Dolphin - cute
Elijah Wood - very very cute, especially when wet and partially nekkid
Paul Hogan - strangely attractive, must have been the leather bondage cuff he wore through the whole movie
Plot - very silly
Cute blonde - romance sub-plot highly unconvincing, clearly no girl can come between a boy and his dolphin and Elijah doesn't even make a vague attempt at kissing her, instead choosing to spend all his time fondling Flipper
Ending - strangely similar to Casablanca, as Elijah says farewell to the finned love of his life...
Lij: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I've done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing. You're going out into that sea with your family where you belong.
Flipper: eee eee eee
Lij: Now you've got to listen to me! Do you have any idea what you'd have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten we'd both wind up in SeaWorld. Isn't that true, Paul Hogan?
Paul: I'm afraid the kid is right
Flipper: eee eee eee
Lij: I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with your family. You're part of their life - the thing that keeps them going. If that pod leaves here and you're not with them, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon. And for the rest of your life.
Flipper: eee eee eee
Lij: We'll always have that time under the pier. We didn't have - we lost it until you found the poison barrels. We got it back last night.
Flipper: eee eee eee
Lij: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. And where I'm going you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Flipper, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of one little boy and his dolphin don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Some day you'll understand that. Here's looking at you, kid.
I'm so moved I may weep.
In summary, approximately 5000 times better than Queen of the Damned, not quite as good as Lord of the Rings.
