Sawyer later uses it to cut the ropes away from Winter. How long did it take for you to rescue Winter? Which parts? Nathan Gamble as Sawyer Nelson, the boy who found Winter three years earlier and has since then became experted in the fields of marine biology and Winter's trainer. “So now, a year and a half later, she’s flying around,” on her prosthetic legs, says Carroll. The characters grow to realize the deeper truths about generosity and letting go. He is initially a timid and not-so-confident eleven-year-old who constantly struggles. They had built prosthetics for birds, horses and dogs before, but never a dolphin. To learn more, visit. “Obviously Winter was very sick, badly injured. . We also did not want to send her organs into shock, so we kept her in the water for a while. “They just thought I was some smart [aleck],” recalls Carroll. She was vocalizing everything and she was moving a little bit. When Carroll and Strzempka learned there would be a movie, they began joking about who would play each of them in the film. Teresa Mazza from the Hubbs-Seaworld Research Institute in Melbourne Beach, Florida, spoke with National Geographic magazine intern Erin Durkin. Do you think the film portrayed Winter’s story well? Dolphin Tale 2 is a great family moving featuring lots of marine animals, dolphins, turtles, birds, etc. It took the whole day for us to recover her. The popular new movie Dolphin Tale tells the touching story of a young dolphin named Winter who loses her tail and survives with a prosthetic one. The 3-month old dolphin, named Winter because she was found on a particularly cold December day in 2005, immediately stole Carroll’s heart. “Just to see this very clean, anatomically correct, fluidlike motion in the water — it was absolutely breathtaking.”. The end of the film features some clips of Kazazic and other real-life fans of the mammal interacting with her. DOLPHIN TALE is very emotive. Sawyer's then established as a loner of a kid who views his older, athletic cousin as a father figure. Morgan Freeman does a superb job as the doctor who makes the prosthetics for the veterans. Differences between the movie and real-life events Edit. Haskett tries to nurse the dolphin, dubbed Winter by his daughter Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff), back to health. She is the author of “The Real Thing: Lessons on Love and Life from a Wedding Reporter's Notebook.". Then I got a phone call from my team asking me to tell them what it looked like and how she was doing. . © 1996 - 2019 National Geographic Society. The movie shows the rescue being rather quick. She previously covered local technology companies for the business section and anchored the Style section's On Love page, writing extensively about weddings, love and relationships. To find out, we contacted one of Winter’s real-life rescuers. I started crying; it was the worse I’ve seen. When CMA came he met Hazel for the first time. Once Hazel got out of the shower she then out on her night gown and braided her hair. Hazel's mother passed away when Hazel was 7 years old. Over the course of a year, the team gradually increased the size of the tail to match her now 230-pound body, and Winter began swimming as she had before the accident. The fictionalized film plants a young boy and his family at the center of the story but closely adheres to the technical evolution of Winter’s prosthetic. She wasn’t moving her tail and it looked postmortem, like something on a dead animal. She is found lying on the shore by a nearby fisherman and rescued with Sawyer's assistance. Dolphin Tale (2011) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. The facility itself was nearing bankruptcy when Winter arrived but has since become a major tourist attraction, undergoing significant renovations and luring thousands of visitors, including many wounded soldiers and children with disabilities. 16 year old Sawyer and Hazel embark on another adventure with another dolphin, and human. He contacted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, who asked me to respond. Every summer she goes to the aquarium to see her family and one Dolphin. If my channel reaches 100 subs. Once it came to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, it had to have its tail amputated, a move that threatened its life until a prosthetic was made for her. The challenges in creating such a device were manifold. Who is the main character in dolphin tale? It stars Nathan Gamble, Harry Connick, Jr., Ashley Judd, Kris Kristofferson, Cozi Zuehlsdorff in her big screen debut, and Morgan Freeman. A family film inspired by the real-life tale of the dolphin Winter, who got her tail caught in a crab trap, and who subsequently was fitted with a prosthetic tail. Dolphin Tale 2 is, perhaps better than the original film in that its themes hit home with all ages. “She reminded me of the children I see who are just after having an amputation,” recalls Carroll of his first meeting with the bottlenose dolphin. She wouldn’t wear her prosthetics because they were too painful against her sensitive scar tissue, so she was using a wheelchair. I think they did a good job blending in the issues that Winter was facing, like how she needed a new tail because the way she was swimming was deteriorating her spine. A children’s book about her story, “Winter’s Tale: How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again,” was published in 2009. Artificial Limb: The whole plot of the movie revolves around Winter getting one. The popular new movie Dolphin Tale tells the touching story of a young dolphin named Winter who loses her tail and survives with a prosthetic one. A Dolphin Tale: The Real-Life Rescue Behind the Movie. Upon meeting Sawyer, Hazel became more social and less shy. “We knew it was going to happen, but when it happened, it was just awesome,” Carroll says of the first time Winter used the full prosthetic. In the first film, Hazel was seen as a normal 11-year- old, who was a shy home-schooled girl whose only friends were animals. Which parts? Sawyer was lying in bed while Hazel was in the shower getting the rest of the coffee out of her hair. It’s based on a true story—Winter plays herself—but some parts were fictionalized to make it more appealing to young viewers. Of course, the movie wants to focus on a character who can talk, so instead the plot is more about a young boy who wants to help save this injured dolphin. Read Dolphin Tale's Healing Bonds Warm Hearts - and more of the latest on movies and films from a Christian perspective. Knowing that she'll die if she can't swim properly, Sawyer – who's been skipping summer school to hang out with Winter and Hazel – comes up with a plan. This was particularly difficult, Carroll explains, because Dolphins have hypersensitive skin. Kris Kristofferson as Reed Haskett, Clay's father and Hazel's grandfather. The summer when Sawyer and Hazel were 16, Sawyer finally asked Hazel to be his girlfriend in which she happily accepted. Hazel loves animals and had a huge passion when meeting Winter and Hope the Dolphin. Winter the dolphin stars as herself in the new movie Dolphin Tale, which details her rescue and rehab after losing her tail. Trainers acted as physical therapists, coaching her to once again move her body up and down. Because Winter didn’t have the ability to articulate what was painful or irritating for her, they used heat-detecting cameras to pinpoint areas of sensitivity and found that with the silicone, she was developing hot spots of discomfort. (Jon Farmer/JON FARMER), Ellen McCarthy is a feature writer for Style. At first, officials at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium on the Gulf Coast of Florida thought Kevin Carroll’s call was a prank. 37 Stories. Strzempka tested it on himself first and when they put it on Winter, they didn’t pick up any hot spots. As the summer went on Sawyer found himself getting closer and closer with Hazel, her family, and people who work at the Clearwater Marine aquarium. Chekhov's Gun: Kyle gives Sawyer a Swiss Army Knife early on. Winter the Dolphin is, in fact, still alive and living at Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida. She was exhausted and had sustained a lot of damage. “But if I put that same mark on the dolphin’s skin, six weeks later I’d come back and that mark would still be there.”. The film did not show as much damage, but I can understand why they changed it for young kids. Clay (Harry Connick Jr.) discusses serious marine issues with Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff) in "Dolphin Tale 2." It’s based on a true story—Winter plays herself—but some parts were fictionalized to make it more appealing to young viewers. It also needed to attach securely to her stump. They try to save Winter, save the Marine Rescue Center and rescue Kyle from his depression. They initially tried a silicone-based material as the adhesive lining for the prosthetic. It also made it very hard for her to breathe. Because the infection is too bad, he ultimately has to amputate her tail. Considering this, does the dolphin die in Dolphin Tale? They were now her adopted family.”. Carroll and Strzempka, working pro bono, first had to figure out whether a fake tail would even help Winter. Yesterday, I reviewed Dolphin Tale (2011), a dramatization of a real life sea mammal that was rescued from being stranded on a beach with a crab trap wrapped around its tail. It's generally known for nice beaches, but that's about it. Jun 28, 2016 - Dolphin Tale 2: Cozi Zuehlsdorff "Hazel Haskett" & Nathan Gamble "Sawyer Nelson" Interview - YouTube They never dreamed they’d be combined into one character and cast as Morgan Freeman. She had rope burns all around her body. Ashley Judd as Lorraine Nelson, Sawyer's mother. “Dolphin Tale 2” is essentially a vehicle to showcase Winter and her real-life pool mate, Hope, a young dolphin whose convenient beaching in the film can only be called a dolphin ex machina. Since 1888, National Geographic has pushed the boundaries of exploration, investing in bold people and transformative ideas, providing more than 14,000 grants for work across all seven continents, reaching 3 million students each year through education offerings, and engaging audiences around the globe through signature experiences, stories and content. Carroll met with her, told the little girl about Winter and fitted her with a new sleeve made of WintersGel. I saw it in a somewhat distracted, agitated state. Carroll and a colleague, Dan Strzempka, both prosthetists with Hanger Orthopedic Group who happened to live in Florida, quickly committed themselves to the project. A fisherman noticed that a crab pot [a type of trap] was moving erratically in the water about 100 yards offshore, and when he pulled it up he found her. She was actually in deep water and the way she was trapped would have made it impossible for her to be washed up on the beach. She had adapted, learning to swim side to side, the way a fish or shark would, rather than with the up-and-down motion natural to dolphins. I'll make another wonderful video that I really worked on. There was never a moment that Winter was without human contact. In real life, Winter was found in Mosquito Lagoon south of New Smyrna Beach―part of the Cape Canaveral National Seashore. However, when he encounters Winter, little does he know that what would happen from that moment on would change his life. The rules are strict about that. “So we felt that by fitting her with a prosthetic device, we could get her swimming in an anatomically correct manner again.”. Eventually, the prosthetists realized WintersGel would work on humans. “Human skin is fragile, but I can scratch my nail across my skin and in a couple of minutes that mark is gone,” he says. Winter arrived at CMA in 2005 after being caught in a crab trap line. In time she would steal hearts around the world and inspire the new movie “Dolphin Tale,” in which she plays herself alongside co-stars Harry Connick Jr., Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. This one would attach to the end of Winter’s body, and had to move side to side, up and down and gently twist as she swam. Hazel, the 11-year-old daughter of an animal doctor named Clay, is impressed by Sawyer’s rescue of the dolphin, which they name Winter. I'll be honest, in the spirit of the honestly shameless heartwarmer "Dolphin Tale." Privacy Notice |  Sustainability Policy |  Terms of Service |  Code of Ethics, The National Geographic Society is a global nonprofit organization that uses the power of science, exploration, education and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world. The fisherman who discovered her was … She couldn’t swim as fast or jump as high as most dolphins, but the real problem was that she was slowly damaging her spine. “My bucket list has come true.”, From left: Nathan Gamble as Sawyer Nelson, Morgan Freeman as Dr. Cameron McCarthy, Austin Highsmith as Phoebe, Cozi Zuehlsdorff as Hazel Haskett and Harry Connick Jr. as Dr. Clay Haskett in Alcon Entertainment's ‘Dolphin Tale,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Carroll and Strzempka also worked as advisers on the movie, which opened in theaters Friday. Working with Winter has become a hobby for Carroll and Strzempka, who still visit her at the Clearwater Aquarium at least once a month. It’s based on a true story—Winter plays herself—but some parts were fictionalized to make it more appealing to young viewers. They were just incredible with her, working 24/7. Sawyer was on his way to summer school one day when Winter was beached and caught in crab trap. When we put her the stretcher she reacted, showing she still had a little bit of a fight left in her. The 9-year-old girl had been badly burned as a baby and had to have her legs amputated. Winter’s Tale: How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again. She was found in Mosquito Lagoon on December 10, 2005. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. The team began preparing the dolphin for her new prosthetic, starting with a very small tail so she slowly become reaccustomed to the sensation of its resistance in the water. (Y/N) (L/N) is Hazel's Cousin. Kyle gifts him with an elaborate Swiss Army knife before he leaves, all the better to associate his character with the dolphin who will give Sawyer's life meaning (it's used to cut the ropes binding Winter). The sockets of most prosthetics fit over arm or leg bones, and need not be flexible. Another woman and I switched off holding her in the water between 10 a.m and 5 p.m.. Yeah, actually. All rights reserved. Sawyer then smiled as Hazel came out of the bathroom. But Carroll, a native of Ireland who is one of the world’s leading prosthetists, convinced the dolphin’s caretakers of his credentials and drove from Orlando to meet with them that day. As soon as we got her detangled she began resting, showing that she was really exhausted. She looked like a princess in the night gown. At first we didn’t realize how bad the damage to her tail was. … “Some people talk about a bucket list, but here you go,” says Carroll. Parental Abandonment: Sawyer's father left the family 5 years ago, and nobody has heard from him since. In the movie, Winter is found by a little boy washed up on the beach. She was very bright. “I remember seeing her" for the first time, said Kazazic, whose company designed Winter’s website. When I got there, she was “hog tied” by the ropes. 1 of 2 From left, Nathan Gamble as Sawyer Nelson and Cozi Zuehlsdorff as Hazel Haskett with Winter as herself in Alcon Entertainment's family adventure "DOLPHIN TALE 2," a … Dolphin Tale is a 2011 American 3D family drama film directed by Charles Martin Smith (his first directed film since 2008) from a screenplay by Karen Janszen and Noam Dromi and a book of the same name. . He’d heard a radio report about the injured dolphin they rescued from a crab trap and wanted to see if he could build the animal a prosthetic tail to replace the one that had been amputated. And the people at the aquarium, their hearts were broken. It was very challenging because my team didn’t have a transport—and the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute’s team, who did have a transport, got a flat tire on the way to rescuing her. The popular new movie Dolphin Tale tells the touching story of a young dolphin named Winter who loses her tail and survives with a prosthetic one. Thanks to her rescue, she survived, but unfortunately the damage around her tail was too severe and she lost the tail due to the entanglement. The most interesting element of Dolphin Tale is definitely the fact that Winter is a real dolphin and has actually dealt with the problems dramatized in this movie. She might have been struggling for a long time, maybe overnight. Carroll and Strzempka, an amputee who lost his own leg in a lawn-mowing accident as a child, went back to the drawing board and worked with a chemical engineer to develop a new material, nicknamed “WintersGel,” that would distribute the pressure more evenly. Five years after the original Dolphin Tale movie. Sawyer had his trusty pocket knife with him, so he cut Winter free. 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