Free Willy (1993)
(In French, On TV, August 2019) I can guarantee you that anyone who was alive and watching TV back in 1993 can tell you all about Free Willy’s climax: Reprinted in posters, every single trailer and most TV reviews of the film is the Big Shot of the film: An Orca jumping over a barrier on its way to freedom. That’s … pretty much the entire film. Marketing strategies for family films do not rely on surprise: they inform parents precisely of what they’re likely to get at the end of the film’s duration, so it’s not as bad as you’d think to reassure everyone, young or not so young, that the Willy will be freed at the end. (Which reminds me of the other reason why the film is still remembered: an endless decades-long snickering over the film’s title.) For anyone with higher critical standards, director Simon Wincer’s Free Willy is not all that pleasant to watch: clearly aimed at the younger set, it sports a stock teenage protagonist, a cute animal sidekick, cartoonish villains and almost exactly the plot that can be deduced from the poster. It’s executed decently enough for its target audience, but does not hold any surprises or interest to anyone outside of it. Made of that what you will—Free Willy remains a movie made for a very specific audience.