Free Willy Blu Ray Review (Warner Bros.)

Free Willy is a 1993 drama directed by Simon Wincer (Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, D.A.R.Y.L., Harlequin, Lonesome Dove, Quigley Down Under, Lightning Jack, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, The Phantom, and The Sullivans). It was written by Keith Walker (M*A*S*H, Emergency!, and The Fall Guy) and Corey Blechman (Dominick and Eugene, Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, The White Lions, Bill, and Dark Mirror). It was produced by Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon franchise, The Lost Boys, X-Men franchise, Tales from the Crypt, Any Given Sunday, Scrooged, and The Goonies). It had a short lived animated television series in 1994. It was followed by 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. The budget was $20,000,000 and it grossed $153,709,806 worldwide at the box office!!!! After being captured at sea and confined in a small tank at an aquatic park, the stressed out Willy (played by: Keiko from Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, Free Willy 3: The Rescue, Azul, and Keiko En Peligro) is always an unhappy and unpredictable attraction. Rae (played by: Lori Petty from Tank Girl, Point Break, Poetic Justice, Orange Is the New Black, and A League of their Own) or Randolph (played by: August Schellenberg from Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, Free Willy 3: The Rescue, Heavy Metal, The New World, Geronimo, and Tremors 4) struggle to get Willy to do any real tricks, except for a troubled street kid named Jesse (played by: Jason James Richter from Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, Free Willy 3: The Rescue, The NeverEnding Story III, The Little Things, Vicious, The Last Rampage, and Tekken) who knows what it’s like to be without a family. The greedy owner Dial (played by: Michael Ironside from Scanners, Top Gun, Total Recall, Starship Troopers, Turbo Kid, Nobody, Terminator Salvation, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, and Highlander II) sees nothing but dollar signs when he notices this huge potential. Together these two unlikely friends Willy and Jesse form a special bond, one that’s so strong that they are both willing to risk it all to find a way home!!!! Free Willy is one of the better animal films in the 90’s. It spawned a TV show and 3 sequels from it’s popularity. Free Willy has so much heart to it and it’s still feels that way after all this time. It takes total opposites that are going through similar things so they end up with a strong connection after spending more time together. Jason James Richter as Jesse gives one of the better teenage performances as a kid that always in trouble. He takes his frustrations of being left by his family out on everyone else. He doesn’t really have a purpose until he meets Willy. Lori Petty as Rae and August Schellenberg as Randolph are the two people that give Jesse a chance after he’s caught vandalizing the aquarium. They both believe in him when most people around don’t. Michael Ironside as Dial is great as the villain here like always. He doesn’t care about the animals or staff, he just wants to make more money no matter what. He decides Willy is worth more dead than alive so he starts to put together a messed up plan to cash in. Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, Donnie Brasco, Sin City, and The Hateful Eight) as Glen and Jayne Atkinson (Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, 24, Clarice, and House of Cards) as Annie play the foster parents to the wild Jesse. They try everything to make him comfortable but he keeps acting out. They continue to try to win over the teenager. They both add so much to this complicated story. It’s nice to see Michael Madsen as a good guy because he was more known as a villain in most of his bigger projects. He proves he can do anything if the material is good enough. Jayne Atkinson is so genuine and sweet in this. The supporting cast includes Keiko, Danielle Harris (Halloween franchise), Richard Riehle (Casino), Mykelti Williamson (Forrest Gump), Michael Bacall (Inglourious Basterds), and Isaiah Malone. Free Willy is well written and it has a great build up to everything. It manages to make you care as these characters develop before your eyes. The family movie gets a little darker towards it’s end. This animal just wants to be with his family and not be some forced performer. Jesse thinks it’s him against the world until he gets this new job and it all changes. This was a major hit back in the day but it’s honestly rarely mentioned anymore. I would love to see this one upgraded to 4K someday and it’s sequels to get more HD home video releases sometime. It surprisingly still holds up really good so it has strong replay value to it, RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from Warner Bros Pictures! This 1080p (2.40:1) transfer is still a solid improvement over it’s previous DVD and VHS home video releases. It’s the same restoration as the 2015 version, it’s nice to see it get re-released. It has all kinds of audio options which includes English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0, Portuguese: Dolby Digital 2.0, Thai: Dolby Digital 2.0, and Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks on the disc. Free Willy mainly shines when it comes to the audio with it’s soundtrack but it has it’s louder moments in it every once in awhile. All of the dialogue is very clean, the drama is elevated, and the music has a nice boost to it. It has plenty of different subtitles which includes English SDH, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish, and Thai on this home video release. It’s one of the better technical back catalog releases when it comes to foreign languages. It has the little over 5 minute “Conversation with Bob Talbot – Wildlife Cinematographer”. He shares his passion for whales and his visuals of them through his experiences. It has the almost 4 minute “Michael Jackson “Will You Be There” Music Video directed by Vincent Paterson. I always think about this movie when I hear this track and it usually gets stuck in my head for a few weeks after viewing this feature. It has the almost 3 minute “Whale Ballet Montage”. There’s some real good footage here mixed with it’s score for the main character from this. It has the “Theatrical Trailer” for Free Willy. It’s available everywhere right now including MovieZyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!