It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Both of those caricature films are courtesy of Mel Gibson, but what is the excuse here? The English family here are just so awful! Dumb, although wealthy enough to have a yacht and therefore supposedly well educated. They are mistrusting and clueless beyond belief. The elder daughter actually thinks a dolphin is a 'sea monster" --this is in the early sixties! She seems just as stupid at the end of the film as she does at the beginning, and not sorry for anything she has said or done, like hacking away at Flipper when he tried to help. Even toward the end she still wants to get away from him. None of the English family seems resourceful, brave, bright, or particularly grateful to Sandy and Flipper when they turn out to be saviors. As for Sandy, the kid with the beloved pet Flipper, he originally takes off without much food or water, without protective clothing, and how far does he think he is going to GET before he needs these things? He doesn't come across as any genius either....the only one worth watching in this disaster is Flipper. And as for the corny music, PLEASE. Really sappy music and lyrics. Sorry!

For Flipper's New Adventure the writers at MGM came together and mixed the plots of The Admirable Crichton and The Desperate Hours and came up with a story that is cute and entertaining, but also for juveniles. I don't think any adults would buy it. A little bit of Bomba the Jungle Boy thrown in as well.One phone call to his father who was studying to be a Park Ranger after giving up his career as a fisherman from the first Flipper movie might have eased Luke Halpin's concern for his pet. But he hears some folks from the Miami Seaquarium are going to take Flipper and so he runs away and finds a nice island off the Florida coast to live or at least until the Seaquarium folks go away. Of course if Luke had made that phone call to Brian Kelly playing his father for the first time, he and Flipper would not have been around to help Tom Helmore's family who are stranded on the same island. He's been kidnapped for the use of his boat by three escaped convicts and they strand Helen Cherry and daughters Francesca Annis and Pamela Franklin on the island Luke took refuge on.Here's where it gets really dumb. These three are fugitives being hunted by law enforcement and they hit upon the brilliant scheme of holding Helmore and family for a getaway insurance. So they go back to that island and take them all save Halpin whom they don't know about. Absolutely brilliant, these clowns would have killed Helmore and kept on going with that cabin cruiser of his in real life. No wonder a kid and a dolphin take them. A bit unbelievable for adults, strictly for kids is Flipper's New Adventure.

the only thing I enjoyed from the movie is the scenery. definitely for the under 10 set who wont realize the unbelievability of the plot. sandy runs away with flipper to one of the small islands in the keys i guess . a British family gets hijacked while vacationing on their yacht. the dad is forced to stay with the crooks while the wife and kids are forced to get in a leaky dinghy and get to shore which happens to be the same island sandy is hiding on. he secretly helps the women who don't know how to do anything and accidentally runs into the younger daughter and they become secret friends- she swears to not tell anyone else that he is there.. this is where the unbelievable part goes , i mean don't you think the girl would worry about her dad and try everything to get off the island ,i mean screw sandy -- i want my dad back and i don't care about your childish run away from home thing. i would have told them and made him take the boat back to shore .. plain b/s and the writers not very intelligent.... average and all.

It is largely due to the participation of handsome Luke Halpin that this film drew my attention. Although Flipper the dolphin is well trained and does a good job it's also nice to see "Sandy Ricks" appear in a movie again.