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Dolphin Tale

Dolphin Tale

Drama · Family · 2011

A sea of animal rescuers — and a lonely boy in need of a friend – nurse an injured dolphin back to health after it loses its tail in a trap.

Movie details

Dolphin Tale

“Inspired by the amazing true story of Winter.”

2011 Drama · Family 1h 53m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.8 / 10

27.1K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

81 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

64 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.9 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A sea of animal rescuers — and a lonely boy in need of a friend – nurse an injured dolphin back to health after it loses its tail in a trap.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Dolphin Tale?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Charles Martin Smith

Written by

Karen Janszen · Noam Dromi

Nathan Gamble

Nathan Gamble

Sawyer Nelson

Cozi Zuehlsdorff

Cozi Zuehlsdorff

Hazel Haskett

Harry Connick Jr.

Harry Connick Jr.

Dr. Clay Haskett

Austin Stowell

Austin Stowell

Kyle Connellan

Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman

Dr. McCarthy

Ashley Judd

Ashley Judd

Lorraine Nelson

Kris Kristofferson

Kris Kristofferson

Reed Haskett

Court is in session

Put Dolphin Tale on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.