Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director: Kirk Harris, Defiant Screen Entertainment.
Cast: Lola Sultan, Logan Allen, Kevin Sorbo, Patrick Muldoon.
Released just in time for the Easter school holidays, this is an endearing family adventure about a brother and sister who befriend a badly sunburned dolphin separated from his family.
The movie is set in St. Augustine, Florida, with a nine-year-old bookworm and her 11-year-old brother forming a bond with a pod of local dolphins they visit every day. The children nearly drown while trying foil a plan that would destroy their hidden beach and are rescued by the dolphins.
The two siblings love splashing and playing with Bernie and his family. When Bernie goes missing, Holly Ryan (Sultan) and her brother, Kevin (Allen) go and look for him. While searching, they discover a real-estate development plan that threatens the baby sea turtles on their favorite beach. Another step is for the brave duo to stop the developers while racing to reunite Bernie with his loved ones.
So, they devise a clever plan to stop the bad guys, protect the sea life, and, most importantly, save their best friend, Bernie.
Their father is Bob (Muldoon, Starship Troopers, Days of Our Lives) and Sorbo (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys), who executive-produced the film, is the bad guy developer Winston Mills.
This fun and heartfelt tale of friendship also has an ecological message.
With Bernie The Dolphin, this is Harris’ first foray into making films for children. He says, “This is an ode to all the great (Steven) Spielberg films that I loved growing up … I’m a father, I watch those films all the time, I grew up loving those films”.
