Dolphin Tale

Dolphin Tale

Dolphin Tale
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Charles Martin Smith
Produced by	Richard Ingber Broderick Johnson Andrew A. Kosove
Written by	Karen Janszen Noam Dromi
Starring	Harry Connick, Jr. Nathan Gamble Ashley Judd Kris Kristofferson Morgan Freeman Jim Fitzpatrick
Music by	Mark Isham
Cinematography	Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Editing by	Harvey Rosenstock
Studio	Alcon Entertainment
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	September 23, 2011
Running time	112 minutes [1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$37 million[2]

Dolphin Tale is a 2011 family drama film directed by Charles Martin Smith from a screenplay by Karen Janszen and Noam Dromi starring Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, and Morgan Freeman. The film is inspired by the true story of a bottlenose dolphin named Winter who was rescued off the Florida coast and taken in by the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.^[3]

[edit] Synopsis

A young boy, Sawyer Nelson (Nathan Gamble), befriends Winter, an injured bottlenose dolphin who loses her tail due to being entrapped in a crab trap in the Indian River in Fort Pierce, Florida. He motivates everyone around him to help save the dolphin by creating a prosthetic appendage to replace the dolphin's missing tail. Harry Connick Jr. plays a vet who rescues the mammal and brings her to the marine hospital he runs. Ashley Judd plays the boy's mother while Morgan Freeman is a doctor who creates a prosthetic limb for Winter.

[edit] Cast

• Harry Connick Jr. as Clay Haskett
• Nathan Gamble as Sawyer Nelson
• Ashley Judd as Lorraine Nelson
• Kris Kristofferson as Reed Haskett
• Morgan Freeman as Dr. McCarthy
• Cozi Zuehlsdorff as Hazel Haskett
• Winter as herself
• Ray McKinnon as Mr. Doyle
• Austin Stowell as Kyle Connellan
• Jim Fitzpatrick as Max Connellan
• Austin Highsmith as Phoebe
• Kurt Yaeger as Tim
• Marc Macaulay as John Fitch
• Rus Blackwell as Coach Vansky
• Michael Roark as Donovan Peck
• Juliana Harkavy as Rebecca

[edit] Production

Dolphin Tale was filmed primarily in Pinellas County, Florida with the principal location centering around Winter's home, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Additional locations featured in the film include: Admiral Farragut Academy, Honeymoon Island, Tarpon Springs, and local news station Bay News 9.^[4]

[edit] Release

Dolphin Tale was released on September 23, 2011 in North America by Warner Bros. Pictures and Alcon Entertainment. The film was released in Real D 3D as well as 2D.

[edit] Reception

The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 83% of 69 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 6.5 out of 10.^[5] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 64 based on 30 reviews.^[6]

[edit] References

1. ^ "Dolphin Tale (U)". British Board of Film Classification. 2011-09-06. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
2. ^ Kaufman, Amy (September 22, 2011). "Movie Projector: Brad Pitt vs. 'Lion King,' 'Dolphin Tale' for No.1". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
3. ^ "Dolphin Tale: about". 3 September 2011.
4. ^ Steve Persall (23 September 2010). "Production on Dolphin Tale in Clearwater starts earlier than previously announced". Tampabay.com. St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
5. ^ "Dolphin Tale (2011)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
6. ^ "Dolphin Tale s Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved September 25, 2011.