While this is probably classified as a family film, it really has some fairly dark moments. One of them comes in the very early moments as Flipper and another dolphin are swimming merrily through the ocean and the Bad Guy shoots Flipper's friend not once, but over and over. You don't see blood in the water or anything, but there's no question that he's hurt. Then he shoots again and again and there should be no question that the other dolphin is dead.
There are certainly some lighter moments in the movie, but there's also plenty more darkness, like dead fish floating around the toxic waste, and a near-dead Flipper who returns after eating some of the infected fish to boot. So it's not all fun and games, but there are some of those as well. Just probably not really for the younger set.
Sandy (Elijah Wood) has been sent to Coral Key to live with his Uncle Porter (Paul Hogan), a situation neither is particularly happy with.
So they mostly bumble about until Flipper finds his way to Sandy, and then they proceed to solve the mystery of the toxic waste that is being dumped about the island, which saves not only Flipper, but Uncle Porter's fishing business as well. It's no surprise that everything works out in the end, really.
Rated PG mostly for these more adult situations and a bit of adult dialogue, it's still better than most of what's out there for kids these days.
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