As a 37-year-old who doesn't have children, I'm not exactly in the target demographic for Entertainment Squad's new release Dolphin Island, which is a family-friendly movie about a teenage girl who has a pleasant life on a tropic island, regularly hanging out with a dolphin named Mitzy, until a custody battle threatens her living situation. But even though I watched this by myself instead of being able to enjoy it as part of a nuclear family, I can still see its merits as a piece of charming, wholesome entertainment. I grew up on things like this, I have fond memories of watching "kid with an aquatic friend" things like Free Willy and reruns of Flipper, so I understand the appeal.
Mitzy does get a bit less screen time than some children may be hoping for. She swims through scenes here and there and plays an important role in the climactic sequence (which is sure to be a lot of viewers' favorite part of the movie), but the majority of the running time involves humans interacting with each other on dry land. Hopefully the younger ones will find the character drama interesting and emotionally involving enough that they don't get too impatient waiting for the return of Mitzy.
Directed by Mike Disa from a screenplay he wrote with producer Shaked Berenson and Rolfe Kanefsky (a filmmaker I know for making very different movies than this), Dolphin Island centers on 14-year-old orphan Annabel Coleridge (Tyler Jade Nixon), who lost her parents in a diving accident ten years earlier. Since then, Annabel has been raised by her grandfather Jonah (Peter Woodward) on the tropical island where her marine biologist father had established a non-profit marine research and conservation center - which is how Annabel came to befriend Mitzy. Jonah has to struggle to make ends meet and has trouble keeping up with the bills, but it's clear that he and Annabel have a very happy life together. Trouble enters the picture when Annabel's maternal grandparents Samuel and Sheryl Williams (David Raizor and Annette Lovrien Duncan) decide they want custody of the girl, even though they haven't seen her in ten years, and take legal action so they'll be able to take her to their home in Manhattan.
The story was effective at drawing me in; I was interested in seeing how this would play out, because Annabel's place is clearly on the island with Jonah, not in Manhattan with people who haven't been part of her life for a decade. Disa and his co-workers make it more intriguing by making sure that the Williams don't come off as villains. When they speak with each other and with Annabel, we can see that their hearts are in the right place, they don't mean to cause harm and want everything to be done by the book. They don't realize this is the wrong thing for their granddaughter, they want this to be a positive development in her life. So you can't really dislike them, even while rooting against them.
There is a villain, though, and that's the Williams' barrister Robert Carbunkle, Esq. (Bob Bledsoe), who is fully willing to use spiteful, unscrupulous methods to make sure Jonah loses custody of Annabel, despite his employers' objections every time he suggests doing something shady. Viewers are going to love to hate Carbunkle; he's a complete jerk, but Bledsoe is a lot of fun to watch in the role.
All of the actors do well in their roles, with Woodward turning in an especially strong performance as Jonah. Other notable cast members / characters include Dionne Lea as social worker Desaray Rolle and Aaron Burrows as her son Mateo, who has a hobby that's not exactly nice or legal. Although they start off at odds, Jonah and Annabel bond with Desaray and Mateo over the course of the story.
If you're looking for some good family entertainment, Dolphin Island is a fine way to spend 91 minutes. I liked it, despite being a single man facing midlife crisis, so it will probably work even better for parents and for children around Annabel's age.
On a sidenote, Kanefsky wasn't the only filmmaker whose name I was surprised to see on this movie. Steven C. Miller, who tends to direct horror and action movies, was the editor on Dolphin Island, making this the first movie he edited that he didn't direct himself.
Head over to the film's official website to find out how you can watch Dolphin Island.
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