User Reviews

A dolphin, a parrot, two kids, and exploives. What does that all add up to? A pretty silly story! First, you have the dolphin. Porter made him get pinned up so he wouldn't be in the way or get hurt when the explovies were set off. How many times have we seen that story before? Second, we have this crazy parrot who has a very good knowledge and can talk. We've never met him before but he can even say Flipper's name. What's more, the parrot knows he's in trouble and even calls out for Flipper to help him. It's a bit unbelievable if you ask me! Then we have the two kids. It's all innocent enough and they play only a small part. But when the parrot shows up after untying himself, and Flipper shows up after getting himself out of the pen, they call on good ol' Dad for help.

Have I ever mentioned how intelligent all the animals in the show seem to be? I don't mind Mr. Ed because we know going in that he's exceptional. But Flipper, Pelican Pete, and Cap'n Flint are all a little hard to conceive!

As Season 3 wound down (and likely everyone knew there would be no 4th season) the scripts got pretty lazy and sloppy. This one is a mish mash of several previous well used plot lines such as the mini sub and underwater explosions all threatening Flipper. This one adds a silly twist involving a parrot (Captain Flint) on a raft that sails into the blast zone.

It features some contortions that go beyond the norm in Flipper - first that a demolition man would listen to kids bleating about the threat to a parrot. Almost all requests to hold up a blast due to stray parrot would not be taken seriously. You got the impression that the demo man would've acceded to Bud's plea if only the countdown had not been locked in. In any event an underwater blast wouldn't have affected a bird on the surface. The threat to Flipper was more real. Sandy was engrossed in study and not concentrating on Flipper who breaks free from his pen and ends up entering the blast zone. Sandy discovers this soon enough to alert Porter who roars into the blast zone in the launch to get Flipper to leap onto the raft with seconds to spare.

By now even Tommy Nordon seems bored with the Flipper series and you can tell that he and Luke Halpin are going through the motions as both look out of sorts acting in the younger age roles the script proscribed for them.