or two, especially if you enjoyed the first film.
On the Blu-ray side of the water, the movie is beautifully transferred to HD, though I expect nothing less from Warner Home Video these days. There are plenty of visual opportunities to make this movie shine and the cinematographer does a great job exploiting those opportunities. You get a lot of heavy blues, whites, grays, reds and blacks with this movie. The transfer looks great, as there is only a hint of graininess here and there — mostly during the whiter part of the film. There is no color banding or major compression issues, though.
As for the features, here’s what you’re looking at:
· Dolphin Tale 2: Underwater Magic Dolphin Tale 2: True Story
· Look Who’s Running The Show
· Bethany Hamilton Meets Winter
· Dolphin Tale 2: The Mission
· Cozi Zuehlsdorff – “Brave Souls”
· Gavin DeGraw – “You Got Me”
· Blooper Reel
For a film of this caliber, I’m impressed with the amount of quality features that have accompanied it. Learning a bit about the real story used for the film always makes the movie a bit better. This is sort of like Soul Surfer, which had similar type features and is made better when humanized with the real person (or dolphin) behind the curtain.
Anyway, for folks who love the film, this is just beautiful value added.
