Out this week on DVD and Blu Ray, Dolphin Tale is a surprisingly touching and charming film based on the true story of Winter the dolphin who lost his tail and had a new prosthetic tail added instead.
Eleven year old Sawyer is dadless and friendless, when he finds an injured dolphin on the beach and follows it back to Harry Connick Jr's marine hospital.
Morgan Freeman and his bucket full of gravitas also star as the prosthetics specialist who designs a new tail for Winter. So far so cheesy:
But as it turns out, Dolphin Tale is light on the fromage factor. This is a sweet story that's not too saccharine. A certificate U, it's suitable for all ages and would go down well as a sleepover movie or half term afternoon family film, without boring the knickers off any adults in the room.
It's surprisingly sad in parts - there's the lonely kid who finds new friends through his relationship with the dolphin, and I was particularly moved by the extra footage showing the real life Winter swimming with fellow amputees. OK, so it may have been dust in my eye, but yes I did shed a real tear. Genuinely heartwarming. I was glued to this film and couldn't turn it off, even though I needed to go and pee, which was not easy given the amount of water onscreen throughout.
We were sent the triple play version for review, so as well as a Blu Ray disc to watch, the DVD and digital download options gave us more options, and came in very handy when we wanted to show it on a laptop at sleepover time. At £14.99 I think the triple play edition is good value.
The childrens' verdict: "This was very emotional! We laughed at Rufus the funny pelican but it was sad to see the dolphin without his tail. The dolphin was super cute and it made us understand about real life amputees. There was a girl with one leg, which broke my heart, but then she saw the dolphin and was happy, it was so sweet."
Dolphin Tale is available on DVD, Blu-ray, and triple play with digital download from 13th February.
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