I’m always on the lookout for quality family movies and it’s not easy to find a movie that I feel is worthy of a purchase. It usually has to meet the following criteria:
- The children love to watch it over and over again and I can actually get something done.
- I can tolerate watching it over and over again or at least hearing it in the background repeatedly while getting something done.
I think that’s about it. Ok…so there’s more to it than that. I did say family movie after all, so in theory, we should be watching this together.
The ideal family movie has the following:
- The kids love to watch it repeatedly.
- It is enjoyable and appropriate for all the ages in the home.
- It teaches some kind of life lesson and sets a good example.
- It makes you think about your own contributions to good in life.
- It has the ability to have a learning extension.
Dolphin Tale was all of the above and more. It was a family friendly movie that was multi-faceted. It showed the resiliency of the dolphin to endure it’s challenges and how this creature inspired others who were disabled to continue on their own positive journey living with their disability. It showed how never giving up led to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium remaining open – which is a fantastic message in perseverance and resiliency.
The movie showed a parent opening her eyes to the hands-on learning that her son was getting at the marina and allowing him to do it, in spite of the summer school he was supposed to attend.
Now granted, I’m not sure that’s a part of the “real-life” version of events, but it was a nice message that kids sometimes learn best when they have a hands-on learning experience. They sometimes find their passion when they are up close and involved with what they are learning instead of in their text book.
There were so many lovely messages in this story, which is why it was well worth the DVR rental and then the ultimate final purchase to add it into our family collection.
As a family, we later went on to the computer and discovered how Winter was doing in real life and saw that she is still doing well. It became a learning extension which was a definite added bonus.
Do you have a movie like this you can recommend?Â
Photo: Amazon
