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Free Willy

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Free Willy
Directed bySimon Wincer
Written byKeith A. Walker
Corey Blechman
Produced byJennie Lew Tugend
StarringKeiko
Jason James Richter
Lori Petty
Jayne Atkinson
August Schellenberg
Michael Madsen
Michael Ironside
Michael Bacall
CinematographyRobbie Greenberg
Edited byO. Nicholas Brown
Music byBasil Poledouris
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release dates
July 16, 1993
Running time
112 min
LanguageEnglish

Free Willy is a 1993 Warner Bros. film about a boy who befriends an Orca whale.

Plot

The film begins with a pod of Orca swimming near the coastline of the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, this family of orca is tracked down by a large group of whalers, and a single orca gets caught in their net. Unable to save him, his family leaves him behind, and he is taken away to a local marina water park.

Sometime later Jesse (Jason James Richter), a street-wise boy who has been on the run since he was abandoned by his mother six years before, gets caught vandalizing the marina along with a gang of other abandoned kids. However, his social worker helps him avoid legal consequences, provided he cleans up his mess at the marina. While there, Jesse befriends the whale, named Willy by the park owners, and teaches him behaviors, something the trainer, Rae (Lori Petty), had failed to do. Over time, Jesse and Willy become the best of friends, and Jesse earns a long-term job at the marina while learning to live with his new and supportive foster parents.

However, when Willy is unable to perform effectively in front of the audience, some sort of stage fright, the owner of the marina plans to kill Willy for the insurance money. Thus, Jesse and his friends, including an Indian shaman named Randolph (August Schellenberg), begin plans to release the whale.

Cast

Commentary

  • The aquatic star of this film was an orca named Keiko. The huge national and international success of this movie inspired a letter writing campaign to get Keiko released from his captivity as an attraction in the amusement park Reino Aventura in Mexico City, this movement was called "Free Keiko". Keiko was released into a bigger pool in Oregon when it was discovered that the combination of the chlorination and the excessively warm temperature of the water was causing skin lesions. Though Keiko was eventually released, he continually sought out human contact, and eventually died of pneumonia near Norway on December 12, 2003.
  • The famous scene where Willy jumps over Jesse to freedom was parodied in the Simpsons episode The Boy Who Knew Too Much. Homer watches a version of the film where Willy doesn't make it and crushes Jesse. Dismayed, Homer says, "Oh, I don't like this new director's cut!"
  • The animated series South Park spoofed this movie during Season 8 of their show.

Special Effects

Contrary to popular belief Keiko only participated in a very small part of the film due to preparations for his release into the wild, and was often replaced in various parts of the movie with some of the latest CGI Technology that was available to the production team at the time. One of the most extensive uses of CGI in the film was the climax of the movie where Free Willy jumps over Jesse and into the wild. Keiko was unavailable at the time the scene was shot due to a series of Vaccinations which meant he was unable to put a lot of strain on his tail.

Sequels and Spin-offs

Music

  • Michael Jackson produced and performed "Will You Be There", the theme for the movie which can be heard during the film's credits.
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