A whale of a tale that the whole family can enjoy

Just when you thought it wasn't safe to go back to the theatre, along comes a tale that brings you straight to the third row and keeps everyone, old and young alike, planted there. The state of family movies near Halloween is usually a grim prospect but this year there's a movie that's perfect for parents and kids to watch and discuss.

Shark Night was obviously not meant to be the kind of marine animal movie that you'd want to take your kids to. It wasn't even the kind of show that you remember and talk about for years and years. Even the fairly repugnant Deep Blue Sea was mildly redeeming in that it had some characters that time treated with some dignity.

But enough about those creatures. Here's a movie with the intelligent, playful and generally placid mammals of the ocean, and the movie itself reflects all of the values that one imagines dolphins would uphold.

Dolphin Tale is about a young boy named Sawyer (Nathan Gamble) who just happens to be right there when a troubled dolphin lands ashore after getting caught in a crab trap. He whistles to it to communicate his friendship and it whistles back — the two of them sounding like nonsensical Tweetie Birds.

A metal cage isn't the animal's problem but the ropes sure prove to be. The poor creature is all tangled up in twisted knots and tight binds that prove to be too much of a hindrance to natural swimming, and even natural living.

Sawyer and the local marine park rescue veterinarians (led by Harry Connick Jr.'s Dr. Clay Haskett) try to rehabilitate the dolphin, now called Winter. Unfortunately, her tail sustains too much internal injury, too much restriction of blood flow, and it has to amputated.

The good news is that Haskett, Sawyer and practically everybody in the world loves dolphins. But there's more to the movie than just another Free Willy story. There's a great parallel plotline involving Sawyer's cousin Kyle (Austin Stowell), a former champion swimmer who goes off to fight in the army. As so often happens, he experiences some kind of ambush, becomes injured and loses feeling in parts of his body.

What we end up with then is this exquisitely poetic story about how being hurt doesn't mean that you're broken. After hooking Kyle up with some leg braces, army prosthetic doctor, Dr. Cameron McCarthy (Morgan Freeman), steps in to help the gang figure out a viable alternative to getting Winter to swim on her own again.

So, we learn about the dangers of the fishing industry and the collateral damage that results from it. We learn that even disinterested children can ignore their Game Boys and become incredibly engaged and active in real situations. Most importantly, we learn that there is still much in the world that can enrich those of us with disabilities. To be honest, isn't that all of us?

Dolphin Tale has no bad language, no guns and no violence. It provides a great lesson for parents to encourage their children to follow their natural passions, it reminds children at the same time to follow their hearts, and it tells all of us to never give up, even when life cuts your tail off.

What's even better is that it's inspired by a true story from Florida. The real Winter is actually the character Winter. The end of the movie tells you that you can even check out this beautiful animal on its webcam located at www.seewinter.com.