Dolphin Tale (2011)

This is a solid movie based on a true story. Sawyer Nelson (Nathan Gamble) is a depressed and lonely boy who spends his free time in the garage tinkering with his remote controlled helicopter. His favorite cousin Kyle Connellan (Austin Stowell) serves in the military and is sent to Iraq. One day while Sawyer is riding his bicycle near the beach, a fisherman calls out to him to find help because a dolphin is trapped on the sand. Rescue workers from the Clearwater Marine Hospital arrive to pick up the animal. The dolphin's tale has to be amputated which severely hinders her ability to swim. A prosthetics specialist (Morgan Freeman) decides that he will make an artificial tale for the mammal.

Winter is a bottlenose dolphin held at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida who was found in December 2005. She was spotted and caught by a small fishing boat. It took a team of experts a year and half to design and test the prosthetic tail. There is a live webcam showing the pool where the dolphin lives.