Metacritic reviews

Director Charles Martin Smith presents the kind of movie that gives squeaky-clean a good name.

The movie often seems too good to be true, but by the end I wanted a dolphin just like Winter for my own swimming pool.

This true story of a dolphin with a prosthetic tail has been precision engineered for full inspirational, heart-warming value.

Though garnished with some heavy dollops of cheese, Dolphin Tale is a surprisingly solid, earnest family picture.

By the end of the movie, Winter has become a mascot for human disability, especially for children, and Dolphin Tale has enough depth and sensitivity to tap into emotion without feeling manipulative.

While the plot occasionally feels like "Free Willy" without the drama, it's a cute story if you don't mind temporarily trading in your cynicism for a bag of popcorn.

If its plotting can be slight, the film's restraint and earnestness help prevent it from ever tipping over into outright mawkishness, and its performances similarly avoid over-the-top histrionics.

No, this isn't how it really happened. But director Charles Martin Smith ("Air Bud") wrings plenty of heartfelt tears and a few laughs out of this fictionalized account.

Call it Prosthetic Flipper, but the truly inspiring Dolphin Tale is perfect family entertainment.

The underwater scenes of Sawyer playing with the dolphin are gorgeous, a cinematic daydream of interspecies connection.