Free Willy may be a heartwarming and touching boy-befriends-whale tale, but the film's clichés, the killer whale's moodiness and the unlikeable past of the lead character each play a big part as well. To begin with summing it all up, Simon Wincer's charming 90s adventure does and likely always will deserve its labelling as a family classic, simply because it's charming and loveable, but also because it's original and thematic.

The film centres on a young boy whose mother verbally implicitly abandoned him. He's a street kid, and he's arrested and placed into a loving foster home after vandalising a theme park. The first thing you can with all reasons say is this is our main character, who starts off in a portrayal that only makes him unlikeable. Although his and the other cast's performances are undeniably solid, it's difficult to have to attach to what most would call a pest.

As the plot progresses, it's still hard to completely love and relate to the main character, but his unforeseen connection to the whale (foreseeable from the audience perspective) compels you into the story again. The whale can also unfortunately be quite moody, difficult and sort of irritating at times. This is definitely a watchable film that the younger kids will really appreciate without thinking too hard.

Another perfectly reasonable why Free Willy might not be doing to well with the critics or other high anticipators is because it's mainly a clichéd story about a sweet relationship between a human and a creature, not living up to the title's suggestion at all. There's lots of dramas packed throughout the whole film, but the actual threat and the need to rescue the whale doesn't occur until the last half hour.

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Whale! Whale! Whale! What do we have here? It's Free Willy and I love blubbering about Free Willy. It's a whale of a tail. It's one of my favorite nostalgia, early 1990s kid films. Directed by Simon Wincer, Free Willy tells the story of a delinquent boy, Jesse (Jason James Richter) who become friends with a captive killer whale, Willy (Keiko). Seeing that Willy was upset due to the absence of his family and the fact, that Willy didn't like his small living conditions; Jesse set up a plan to kidnap Willy, and tries to set him free in the wild. Can Jesse and Willy escape from the cruel owners of aquarium or will Willy end up, being fish food? Watch the movie to find out! Without spoiling the movie, too much; I found the movie to be a bit predictable. After all, the title of the movie, kinda gives it, away. It's not like the movie posters, DVD covers, and trailers, pretty much spoils the outrageous end of the movie, as well. The film's ending has been spoofed several times in popular culture, due to how over the top, it was. It was a bit unrealistic. The movie also suffers from overused clichés. I really didn't like the sub-plot of Jesse's handling of his new foster parents. It seem a bit forced and underdevelopment. I really didn't buy into the whole surviving on his own, as a runaway bit. Around thing that was hard to believe, was the chemistry between the whale and the main actor. It was too similar to previous movies of a child bonding with a wild animal like 1966's Namu. I really found the whole idea of Willy connecting with the child, a little impractical. For a creature that been left alone in a small dark tanks for hours, I would have, thought the orca would be a little more aggressed and bite Jesse's head off or try to drown him. It's seem a bit, off. After all, they are killer whales! I guess, Keiko was just that well-trained. While, the film does make a good persuasive case against keeping these creatures in captivity for the purposes of human entertainment by highlighting incidents that Willy has. The movie is a little one-sided argument about whales being in captivity. I find it a tad odd that this movie is basically condemning the very thing it is exploiting which is using captive wild animals for entertainment purposes. The movie also fails to tells how important, some aquariums are, for sick killer whales. Now, every aquarium seem a bit evil. Like the 2013's documentary, Blackfish; viewers of this movie, might not understand, that some places, like SeaWorld honestly, tries hard to keep whales, healthy, enough to return to the wild. Still, when this movie did came out, I was one of those, who really believe that the whale that play Willy should have been free. At least the filmmakers followed their own preaching, and campaigned for the freeing of Keiko, the actual killer whale who stands in for an animatronic Willy in many scenes. The plan for Keiko to return to the wild was a topic of much controversy at the time. Some critics felt that a return to the wild, was somewhat impossible, because of the years of him being in captivity. They were somewhat right, most of the attempts of him going back into the wild were mostly unsuccessful, due to the fact, that he often return, seeking contact with human beings and allowing children to ride on his back. He was so dependent on humans that he really couldn't connection with other whales. In 2003, Keiko sadly die in one last attempt in the wild at the young age of 26 due to Pneumonia. He will be miss. Despite, him, not living long in the wild, I still came out from this movie learning more than I came into the film. I love the fact that this movie help spark the Save the Whales Foundation into a success organization. I love the fact that this movie had singer Michael Jackson produced and performed "Will You Be There", as one of the theme songs for the film, which can be heard during the film's credits. The song won the MTV Movie Award for "Best Song in a Movie" in 1994. It was also included in Michael Jackson's Dangerous album. It's one of his best songs, ever. It really help the save the whales program. The main theme by Basil Poledouris was also amazing and majestic. Even the harmonica music that Jesse plays, wasn't that bad. While, the music was good. The acting, not so much. While, some of the characters strongly express of human emotion like James Jason Richter who work well, on-screen with Keiko. Others were kinda one dimensional. The worst, had to be the over the top money hungry, villain played by Michael Ironsides. He was really hammy. The movie made great use of stock footage of whales. It was really nice, seeing them, in their natural habitat. The movie was followed by three sequels 1995's Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, 1997's Free Willy 3: The Rescue, and 2010's Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove, and a short-lived animated television series. I don't recommended watching the sequels, but I do want you to check out 2010's Keiko: The Untold story. It's a documentary film about Keiko that is worth seeing. Overall: Despite its cheesy nature, Free Willy is great movie for fans of Marine life. I really enjoy this film.

I really disliked this movie. No, it wasn't really because of all the animal abuse involved (the REAL Willy was not released at the end but returned to captivity--had he read the script, he wouldn't have gotten his hopes up). Instead, it was because of a fundamental flaw--I simply HATED the kid who was Willy's friend. This little sociopath was supposedly "fixed" by his tender friendship with a whale?! Gimme a break--in real-life, I would have expected the kid to poison the whale and sell it by the pound on the black market! And this kid is a big jerk throughout much of the movie BUT we are supposed to listen to HIM when he tells us he cares? I didn't want Willy to jump OVER the kid at the end of the movie, but land ON him--thus doing everyone a favor!

The bottom line is that the film is very predictable, difficult to believe and has contempt for the intelligence of the audience. For a MUCH better kids' movie about Orcas, see the New Zealand film, WHALE RIDER.