Dolphin Tale

Dolphin Tale is a 2011 American 3D family drama film directed by Charles Martin Smith, from a screenplay by Karen Janszen and Noam Dromi and a book of the same name. It stars Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Nathan Gamble, Kris Kristofferson, Cozi Zuehlsdorff in her film debut, and Morgan Freeman. The book and film are inspired by the true story of Winter, a bottlenose dolphin that was rescued in December 2005 off the Florida coast and taken in by the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. In the film, Winter loses her tail after becoming entangled with a rope attached to a crab trap, and must be fitted with a prosthetic one in order to swim naturally again. The film was released on September 23, 2011, by Warner Bros. Pictures; Dolphin Tale received positive reviews from critics and earned $95.9 million on a $37 million budget. A sequel, Dolphin Tale 2, was released on September 12, 2014. Plot Sawyer Nelson, a lonely 11-year-old boy, has been falling behind in school since being abandoned by his father five years earlier. Sawyer's only friend is his college-aged cousin Kyle, a champion swimmer who hopes to compete in the Olympics. Kyle leaves to spend time in the army. One day on his way to summer school, Sawyer finds a fisherman attempting to help an injured dolphin tangled in a crab trap. The dolphin is taken for treatment to Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA), run by Dr. Clay Haskett. Clay's daughter Hazel names the dolphin Winter, after two prior dolphins, Summer and Autumn, had been treated successfully and returned to the ocean. Sawyer sneaks in to see Winter, and later starts to visit each day, being harassed by a crazy pelican named Rufus. Sawyer's mother Lorraine and Clay are hesitant, due to Sawyer's inexperience with marine animals, and skipping summer school numerous times, but they realize that the friendship seems to benefit both Winter and Sawyer. Dr. Clay allows the visits to continue, and Lorraine withdraws Sawyer from summer school and lets him volunteer at CMA, and gives him a new wetsuit.