After young Kirra leaves her Australian home to summer with her grandfather in South Africa, she soon discovers a baby orca stranded in the lagoon near her grandfather’s rundown seaside amusement park. She names the lonely whale Willy--and embarks on a great quest to lead the little guy back to his anxious pod.
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One of my all time favorites.
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
First, I have NOT seen any one of the three previous Orca interacting-with-kid-concept films nor, did I expect to see this one. My Granddaughter had other ideas. It's a very good film. my Granddaughter and I stayed glued and time seemed to pass quickly as you get wrapped up in the simple but, familiar, yet, very entertaining plot. 11yr-old Bindi Irwin was at the making of this film in 2010, as she is today, adorable and amazing! She is a great draw and her acting seemed to get better as the film clicked along. Beu Bridges portrayed the likable, but unprincipled Grandfather who happens to own a rag-tag carnival that oft times masquerades as a not-so-sea-worthy theme park. Again simple, familiar but, pretty good stuff. And Bridges did very well with the character. Another plus is he beautiful South African countryside. Our two thumbs are up!
Movie isn't a remake and its an insult to Keiko (free Willy) who died in 2003 how dare they make another movie this terrible and call it free Willy I'm not saying that there shouldn't be a remake just do it respectably they should have gone with cg or something better this was a disgrace. I loved free Willy this movie isn't just terrible because its terribly made, but it horrible to do after Willy died. If they wouldn't have tried to use Willy as a something to show this movie off and make money i might have actually enjoyed it. It is much more slapstick and poor quality than the original 3, not that they should have used a real whale to shoot the movie that would have made it 100% worse than the terrible animatronic doll which trust me is not made well at all just so you know there is hardly any showing of the "Whale" who i refuse to call Willy because hes not. if you want a good whale movie than watch the original 3 but remember whatever you watch be prepared to explain to your children that free Willy is already dead.
I was a bit alarmed at the start of this film - the acting, especially by young Bindi Irwin was not great BUT it improved a lot as the film went on and slowly I began to really like the setting, the actors and the simple story. Yes it is predictable, yes it is a bit silly at times but it is good wholesome family entertainment and quite old-fashioned in a way - which is no bad thing. My only slight criticism is the obvious computer generated undersea orcas, but this aside the film provides a lot of entertainment, some very sweet moments and a nice chemistry between Bindi Irwin and Beau Bridges. The latter, as always, is excellent and the former is quite charming at times. If you want to watch a nice easy family film then choose this one. If you don't, then this is probably not for you.
I wasn't looking forward to watching the most recent addition to the Free Willy franchise. My choice to rent the movie was a last resort decision but fortunately I do not regret my choice. While the movie was far from a master piece and wasn't nearly as good as the first Free Willy it is still very entertaining. Once I became accustomed to the cliché family film feel of the movie I was able to enjoy the story for what it was. My biggest complaint is that the movie was very different from the other previous Free Willy films to the point where it should have been called something else. This Free Willy movie is obviously made for the younger audience, the acting is overly comedic, the bad situations are always humorously harmful and the entire movie is very predictable. The movie overall just seems much more family oriented then the first film. That is not necessarily negative, I just wasn't expecting the family style to be pushed as hard as it was. In addition to that, the protagonist Kirra took a while to warm up to. I thought Bindi Irwin was simply a poor actor at first but I eventually realized that the acting flaws seemed more like they were caused by the director constantly looking for the overly fun family film style. While the acting seemed flawed, in the end I rather liked the character.If you enjoy family films then I believe you'll find the movie entertaining, however, if you're not accustomed to family films I suggest you avoid watching the movie, especially if your looking for a movie similar to the original Free Willy.