Charles Martin Smith‘s Dolphin Tale (Warner Bros., 9.23) is a true-life saga of a wounded dolphin who’d lost his tail in a crab trap, and who was rescued and given a prosthetic replacement. I’m a softie for dolphin movies as long as they’re not Flipper-related. I saw The Cove three or four times, of course. I even accepted the sentimentality in Mike Nichols‘ The Day of the Dolphin. This one looks a little obvious.

Nathan Gamble plays the proverbial cute kid who bonds with the dolphin (who came to be called Winter) early on, and Ashley Judd plays his mom. Harry Connick Jr plays a vet who rescues Winter and brings her to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Morgan Freeman is a doctor who helps a prosthetic limb, etc. Presumably shot (and not just processed) in 3D.