Free Willy Reviews

This is a perfect example of a family film that knows exactly what it's doing. While a little too clichéd and some of the villainy is a tad overdone, Free Willy is still very entertaining and touching. The cinematography is lovely and the scenery is beautiful, but the combining of animatronic shots and of Keiko the killer whale is astoundingly good. Simon Wincer directs efficiently, the family-bonding scenes are nice and sweet, the soundtrack is delightful and the script has its touches of honesty and humour. The acting is good too, it is wonderful to see Michael Madson again and he is excellent, and Jason James Richter is believable as Jesse. However, it is killer whale Keiko as Willy who makes the movie, for a killer whale, Willy is very cute and endearing, and the scenes with Richter are irresistible. Overall, just an entertaining family film. 8/10 Bethany Cox

In my opinion, the problem with such flicks is how much slack should you give to a movie because it is a family feature? I mean, my step-son used to love it and have watched all the sequels, I presume, but does it mean it was actually any good? I don’t know, personally, I really had a hard time caring about the whole thing. Still, I have to admit, it was really successful when it was released and it became quickly a classic among family features. So, following this reputation, I think it was time to finally check it out. Unfortunately, since I'm not 12 years old anymore, I thought the whole thing was pretty tedious to watch. I mean, it is well made, harmless and still rather watchable but like most of Disney features, it was completely by the numbers. I mean, you have the poor beast which was not treated as an animal but as a human being, you have the good guys, you have the bad guys and I thought it was quite boring. The usual argument is that since it is a family feature, I shouldn't expect so much but I don't agree. In my opinion, there is need to be so condescending with kids who are much smarter than we usually would admit. To conclude, even though it is far from being awful, I still think it is far from being really good either and I don't think it is really worth a look, expect maybe if you have some very young kids and nothing else to watch.