What is the first film you think of when you hear Elijah Wood's name? Peter Jackson's excellent 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy (I'm still going to pretend that Amazon's awful series doesn't exist!)? Or how about 'Flipper'?
For me, I always come back to 'Flipper' even though I'm more interested in the dolphin than anyone else in the film (sorry Elijah!). Yes I still have my Flipper bed-sheet with the dolphin on twenty-six years later (and yes I may have named a few soft toy dolphins after Flipper himself! I may have been a little obsessed with dolphins at the time!).
The story starts off with Sandy (a very young Elijah Wood) arriving to the island fishing-port that his Uncle Porter Ricks (Paul Hogan) lives. Sandy is clearly not happy with something; his previous Summer holiday plans have been disrupted by this visit.
Unable to find Uncle Porter after arriving at his house, Sandy looks outside the back; Uncle Porter is currently water-boarding, clearly forgetting that he was supposed to have picked up Sandy that day. "I thought you weren't coming until Thursday?" Uncle Porter asks after he's finished and has gotten to the shore. "It is Thursday!" Sandy growls angrily at him.
Sandy is clearly unhappy with the state Uncle Porter's house is in; later on he calls him a "hippy". "When your mother called I didn't hesitate to look after you" Uncle Porter says firmly to Sandy after he asks how much his mother paid Uncle Porter to take him off her hands whilst she settles a divorce.
After going into town to get some fishing supplies, Uncle Porter and Sandy head out into the ocean to do some fishing. During the trip fisherman Dirk Moran (Jonathon Banks) shows up in his newer, modern boat. “At least it still floats!” he jokingly insults Uncle Porter about Uncle Porter’s clearly falling apart boat. Uncle Porter glares at him and says another insult of his own.
Meanwhile, as Sandy is trying to recover from being sea sick, Sandy notices some dolphins jumping out of the water. He’s clearly fascinated by them. Unlike Dirk who immediately tries to hurt them by shooting them. As the dolphins swim away, only one remains behind, hiding behind Uncle Porter’s boat. Sandy lies to Dirk telling him that the dolphin left, hiding the dolphin whilst he’s doing so. The moment Dirk leaves, Sandy tells the dolphin to go.
As I said earlier, my earliest memory of ‘Flipper’ was the bed-sheet which I still have. I had other merch of this film at the time too including the film tie-in storybook.
With excellent underwater cinematography (the underwater shots are beautiful) this will keep anyone- especially anyone interested in marine life- interested and entertained.
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