OK, before I get laughed outta court having read the other reviews here - here's what this thing's main problem is - background/foreground interaction. Whoever did the backgrounds, INCLUDING the water, REALLY knew that animation package - they were superb. The problem IS - he should have been given control of ALL the animation including the foregrounds, the creatures were a leetle ropey. Their perspective was dodgy front-end on and you DID glimpse the waves THROUGH the baddie's mouth sometimes. And the mouth movements didn't quite keep up with the words but don't forget the English version's a redub. (That's not budget - they had the software - that's just sloppiness in using it.) So for sure it had techie issues. BUT.... I loved its song (honest!) I think there was room for a Group Sing at the end too. I loved its message - was at a low point when I watched it and the 'Follow Your Dream' message sure gave me a much-needed kick in the pants! Its audience was little kids and it wasn't QUITE engaging enough - again true - but techie issues aside I loved all the characters. I wish Daniel had kept his g/f, I'd've loved to see them surf that wave together even if they did part afterwards. But it's well worth its 6/10 for the guy who did the backgrounds. I felt every bit of heart he put into them, kudos to him, I hope he gets much more work outta it. I felt a lot - not all - of people put a lot of work/heart into that thing, if the WHOLE team had done - money men included - it would've been a winner. Remember the message. Remember the lovely water and gorgeous backgrounds. And it should've been called DANIEL - Story of a Dreamer (The Dolphin's too generic.) Missed opportunity - if you're being harsh, yes. I prefer to call it a slightly flawed pearl. But it's NOT the waste of space others are calling it, go along with it for the ride and you'll come out on the crest of Daniel's wave.Chris.

To sum up my absolute hate for this movie, I created an IMDb account JUST to write a review on this movie. To begin, the only reason I watched this is because I was doped on Tylenol with the flu and needed a movie to pass time. I cannot say enough times how much I dislike the dialog, plot, casting, characters and overall animation.My seven year old brother and I decided that the producers probably made this movie in a weekend. The dialog doesn't match up with the way their mouths are moving, and every here and there the characters would be talking OUTSIDE of the shot. It's almost more entertaining to make fun of this movie, rather than actually watch it. To be honest, my brother and I thought it was a rip off of Veggie Tales...only with worse musical numbers and animation. By the time the first song started playing, we thought John Denver was singing. Not only that, but someone obviously had to write new lyrics/music because song writers would be ashamed to be apart of this movie. Lastly, the characters were more poorly depicted than a children's picture book. For example, "Carl The Squid" looked like he escaped from that movie "Chernobyl Diaries"...it's almost scary. Also, the physical features of the fish/dolphin aren't even anatomically correct. For one, porpoise don't even sleep! And the squid's face is backwards. Overall, this movie will actually decrease your child's chances of getting into a good college and most likely scare them away from the ocean. In summary, if you're religious...FIND A DIFFERENT MOVIE because you will definitely be offended and ashamed you even clicked "play".

Cheesy!!! The story line could have been good but the language used is too difficult, the story is hard to follow, the animation is not well done. My three year old watches it because she likes sea creatures, and for some reason she doesn't find the scary parts all that scary, maybe that is because of how bad the movie is? It IS scary in many parts, scary looking creatures and nasty creatures too. I will never get back the time I've spent watching this movie, unfortunately. Just an awful movie. This movie could have been good. The whole idea of people trying to stomp on your dreams and encouraging someone to follow their dream no matter what--it is great, maybe the book was better but all this movie did was make me want to squish Daniel the Dolphin and hope that he got eaten by something so I could stop watching.

I won't lie: This movie is flawed. Big time. The characters are mostly personality-deprived, the writing is terrible, and the plot has a tendency to rush through things with deus ex machina then stretch things out with pointless dribble.But for all of its faults, I can't hate this movie. . . Much.The most maddening thing about it, in fact, is that it has its moments of brilliance. The animation is anything but lazy, especially during above-water sequences (the water movements is pretty convincing). The soundtrack (with exception of the "Fly Daniel Dolphin" song) is nicely assembled, and the villain is a thing of brilliance (up until the big reveal at the end, at least).The impression I'm given is that this movie was a labor of love for some people -- that some people REALLY wanted this movie to be good, but that a couple of other people just got high and winged it at the last second. I'm left with the impression that it's more an example of wasted potential and less one of how low the entertainment industry can go.Again, it's not a good movie, but for an animation buff, there is enough in here to make it worth a rental at least.