Trivia

The orphaned dolphin finds his way to Coral Key and finds Sandy sitting out on a dock. The boy kicks a coke can off of the dock and the dolphin tosses it right back. The dolphin continues to follow Sandy around until the boy can no longer ignore his new buddy. We see Flipper knock Sandy off the dock by leaping out of the water and slapping the boy from behind. They swim together and the dolphin pulls the boy along in the water. For this sequence as the friendship solidifies, the dolphin was responding to both verbal and buzzer commands and was rewarded with food by his trainers. One trainer would release the dolphin and the second trainer would use the buzzer to get the dolphin to leap or swim in a particular direction. In some instances in the film, when the dolphin was required to swim to a specific spot, a trainer on the dock would tap the surface of the water and indicate to the dolphin where to swim. When the dolphin knocks Sandy off the dock, the scene was shot in cuts and a fake fin used. When the dolphin pulls the boy through the water, a trainer was present underwater to cue the dolphin. The stunt with the coke can was filmed in cuts. The can itself was made of latex, not aluminum, so that it was heavier than a normal can and not abrasive. Sandy tosses the can as the dolphin pops his head out of the water. From the dock, one trainer gives the dolphin a visual cue to catch the can in his mouth followed by another immediate cue to toss the can back. A second trainer on the dock controls a pole with a line of monofilament attached to the can. As soon as the dolphin releases the can back into the air, the trainer uses the pole to guide the can higher into the air. See more