Flipper's New Adventure
Flipper's New Adventure
| 24 June 1964 (USA)
Flipper's New Adventure Trailers

While widowed Porter Ricks is away at school learning to be a park ranger, his teen-aged son, Sandy, under adult supervision from a neighbor, remains at the family home in the Florida Keys with his pet dolphin, Flipper. While Po (as Porter is called by most) is away, Sandy learns that the family home, built on state land, is being torn down to make way for a highway. In turn, Sandy would be sent to live with relatives, while Flipper would be sent to the seaquarium permanently. Not wanting to be separated from Flipper, Sandy, using his skiff, runs away with Flipper. A distraught Po returns home to look for his son. Meanwhile, the Hopewell family from Britain are vacationing in the area. Their sailboat is hijacked by three escaped convicts, who take the father, Halsey, hostage, and set the three Hopewell women - mother Julia, and teen-aged daughters Gwen and Penny - adrift, they who eventually land on the island where Sandy is hiding... Written by Huggo

Reviews
StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.
Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?
Wuchak RELEASED IN 1964 and directed by Leon Benson, "Flipper's New Adventure" has Luke Halpin returning as teenager Sandy who runs away to an island where he discovers three female castaways, a mother and two daughters (Helen Cherry, Francesca Annis & Pamela Franklin). Meanwhile there are three escaped convicts on the loose. Brian Kelly replaces Chuck Connors as the kid's father, Po.As a family adventure/fantasy/animal flick, this sequel has even more "Yeah, right" moments than the first one, but I like it better because there's more human interest and sense of adventure. Luke was 16 during filming and Pamela 13. Their chemistry is real seeing as how Pamela was Luke's first girlfriend and he later traveled to England to see her, although it never morphed into anything permanent.It's amusing to observe Sandy basically becoming a teenage Tarzan as he aids the three females: Penny (Franklin) secretly receives his help while humorously pretending to possess great survival skills to her mother & sister. The showdown with the three convicts in the last act is actually kinda thrilling for a kid's adventure.The dolphin Mitzie played Flipper in the first movie whereas Suzy performs as Flipper in this one. Right before the film's release Luke confessed that Mitzie was more affectionate.THE MOVIE RUNS 94 minutes and was shot in Bahamas and Key Biscayne & Miami, Florida. WRITER: Ivan Tors. ADDITIONAL CAST: Lloyd Battista plays the lead convict while Tom Helmore plays the Brit patriarch.GRADE: B
wrxsti54 I discovered the existence of the two Flipper movies quite by accident after a childhood of Flipper TV re-runs. It has been a pleasant discovery.The first Flipper movie tells us how boy and dolphin became friends. That bond became the foundation of the popularity of the Flipper franchise. In this the sequel movie, we see further evolution of the family structure that was not finalized until the Flipper TV series was filmed in the summer of 1964. Flipper's New Adventure (FNA) was filmed due to the success of the first Flipper movie only one year later in 1963 but was held back for release in the early summer of 1964 as an intro to the TV series that was screened in the fall of 1964. Whilst the first movie featured all of the Ricks family members and was a little slow in getting to the dolphin rescue story, FNA quickly zeros in on the two stars of the first movie (Luke Halpin as Sandy Ricks and the dolphin - actually dolphins as Flipper). The producers were keen to cash in on Halpin's emerging teen idol status (he was 16 when FNA was filmed) as he grew up and so Sandy is the central character in FNA as opposed to a major character in the first movie. Halpin wore nothing more than just a pair of cut down blue jeans shorts for 90% of FNA cementing his signature look that became an integral part of the TV series and defined Halpin permanently (ultimately to the detriment of his post-Flipper career). The Flipper/Sandy bond is now front and center - first with Sandy running away from his Florida Keys home when a family friend advises of an intended forced removal of he and his pet dolphin. This is no ordinary running away - it is a potentially life threatening journey in a small skiff across the Atlantic to the Bahamas. Flipper of course saves the day.The bond continues as Sandy's paradisaical island retreat is soon visited by fleeing murderers and then a well-to-do British family on a sailing voyage. When the crooks cast ashore the mother and daughters, they are helped by the Sandy/Flipper duo - sometimes in ways that defy reality. The crooks are all gradually captured by the guile and tactics of Sandy and Flipper. Unlike the first movie, the sequel moves at a much quicker pace and involves action more likely to appeal to older children and early teens.As touching as the first Flipper movie is, FNA was voted as more enjoyable by an extended family group of children aged 5 to 11 that we showed both to over a family reunion weekend. It more easily commanded their attention despite being the longer movie. Sandy's consistent loyalty to Flipper, the beauty of the Caribbean island, the budding romance between Sandy and the youngest English castaway and the determination he had to both help them but prevent outsiders from finding him and Flipper all add together to make this a halfway decent kids movie.Halpin comes across as more confident and independent, his underwater skills are superb and he handles the vagaries of girls and a foreign accent with all the puzzlement you'd expect of the 13/14 year old boy he is acting as. His penultimate scene with the injured Flipper is quite moving. FNA also transitions to the family dynamics seen in the TV series by replacing the more austere Chuck Connors with the friendlier telegenic Brian Kelly as the father Porter Ricks. The FNA Porter Ricks is now a Park Ranger (in training) and no longer a fisherman and the mother/wife has now died.Some trivia arising from FNA: 1 - Right after the final scene in FNA was shot in 1963, MGM had NBC shoot a pilot episode for the TV series that would follow in 1964. In the pilot, Tommy Norden makes his first appearance as the younger brother Bud. This pilot became Episode 3 (SOS Dolphin) in Season 1 and wasn't screened until quite a few months later in the midst of the other Season 1 episodes filmed in 1964. The age gap is quite noticeable in the case of Luke Halpin. 2 - The on-screen romance between Sandy Ricks and Penny Hopewell had a sense of realism to it because it had become a real life romance between Halpin and the well known English actress Pamela Franklin complete with Halpin later traveling to England to visit what he admitted to an interviewer when he was in his early 20's was his first girlfriend. 3 - Before FNA was released and just days before Halpin's 17th birthday, he appeared on the famous "To Tell The Truth" TV show. The producers would try to hide someone of rising fame with two other decoys leaving the celebrity panel of four to ask a series of questions of all three contestants in an attempt to uncover who was the real person. During the questioning, Halpin revealed that he was closer to the main dolphin in the first movie (Mitzie) than he was to the main dolphin in FNA (Suzy) describing Mitzie as more affectionate.Since showing the movies to my kids, they are thoroughly enjoying the TV series on Hulu. FNA cemented the Sandy/Flipper bond and neatly transitioned the franchise into the popular TV show that remains in syndicated re-runs some 50 years later.
bkoganbing For Flipper's New Adventure the writers at MGM came together and mixed the plots of The Admirable Crichton and The Desperate Hours and came up with a story that is cute and entertaining, but also for juveniles. I don't think any adults would buy it. A little bit of Bomba the Jungle Boy thrown in as well.One phone call to his father who was studying to be a Park Ranger after giving up his career as a fisherman from the first Flipper movie might have eased Luke Halpin's concern for his pet. But he hears some folks from the Miami Seaquarium are going to take Flipper and so he runs away and finds a nice island off the Florida coast to live or at least until the Seaquarium folks go away. Of course if Luke had made that phone call to Brian Kelly playing his father for the first time, he and Flipper would not have been around to help Tom Helmore's family who are stranded on the same island. He's been kidnapped for the use of his boat by three escaped convicts and they strand Helen Cherry and daughters Francesca Annis and Pamela Franklin on the island Luke took refuge on.Here's where it gets really dumb. These three are fugitives being hunted by law enforcement and they hit upon the brilliant scheme of holding Helmore and family for a getaway insurance. So they go back to that island and take them all save Halpin whom they don't know about. Absolutely brilliant, these clowns would have killed Helmore and kept on going with that cabin cruiser of his in real life. No wonder a kid and a dolphin take them. A bit unbelievable for adults, strictly for kids is Flipper's New Adventure.
wes-connors Luke Halpin (as Sandy Ricks) is home alone when he's informed said home is going to be taken away by the state of Florida; apparently, the state has let the land to the Ricks family, and they need it back. Mr. Halpin's father Brian Kelly (as Porter Ricks) is away, and mother Martha has passed away since the original "Flipper" (1963). Halpin is majorly concerned, because losing the home means losing the shore where he lives with pet dolphin Flipper.Halpin and Flipper run away from home; incredibly, they find an isolated island nearby, and take up residence. AND, wouldn't you know it? - kidnappers are also nearby; they snag a British father, and let his wife Helen Perry (as Julia) and daughters Pamela Franklin (as Penny) & Francesca Annis (as Gwen) drift to Halpin's island paradise. Ms. Franklin performs well as Halpin's emerging co-star. Halpin's performance is touching; he and Flipper carry the film.With all of the newness and nuances gone, this sequel is certainly not up to the original. The story is so wildly implausible, Flipper should have shouted, "RE-WRITE!" Just for starters, Ms. Perry and "Gwen" must have very poor vision, hearing, and critical thinking skills not to figure out about Halpin. And, the songs are awfully lush. The ending holds some excitement, if you last. Halpin is still cute - older by a few years, due to the first "Flipper" being on the shelf for a few years. Flipper is still cute, too; and, TV father Brian Kelly is on board, replacing Chuck Connors as father Ricks. **** Flipper's New Adventure (6/24/64) Leon Benson ~ Luke Halpin, Pamela Franklin, Brian Kelly