'Dolphin Tale' swims in caring direction

After seemingly months of watching theatrical trailers promoting. I certainly expected more sap than strength from this story of the rescued title animal being aided immensely by a mechanical tail.

Winter wonderful: The gentle animal is this "Dolphin Tale."

Dolphin Tale: PG: mild thematic elements; 1:53; $ $ $ ½

Boy, was I ever wrong! Turns out director  (“Air Bud,” “The Snow Walker”) fashions a pretty darn good family film by staying grounded in reality without ever moving into silly or sentimental territory.
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Martin, the guy who originally made a name for himself playing “Terry the Toad” in the classic  offers a bit of a documentary feel before tossing in wealth of human situations. There’s a sad kid  missing his dad, a free-spirited girl  without a mom, a special quartet of caring adults  a vet clinic in financial trouble, and even a pretty scary hurricane manufactured for this film from the same producers who gave us the similarly inspiring (and barely fact-based) “Blind Side.”
In this case, of course, most of the inspiration comes from Winter, the tough little dolphin who positively affects all of the above and still serves as a beacon of encouragement for disabled folks around the world. And for humor — when fresh-faced newcomer Zuehlsdorff isn’t at least making us smile — Smith delivers a goofy, scene-stealing pelican named Rufus, constantly pestering anyone wandering in and out of the Clearwater medical aquarium where Winter lives.
ndering in and out of the Clearwater medical aquarium where Winter lives.

It's a worthy Gamble to lend Winter a hand.

The severely injured Winter actually was saved from a crab trap on a gulf-area beach but, the way the movie tells it, one of her rescuers is the young and troubled Sawyer (Gamble), whose hard-working mom (Judd) can’t keep him interested in school.
Happy little Hazel (Zuehlsdorff) appears on the scene, too, since her dad/doctor (Connick) is the commited vet leading the team that can nurse the kid-friendly Winter back to health.

The always clever Freeman plays the quirky inventor on hand to design a prosthetic tail that helps keep Winter actively alive, while crusty Kristofferson turns in nice work as Hazel’s wise and caring granddad.
No surprise that everyone involved might eventually swim off into a beautiful Florida sunset but, it’s predicted here, not before everyone in the audience wipes away a meaningful tear or two.