It's hard to imagine there was much clamoring for a sequel to "Dolphin Tale." The first film was a modest early fall success back in 2011, but even then, the story of Winter the dolphin was already fairly thin dramatic material, serving as little more than a nice pleasant aside.

Somebody somewhere, however, thought it'd be a good idea to go back to the well – or the sea, in this case. If I was a betting man, I'd put money on that somebody somewhere being David Yates, one of the film's executive producers who conveniently doubles as the chief executive officer of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium that the real life Winter calls home. No wonder the end titles make it a point to say, hey, maybe you should come visit sometime soon.

Still, whoever thought "Dolphin Tale 2" was a good idea, well, that person wasn't technically wrong. Even if – cynically stripped down to its core – it is a glorified ad for the aquarium and its latest exhibit, the movie never feels that way. Instead, the sequel delivers yet another surprisingly affable aquatic adventure, happily staying afloat thanks to its sweetly earnest emotions and innocuous charms.

After her fellow pool mate Panama dies of old age, Winter the dolphin (playing herself yet again) becomes a sad recluse, rejecting her artificial tail and the aquarium employees who love her – including Sawyer (Nathan Gamble), the intelligent and perceptive young dolphin whisperer from part one.

Panama's untimely death is causing more than simply emotional waves, however. The USDA is threatening to move beloved Winter from her Clearwater home unless the aquarium can pair her up with another female.

The facility has another recently beached female dolphin named Mandy, but the aquarium head doctor Clay Haskett (Harry Connick Jr.) believes strongly in keeping the animal wards no longer than their rehab necessitates. Since Mandy's almost ready to go back home, pairing her with Winter would mean depriving her of the freedom she deserves to return to.

Releasing her back in the ocean, however, means almost certainly losing Winter as well – something that doesn't sit well with Clay's daughter Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff) or the aquarium's business-minded lead investor. Jeez, yet another Hollywood sequel about dolphin depression and veterinary ethics.

Just when all seems lost, hope soon comes in the form of, well, Hope, a beached baby female dolphin with no chance of heading back into the ocean. It's simply a matter of whether Hope and Winter will take to their new pairing.

Much like its predecessor, "Dolphin Tale 2" is nothing if not wholesome family-friendly entertainment – the kind of movie where people get gosh darn stinking mad at worst. When it comes to many of today's live action family movies, wholesome disappointingly tends to translate out into the cinematic equivalent of health food: nice, well-meaning and maybe even a little good for you, but desperately lacking flavor.

That's also unfortunately the case here, at least technically. Other than the underwater sequences, writer-director Charles Martin Smith's compositions and visual style are flat and blandly sunny. His few dalliances toward some sort of visual style – like dramatic slow motion while a bucket drops or while Clay carries little Hope to safety like Eddie Lacy (apparently accurate according to the clips over the end credits) – only nudge the material closer to hokum overload.

Smith's story stumbles as well trying to juggle all of the various subplots strewn around the aquarium, including Sawyer's decision to go on a semester at sea, Clay and Hazel's father-daughter relationship and a totally irrelevant trapped sea turtle that merits screen time for some reason. Maybe it's to give more reasons to involve Rufus the comic relief pelican – who, in a "Zeus and Roxanne"-like twist, becomes the turtle's guardian – but there's really no reason to keep him around, nor his damp unfunny hijinks or the whimsically womping trumpets accompanying him on the score.

The bigger problem is that they're poorly developed and delivered with little dramatic oomph. Other than Winter's story – which gets a little bit of interesting heft from the ethical choice of what to do with Mandy – the rest of the storylines feel like padding, merely stretching out the running time. At least it's cozy, comfortable padding, however.

For all of the film's dramatic and technical shortcomings, "Dolphin Tale 2" stays afloat where it needs to most: the emotions. Sure, much of the drama is featherweight and a little dopey, and the performances (including from veterans Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd and Kris Kristofferson, all mostly just smiling adoringly) can all be placed on various levels of the "adequately nice" scale. But it's all done with such lighthearted sincerity and an earnest, laidback touch that one doesn't mind going along with it.

The key to the film’s successfully sweet heart comes down to its star, the one with flippers instead of fingers, and getting her to speak to the audience (figuratively, not literally; that would be terrible). It may seem easy to get an audience to fall in love with a crippled dolphin and the winsome teens who love him, but there’s a paper-thin line between charming and cloying.

Luckily, "Dolphin Tale 2" regularly lands on the right side of that line. While Smith may not have the strongest dramatic touch, the "Air Bud" veteran is far more assured when it comes to capturing these animals on screen and, most importantly, the connection between them and their caretakers.

The director respects that these animals are, you know, animals and therefore still sometimes unpredictable and unknowable, such as with one scene where a seemingly calm Winter suddenly freaks, hurting Sawyer’s wrist in the process. Still, with the help of some close-ups and occasional dolphin-eye perspectives, Smith hints at an inner life for Winter without ever pushing too hard. Mixed with Gamble’s fittingly tender performance and the enchanting underwater sequences, the mysterious yet magical emotional bond between man and animal – one many might personally recognize, whether it comes with fur or flippers – nicely hits the sweet spot.

Did the world need another chapter in the cinematic adventures of Winter the permanently house-arrested dolphin? No, probably not. But in an industry filled with soulless sequels, the existence of one with a little heartfelt sincerity is totally fine by me.