Plot: What’s it about?
Sandy (Luke Halpin) has been through thick and thin with his pal Flipper, including a brush with some vicious sharks. The two have spent hours in the ocean together, swimming around and just watching the tide roll away. Yes, these two closest of friends have a strong history together, but that is soon to become the past. The word has come down that Flipper is to be captured, then taken to the Miami Seaquarium, where the lovable dolphin will be slapped into a watery prison and forced to balance balls on his nose. And the audiences won’t even appreciate his skills, which makes the whole situation even worse. Instead of accepting this fate, Sandy and Flipper decide to go against The People’s Court motto and take the law into their own hands. So the buddies set sail on a course for a new home, where they won’t be bothered. Or at least a place where they won’t be torn apart and left to a life of loneliness. As it turns out, this journey proves to be quite dangerous and once again, they’ll need each other to perservere. A band of prison escapees stand in their path, with an entire family held hostage. But if anyone can overcome the odds and right the wrongs of the world, its some dumb kid and his dolphin. Or will reality catch up to the pals, resulting in Flipper’s enrollment in Miami Seaquarium’s impressive water show?
As if the torment of the original Flipper wasn’t enough, I soon had to endure the sequel, Flipper’s New Adventure. The adventure might be new, but the lack of entertainment was the same and so was the dull headache I was given. I’ve said it before, I don’t mind animal driven family fare, but even that genre has some standards to live up to. I think some producers just assume that if you slap a kid and some animal together, you have instant family cinema. Not true, as seen in the crap laden original Flipper and this even more craptastic sequel. If a great movie can yield a weak sequel, imagine how awful this one is, since it was spawned from a miserable original picture. Luke Halpin returns in the lead role, while Pamela Franklin (The Food of the Gods, And Soon the Darkness) provides a decent, but lost in all the shit, performance. I couldn’t believe how lame and poorly crafted this movie was, as if someone wanted to not just fleece families out of ticket cash, but see how much they’d suffer from the experience. The script is even worse that the original, while Halpin and the rest of the cast are more suited to regional theater. I had hoped Flipper’s New Adventure would be more than the original, but those hopes were crushed to dust. Again, if you like it, then more power to you, but there are a lot of superior family films out there.
Video: How does it look?
Flipper’s New Adventure is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. This treatment looks just like the one for the original film, which shouldn’t be a surprise, since it was made only a year after that movie. The image is pretty sharp and I found minimal flaws, even the print used looks clean, aside from some slight grain. The colors are bold and never smear, while flesh tones seem natural and consistent, no problems there. The contrast is more than solid also, though perhaps not as sharp and stark as I would have liked. In the end, this treatment meets or exceeds all expectations, so kudos to Warner here.
Audio: How does it sound?
The audio is on par with the original also, so to conserve some keystrokes, I’ve ported over my comments once again. All the splashes, whistles, and blowhole explosions sound solid in the included mono option, which hasn’t been ravaged by the tolls of time. The musical soundtrack is not one of my favorites, but it comes across well here and helps keep the ears entertained. There isn’t much here in terms of sound effects, but the ones that do surface sound solid, but not as rich as a more action driven film would allow. The dialogue is the heart and soul of this mix and it sounds terrific, very crisp and clean, always at a proper volume also. Not much else to discuss here, a basic mono soundtrack that more than handles this material. This disc also includes a French language track, as well as subtitles in English, Spanish, and French.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This disc includes the Tom and Jerry cartoon Jerry and the Goldfish, as well as the film’s theatrical trailer.
