This is one of my entries in the w/o I’m hosting about nature for my beautiful wife Ahlstromomy. I chose the movie Free Willy for a couple of reasons. First it has a nature theme dealing partly with the treatment of whales in captivity. Also being the romantic that I am it was the first movie my wife and I saw in a movie theatre together so I felt this would be a good movie to review for this w/o.

The basic plot

The movie is about a young boy (Jason James Richter) whose mother dropped him at Children Services and left him for good. The boy keeps bolting out of foster homes living basically on the streets. He gets placed in a good foster home but he isn’t quite sure about the deal because it impinges on his freedom. He basically is running the streets until he gets busted spray painting an amusement parks underwater sight seeing place, which holds Willy.

This introduces the two main characters Jesse and Willy. These two are kindred spirits as Duane (Michael Ironside) the Indian that supervises the boy at the park during his tenure of probation. The story develops as Jesse grows and develops ties with Willy buying him salmon to eat and teaching him tricks to perform. He also slowly develops a relation with his foster father who is a grough individual but is caring and really does love Jesse.

The main part of the show though is Jesse and Willy helping each other out by becoming friends. They are both lonely and missing there family. Jesse throughout the movie says his mother is coming back for him. Even though he knows deep down inside she isn’t.

Now every good movie has an antagonist, right? Well in this story it is the owner of the amusement park who views Willy as a commodity. As explained by Willy’s trainer Rae (Lori Petty) who does not have much luck training Willy. She and Duane do have a true love for the whales and the animals at the park. They lobby to get Willy a larger swimming area to no avail.

As the show progresses Jesse and Willy are going to perform in front of a live paying audience but on the day of the show Willy won’t perform. Of course, Jesse is upset and so are the owners of the park. Jesse comes back at night to say good-bye to Willy and discovers that the owners of the park put a hole in his tank to try and kill Willy to collect on the insurance money.

So Jesse wakes Duane up and the two of them along with Rae set out to save Willy and set him free. I will stop there so as not to give the obvious ending away.

Thoughts on the movie

I really enjoyed the movie I felt it does a good job of portraying how badly some places treat the animals and have them only to make money. I think the movie was predictable but being a nature lover I enjoyed it. I also enjoy the fact that it is a good family movie. The language was clean and there was no gore in the film. Having a 7 year old who is exposed to more of the violent and foul language than I would like sometimes it is nice to be able to watch something that is free of this.

The acting though nothing spectacular is good. I feel Jason James Richter did a good job of carrying the role and staying par with Keiko (Willy’s real name). Sometimes I felt Michael Madsen who played Glen Greenwood Jesse’s foster father in the movie did act at times but he managed to pull the roll off and give us an enjoyable performance.

I applaud Warner Bros.® and director Simon Wincer for bringing out a movie that shows the Orca in a good light and shows these animals would just like to live and be with there families and really will not attack humans unless provoked. The movie has a PG rating I guess because there are some scenes of fighting well more like arguing. Also the kids vandalize the park and steal food in the beginning of the movie these are the only things I can think of that would have made this film PG. I don’t really think times where any more innocent back in 1993 when this film was produced by Robert Donner.

I do think though the main reason I enjoyed this film is the bringing to the forefront the abuse of animals. I am against using animals in a cruel way. I don’t mind zoos and these types of places because a lot of good comes from the studies and protection plans that zoo’s have. However, I do not feel wild animals should be caught for the sole purpose as to make money off them.

All right I am off my soapbox for that subject. I would have to say if you enjoy films that are a bit on the sappy romantic and predictable side this movie is worth watching. Also as I mentioned before it is a good family picture.

This is the first of my reviews for the nature w/o in honor of my wonderful wife Ahlstromomy that I am hosting. If you don’t like sappy romantic family movies you will probably want to skip this movie and the rest of this review.

Honey I know you have seen this movie and enjoyed it. I hope it brings back fond memories for you it sure does for me. It’s amazing this movie played in the theatres in 1993, and was the first movie we saw together in the theatre. It seems like just yesterday sitting there holding your hand watching this movie as we cried together. (Yes guys I admit I cry at all these types of movies and it doesn’t make me any less of man).

Know honey as you face this surgery and other health problems I will be by your side holding your hand. I know it’s hard but keep that beautiful smile of yours on.

As I said this is one of my entries in the nature w/o for Ahlstromomy if anybody is interested in joining in there is information on my profile page just send me an email so I can add you to the list

Thanks to all who are involved links will be on my profile page. Those who have entered so far are:

Andymcf

Jo.com

Jetbluefan1

Granniemosie

Kamel622

Artbyjude

Amysmum

Popsrocks

Donnie013

2Buzy

Lorace

Jcrismon

LisaJ

Susie34688

Frostiepekkle

Diverpam

Ed_Grover

Brianandalsmom

Mom2daniel

Klueger (I’m the host)

I hope you will check everyone’s reviews out.

Thanks for reading and hope you found this helpful in someway.

Klueger


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8