Sawyer Nelson (Nathan Gamble) is now famous as a part of the team at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium after the rescue of Winter. Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff) is back along with her dad Dr. Clay Haskett (Harry Connick Jr.) who runs the hospital. Prof Miguel Arroyo (Carlos Gómez) invites Sawyer to 12 weeks on a sailing ship for a special guest student program. Winter is depressed after her surrogate mother dolphin Panama passes away. USDA regulations forbids keeping a dolphin alone. They have rescued a new dolphin named Mandy but Clay is reluctant to pair them together. Inspector George Hughes (Charles Martin Smith) gives him 30 days.

I liked the charm of the first movie and I like that most of the actors return for this one. Although most of the adults with the exception of Harry Connick Jr. are push to the side. The two kids get most of the work. It is very sincere. Rufus the pelican continues to provide a bit of light comedy but this is mostly a downer. They suffer an lost early on and it wallows in it for most of the movie. I'm reluctant to give too many negatives because everybody seems so nice. It's definitely not as compelling as the original but it's nice to see everybody again.

Enjoyable sequel that finds Winter the dolphin struggling with the death of her friend Panama. Meanwhile, Sawyer (Nathan Gamble) gets an offer to attend a special marine research program for three months but isn't sure he is ready to go. Like the first movie it's based on real events and the dolphins Winter and Hope appear here as themselves. The cast from the last one also returns, with reduced roles for Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, and Kris Kristofferson. But that's okay because the two kids (now young teens) and the dolphins are the stars. There's a budding romantic subplot with Sawyer and Hazel that is six kinds of cute. Also fun is the comic relief pelican that has a subplot involving a turtle. It's a nice, positive family movie with a likable cast and good message.

Great uplifting movie - I loved it! Living in a landlocked country, I always like watching films about marine life. Judging from the script, the target audience of the film seemed to be kids; and in many ways this is certainly a family movie, with the young teenagers Sawyer and Hazel being the heroes of the story. Nonetheless, this is a very insightful film about dolphins and marine life, with some great underwater scenes. I also enjoyed the scene with Bethany Hamilton swimming with the dolphin - very uplifting and heartwarming stuff.