PaulH
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What started off as an emotional rescue mission for a newborn dolphin caught in a crab trap off the coast of Florida has turned into one of the most inspirational stories of the past decade. Winter, the two-month old bottlenose dolphin who survived the rescue, has changed the lives of thousands of children and adults around the world with her story of hope for those suffering from debilitating injuries. The rope which trapped her, cut off the circulation to her tail, requiring amputation in order to save her. With an unwavering devotion to live, Winter learned how to swim using back-and-forth motions like a snake, but veterinarians feared this motion would damage her spine. Through the use of a special gel-sleeve and a prosthetic plastic tail, Winter learned how to swim like a natural dolphin and has made a remarkable recovery and rehabilitation.
I had the privileged opportunity to speak with David Yates, the CEO of Clearwater Marine Aquarium and the Co-Producer of Dolphin Tale, the heart-warming family film that was inspired by Winter's amazing story of survival. The film, which is being distributed by Warner Home Entertainment Group, is arriving on Blu-Ray 3D Combo Pack, Blu-Ray Combo Pack, DVD and Digital Download on December 20th.
Paul Hunter: It's a sincere pleasure to meet you, David. The story of Winter the dolphin is truly inspiring. Take me back to 2005, what was it like meeting Winter for the very first time.
David Yates: It was truly a remarkable moment for me and everyone at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium meeting Winter. Once a badly injured animal like Winter, who was only two-months old when we found her, reaches us for rehabilitation, the odds of survival are so small. Beyond that, then she loses her tail. So it was a situation where you have to kind of detach yourself and not get too emotionally involved with a young animal like this, but it's hard not to. It was a time of great concern for our crew, who were on 24-hour shifts, and they didn't think she'd be around when they came back for their next shift. It was a very dark time and gradually as time went on she surpassed every hurdle she had to get over and amazed us every step along the way.
PH: At what point did you feel that the story of Winter needed to be shared with the rest of the world?
DY: Well here's what happened. I used to deal with the media back in the 90s and as I watched her story and saw her surpass one hurdle after another while she survived, I thought this is crazy. She survived the rescue, then she lost her tail and still survived, then she learned how to swim with her prosthetic tail. This young dolphin will not give up, so we're not going to give up on her. Then we saw young kids relate to her, and we were inspired before anyone else was by what she was doing, so after three or four months I started to realize you know what, I have to tell this story. I told my staff from day one to watch because this story of what Winter is doing, and will do, is going to change lives. So I put her story out to the media and it blossomed and mushroomed from there, hit every country in the world and just became a huge deal. I'm not surprised, it's a very inspiring and enlightening story.
PH: Yeah I heard about her tale a few years ago and there's been a lot of stories told about her, there was a Scholastic book and a Nintendo DS game, not to mention all the extensive media coverage from NBC, CNN and BBC. I'm really curious then, how has the story of Winter inspired you personally and affected what you do?
DY: This has completely changed how I work and how I run Clearwater Marine Aquarium. We're a non-profit, and we're involved in real-life rescue like you see in the movie, but also environmental education. We've added another element to what we do because of Winter's story, she's inspired a lot of people going through a life struggle. So this has really been an emotional journey for me. For example, I just had a meeting an hour before this conversation with a family with a young boy who has Asperger who we brought in to have sessions with Winter in the water. The sessions this boy, who's 11-years-old, normally does with his doctor we've incorporated into the water with Winter. It's completely changed his life, family-wise. For me personally, seeing this is very emotional and I also see it as a great sense of obligation and responsibility. It's an amazing story and I need to make sure I reach as many people as I can because it not only inspires, but it changes lives.
DY: Absolutely no question there is. I see it every day and it's a very disarming experience. You know, if you see someone with a major physical injury or a similar injury to yourself, then you can relate, but when you see a young dolphin that's an animal who didn't give up, it raises that connection to a much higher level. It's especially true with kids who tend to be shy, they may not want to talk about it, they're angry about what's happened, and Winter breaks all that down. Animals have that ability, and not to mention that Winter is one of the most lovable animals of all time -- a dolphin -- and she's a young dolphin who can just break down barriers. We've seen wounded soldiers, grown men, come in and these battle hardened soldiers have a total change of perspective. We had one guy come in named Sgt. Russ Merrick with major injuries and almost died in Iraq, and he nearly gave up on life. It was one of the most emotional days I've ever had, everybody was crying, as the guy could barely walk. Today he's one of the most motivated guys you'll ever see, and he think if this little dolphin can do it, then by golly I can do it.
PH: Wow that's so inspiring and what an incredible dolphin! You know, I've heard that Winter plays herself in the movie, so I'm curious to know how receptive she was, to in a sense, "acting"?
DY: First of all, there are a number of scenes in the movie where we use animatronics, like the rescue scene because we couldn't take her out to the beach for safety reasons. The vast majority of what you see in the movie is Winter herself and you have to understand that she's been a well known animal for several years now so she's used to the media attention and she loves it. She's a social animal, they love attention, and Winter is especially social because she was raised by humans. So I tell people she loved it, the best three or four months of her life were during filming. She had hundreds of people around that were all paying attention to her, and she knew she was the star here because all the cameras were shining on her. Keep in mind she's done media work in the past but this was a new level and she just had a blast.
PH: Yeah and you could really see the happiness on Winter's face throughout the movie. So the movie comes out and there's a lot of critical and commercial success, yet there was already a lot of attention on Winter. How do you feel about having even more attention on her and seeing even more people inspired by her story?
DY: It's almost surreal for us, honestly we're a small facility in Clearwater, Florida, but now we're growing rapidly. You don't get this kind of opportunity very often so motivation here is quite high. Since it's a worldwide story we also want to make sure the story is treated well, and we like to work with kids or anybody we can to better their lives. That's taking up a lot of our time right now but what better way to spend your time really?
PH: It's my understanding that the Blu-ray and DVD will be coming out on December 20th, are there any enhancements or bonus features you want to touch upon and let fans of Winter know about?
DY: Sure, as a matter of fact in the Blu-ray version there are two videos that Warner Bros. produced and we filmed during production, telling the history of Clearwater Marine Aquarium, and the history of our inspirational story. If you want to learn more about the background of Winter, how we did the gel-sleeve, or see behind-the-scenes footage it's all on the Blu-ray. These two videos, Winter's Inspiration and Winter's Hope, are really neat 19-20 minute videos telling Winter's real-life story.
PH: I was checking out the Blu-ray last night and the quality of the video is amazing. I know our time is running short so I have one last question for you, it's been six years since the journey started, how is Winter doing today?
DY: She is doing fantastic, in fact she is being paired with a new dolphin in about three weeks. She's healthy and doing great. Her day is pretty much the same no matter what, she's an active and happy dolphin and everything is cool.
PH: That's fantastic to hear and deserving considering how many lives she's touched. Thanks a lot for your time today David, it's truly an inspiring story and I really appreciate you giving the Future Shop community these amazing insights into Winter's tale.
For more information on Dolphin Tale, be sure to check out the futureshop.ca product pages here.
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