source: The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer

As everyone said, this is SO horrible! I feel terrible that I got it for my children, because now that they've started watching it, they won't let me turn it off. Thankfully, they haven't cried yet, at the scary parts, but they are thoroughly confused. I thought it would be a great, cute dolphin cartoon for my 3 and 5 year old kids, but this movie has a horribly confusing storyline and makes no sense. The animation doesn't bother me, it's fine, but the storyline is just weird. Redbox really needs to take this out of their circulation of DVDs, seriously this is a huge waste of money and I got it free with a free promo code from Redbox, still a waste!

As said many times, love animation to bits (some of my all-time favourite films are animated) and always try to be kind to any film regardless of its quality when it's deserving of that. Am not going to lie and say that every animated film (or animation in general) is great, there are some terrible animated films out there. 'The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer' is one of the biggest examples of terrible animation, despite being a generous and perceptive reviewer it is very difficult to be subjective and kind when talking about one of the biggest wastes of time ever encountered. Always look for redeeming qualities to bad or less films, 'The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer' has nothing to recommend it and children and adults alike will struggle to get any enjoyment out of it. Its least bad component is the animation of the water, the one animation detail that has any attention to detail but it looks only okay, never rising above that. It is frankly wasted by the animation in every other regard and throughout the entire film being so atrocious that it makes one feel physically ill looking at it. The colours are flat and lack any vibrancy or vividness, very little attention is paid to little things let alone bigger effects, the backgrounds are sparse, lack fluidity and never allows one to get immersed into a potentially magical world and it has the single most ugliest and stiffest character animation for dolphins (especially bad for a film full of robotic and ugly character designs for every character) for any animated film set under the sea. Music is frequently discordant, never fits and is likely to give younger audiences nightmares just hearing it. The script is awkward and muddled, with a lot of parts being over-explanatory, some parts being too complicated for younger viewers to properly understand it and a lot of other parts are incredibly juvenile that are so childish and unfunny to intelligence-insulting degrees. The story is never engaging or worth investing in emotionally, with far too much aimless exposition and a lot of stretched out scenes that go on for too long and go absolutely nowhere. Even adolescents and adults will find it difficult to comprehend what's going on. Furthermore, 'The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer' is one of the worst examples of target audience issues in a family film, with nothing for children and adults and with elements that will alienate people of all ages. There is a real sense that 'The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer' had no idea who it was aiming for and what it wanted to be. Adults will be insulted by the excessiveness and childishness of the often pointless potty humour while children will find the darker scenes constantly interjected with abrupt and jarring tonal shifts far too frightening and out of place. Pacing is all over the place dull. Characters are either annoying or deprived of personality, with a protagonist so devoid of endearing personality or development and full of aimless motivations and illogical decision making that he's impossible to root for, and not in a long time has there been more unintentionally creepy voice acting. In conclusion, undersea animation at its most amateurish (yes more so than 'Izzy's Way Home' and 'The Reef'), dullest and most nightmarish. 1/10 for the okay at best animation of the water only. Bethany Cox

As another reviewer said, if I could give this movie a negative score I would - I only wish I had read the reviews here before renting this movie for my 5-year-old. I actually signed up here at IMDb just so I could warn anyone else who may possibly be considering showing this movie to your children: DON'T! We have Friday night movie night at our house, and my son chose this from RedBox; looked innocuous enough and suitable for a young child... boy, was I wrong!! Horrible (read: creepy) animation; trite, senseless drivel masquerading as a "storyline"; terrible music; and - worst of all - the most hideous, nightmare-inducing "bad guy" character (the sunfish? more like a maniacally vicious, monstrous barracuda!) ever imagined for a so-called children's movie. What the H--l could the people making this movie have POSSIBLY been thinking??? We foolishly soldiered on to the end of this miserable mash-up, as I was hoping a positive ending might wash away the bitter bile watching it induced, but alas - I was wrong again. Could find absolutely nothing positive to redeem this vapid waste of time, technology & resources. I thought I believed in freedom of artistic expression, but all copies of this movie should be permanently destroyed so no other psyches will be harmed by viewing it.

worst movie i have ever seen. seen 5 minutes and i made an IMDb account just cause of how bad it is. worst dialogue ever in a movie worst animation ever scariest villain ever 100 foot barracuda. I messed up first time writing this review but its so bad i had to rewrite it do not subject you or your children to this movie and i have to pretend i like it cause my little sister likes it i almost have 10 lines so please don't watch it I love watching bad movies but this is really that bad do not watch it And i thought good burger was a good movie it shows you how bad this movie is So do not watch this and i really cant get 10 lines out of this very easily but worst dialogue ever this is brutal and should not be viewed by children its horrible and bad its about dreams and he never says what it is also it says being selfish is a good thing and it teaches things your 5 year old obviously already knows

To sum up my absolute hate for this movie, I created an IMDb account JUST to write a review on this movie. To begin, the only reason I watched this is because I was doped on Tylenol with the flu and needed a movie to pass time. I cannot say enough times how much I dislike the dialog, plot, casting, characters and overall animation. My seven year old brother and I decided that the producers probably made this movie in a weekend. The dialog doesn't match up with the way their mouths are moving, and every here and there the characters would be talking OUTSIDE of the shot. It's almost more entertaining to make fun of this movie, rather than actually watch it. To be honest, my brother and I thought it was a rip off of Veggie Tales...only with worse musical numbers and animation. By the time the first song started playing, we thought John Denver was singing. Not only that, but someone obviously had to write new lyrics/music because song writers would be ashamed to be apart of this movie. Lastly, the characters were more poorly depicted than a children's picture book. For example, "Carl The Squid" looked like he escaped from that movie "Chernobyl Diaries"...it's almost scary. Also, the physical features of the fish/dolphin aren't even anatomically correct. For one, porpoise don't even sleep! And the squid's face is backwards. Overall, this movie will actually decrease your child's chances of getting into a good college and most likely scare them away from the ocean. In summary, if you're religious...FIND A DIFFERENT MOVIE because you will definitely be offended and ashamed you even clicked "play".

This is good movie. It had good part like when the good thing happened. You know that good part. That part is very good. When that part happens the best part is good. Very good could recommend to some. That good part is good. And that movie is very good.

OK, before I get laughed outta court having read the other reviews here - here's what this thing's main problem is - background/foreground interaction. Whoever did the backgrounds, INCLUDING the water, REALLY knew that animation package - they were superb. The problem IS - he should have been given control of ALL the animation including the foregrounds, the creatures were a leetle ropey. Their perspective was dodgy front-end on and you DID glimpse the waves THROUGH the baddie's mouth sometimes. And the mouth movements didn't quite keep up with the words but don't forget the English version's a redub. (That's not budget - they had the software - that's just sloppiness in using it.) So for sure it had techie issues. BUT.... I loved its song (honest!) I think there was room for a Group Sing at the end too. I loved its message - was at a low point when I watched it and the 'Follow Your Dream' message sure gave me a much-needed kick in the pants! Its audience was little kids and it wasn't QUITE engaging enough - again true - but techie issues aside I loved all the characters. I wish Daniel had kept his g/f, I'd've loved to see them surf that wave together even if they did part afterwards. But it's well worth its 6/10 for the guy who did the backgrounds. I felt every bit of heart he put into them, kudos to him, I hope he gets much more work outta it. I felt a lot - not all - of people put a lot of work/heart into that thing, if the WHOLE team had done - money men included - it would've been a winner. Remember the message. Remember the lovely water and gorgeous backgrounds. And it should've been called DANIEL - Story of a Dreamer (The Dolphin's too generic.) Missed opportunity - if you're being harsh, yes. I prefer to call it a slightly flawed pearl. But it's NOT the waste of space others are calling it, go along with it for the ride and you'll come out on the crest of Daniel's wave. Chris.

OK, I started out watching this movie with my 5 year old son, thinking, "Ok, follow your dreams! That's cool, good message and all that." But that quickly turned into "Um, this has got to be the absolute lamest movie I've ever seen in my entire life." The whole movie had the feel of a bad Christian cartoon, but without the spiritual message. I take that back, Christian cartoons are better, and that is REALLY saying something. It's almost as if they took every cliché from every kids movie that takes place in the water and ripped it off but not very well. I can't believe this was "based on a book", I really can't. Someone actually got published with a plot like this? Really?? SPOILER (lol).. Apparently at the very end Daniel, rides the perfect wave and follows his dreams... so I guess he really wanted to surf or something, even though he is a dolphin and only really talked about surfing at the very beginning of the movie, right after doing the whole "Free Willy" jump out of the lagoon, with the moon in the background... I could go on all day about this, and to be honest, I did get some enjoyment out of this movie, because it was sooooooooo bad, that it was amusing to watch how bad it was. And I'm a little ashamed of my son (I say this in jest, I'll never be ashamed of my kid!)... I kept asking him if he liked the movie, or if it looked a little "weird", trying to draw it out of him, but he swore up and down that he liked it and it looked "good".... so maybe the movie will fool your kid too, but it certainly won't fool you.

I like the film "The Dolphin Story of a Dreamer," because it has a message about following your dreams and listening to your heart, even when others tell you your dreams don't matter. The film is about a young dolphin named Daniel Alexander Dolphin, who has a dream to surf the biggest wave. He lives with a pod of dolphins and he is not suppose to wander outside of the lagoon. The other dolphins in his pod have given up on following their dreams, and are happy to live in comfort in the lagoon, but Daniel wants more. When a kind stingray enters the lagoon and tells Daniel to never give up and keep following his heart he decides to leave the lagoon to find his dream. My favorite part of the film is when Daniel surfs the giant wave and shoots through the tube. I love when he is inside the wave. It is magical. My favorite character is the little tiny dolphin, named Sparky, who gets so excited about everything and acts like he is on a sugar rush and then falls over exhausted and goes to sleep. The background in the lagoon is beautiful. The animation has lots of detail. The small brightly colored plants swaying in the water and sunlight are very realistic but magical too. Some of the animation I don't like. For example the dolphin's teeth are too sharp and that makes them a little scary and sometimes the mouth movement doesn't go along with the voices. I recommend this film to older kids or as a family movie because the messages might be hard for young kids to understand and might be boring. I feel some of the messages get over-played and sometimes I lose interest. Younger kids might think the shark is scary, but compared to Nemo, it's not too scary. Credit: Makai Weber Colvin, Age 9, KIDS FIRST! Film Critic