I'm not sure if this is the movie that I'm looking for. I remember a scene from a movie that sounds like it might be this one. I wouuld have been about 8 years old, but is there a point when they try to test out the girl's hearing because she seems to be able to hear the whales call under water at a great distance?
I recognize this film although I'm quite sure I have not seen it. I believe I saw a TV-series as a child with the same plot. Does anyone now if this movie was made a TV-series? I clearly remember it being about a girl who lived on an island by herself. Her friend was a big whale and she could stay under water for a long time. An organization of some kind with young people involved got to know her I think. They helped her pretecting the whale and she helped them with under water things. Does anyone else recall this but me?
What you are talking about is "Ocean Girl" a 1994 TV Serie made in Australia, while the "Tadpole and the Whale" is a 1987 french canadian movie. They are not connected in any way, except for some similarity with the theme of ocean.
In the TV serie, the Ocean Girl is a 16 years old alien crashed on an island who has a little sister and a friend whale. In the movie, the main character is way younger (12 years old), she lives with her family. Her origins are not well told, they say she was "born in the water" and that she was "raised and thought by the whales". Anyway, her main powers is that she can hear and understand the whales. She does not swim like a daulphin, while "Ocean Girl" does.
This wouldn't happen to be the movie that aired on the Disney Channel back in 1990 with the scenes where the girl and the man are swimming together with a dolphin and explains that the dolphin sounds 'ka-ka' mean 'I love you'; and towards the end where they're on a boat that picks up speed and she loses her balance, gets knocked unconscious, and falls (unnoticed) into the water, where she's later rescued by the dolphin and reunited with her grandfather? This scene from the movie is featured on the 1990 Disney Channel promos on YouTube if it's the same one we're talking about. Check it out.