History Film / FreeWilly

** An attempt was made to avert this by actually freeing Keiko, the whale who played Willy, but {{Reality Ensue|s}}d and Keiko kept trying to associate with humans, [[DownerEnding eventually catching pneumonia and beaching herself.]] There is FunnyAneurysmMoment and then there's that...

** On the other hand, when Jesse sees that [[spoiler: Willy's tank has been sabotaged]], he immediately runs to Randolph for help.

Also spawned many "[[DoubleEntendre Whip it out]] in public" jokes in middle schools across the US.

* AnimatedAdaptation: And it was deeply strange even by the standards of animated adaptations. Let's see, Jesse turns out to be a "[[SpeaksFluentAnimal Truth-Talker]]", there's a LostWorld-style island where recently extinct Arctic animals thrive in secret, and -err- there is an antagonistic character called The Machine. He is a cyborg who lives in a technological fortress underwater and wants to kill every living thing. No, this was real; you can see him at around the 18 second mark in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFMXKb9OAVE the opening credits]]. Because why not replace the "let's keep Willy away from humans who want to mistreat him" conflict from the films with "there's an underwater ''GIJoe'' villain who hates everything"?

* ArtifactTitle: There isn't a whole lot of freeing in the sequels. Unless the "free" there is supposed to be an adjective describing Willy, so it doesn't really make sense.

* AwardBaitSong: By MichaelJackson! ''Will You Be There'' was one of his most significant hits in the 1990's.

* AnimatedAdaptation: And it was weird even by the standards of animated adaptations. Let's see, Jesse turns out to be a "[[SpeaksFluentAnimal Truth-Talker]]", there's a LostWorld-style island where recently extinct Arctic animals thrive in secret, and -err- there is an antagonistic character called The Machine. He is a cyborg who lives in a technological fortress underwater and wants to kill every living thing. No, this was real; you can see him at around the 18 second mark in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFMXKb9OAVE the opening credits]]. Because why not replace the "let's keep Willy away from humans who want to mistreat him" conflict from the films with "there's an underwater ''GIJoe'' villain who hates everything"?

At the time, the movie was subject to frequent parody (especially its climax). A movement to "Free Keiko", the animal actor of the movie also was brought about by it. It... didn't work out as well as it did in the movie.

The film managed to spawn 3 sequels: ''Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home'' (1995), ''Free Willy 3: The Rescue'' (1997) and the most recent ''Free Willy 4: [[WeAreStillRelevantDammit Escape from Pirate Cove]]'' (2010). There was also, believe it or not, an animated adaptation of the series that ran on ABC, and a really weird one at that.

* AnimatedAdaptation: And it was weird even by the standards of animated adaptations. Let's see, Jesse turns out to be a "[[SpeaksFluentAnimal Truth-Talker]]", there's a LostWorld-style island where recently extinct species thrive in secret, and -err- there is an antagonistic character called The Machine. He is a cyborg who lives in a technological fortress underwater and wants to kill every living thing. No, this was real; you can see him at around the 18 second mark in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFMXKb9OAVE the opening credits]]. Because why not replace the "let's keep Willy away from humans who want to mistreat him" conflict from the films with "there's an underwater cyborg who hates everyone"?

** An attempt was made to avert this by actually freeing Keiko, the whale who played Willy, but {{Reality Ensue|s}}d and Keiko kept trying to associate with humans, [[DownerEnding eventually catching pneumonia and beaching herself.]]
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The Machine's alter ego.
** Dial in the first movie.

* HumansAreBastards: Subverted. The only human who's really a jerk is Dial. Oh, and the tons of kids who beat on the walls of Willy's tank.

** The Machine and humans who do his dirty work for him.

* MagicalNativeAmerican: Randolph, though this is largely averted in the first film. It's played painfully straight in the AnimatedAdaptation.

* PlayingAgainstType: Michael Madsen as a very nice guy..for a change.

* TitleDrop: "Let's free Willy!"

* HeyItsThatVoice: [[SplinterCell Sam Fisher]]/[[{{Darkseid}} Dark]][[{{DCAU}} seid]] is the Evil Popcorn Man's boss!
** HeyItsThatGuy: The movie becomes much more interesting if you assume Jesse's foster dad secretly moonlights as a [[Film/ReservoirDogs psychotic heist man]].

** HeyItsThatGuy: The movie becomes much more interesting if you assume Jesse's foster dad secretly moonlights as a [[ReservoirDogs psychotic heist man]].

* ObviouslyEvil: Dial,[[MichaelIronside seeing the actor who plays him.]]

* ParentalAbandonment: Dial's mom. [[spoiler:At the beginning of the film, it's revealed that she passed away. Elvis confessed to Dial that giving him up was the hardest choice she made.]]

** HeyItsThatGuy: The movie becomes much more interesting if you assume Jesse's foster dad secretly moonlights as a [[ReservoirDogs psychotic heist man.]]

* [[spoiler: PapaWolf]]: [[spoiler: Glen, at the end of the first movie]]

* BadAss: Do you need to keep a truck from falling off a mountain? With a seven thousand pound whale in the back? Randolph's the man.

* [[spoiler: PapaWolf]]: [[spoiler: Glen, at the end of the first movie]]

* BrokenAesop: The whole notion of freeing an animal who was forcefully taken out of his environment and separated from his family to live a life in captivity doesn't exactly work out too well when one remembers that this film could only have been made possible by using an animal who actually ''was'' forcefully taken out of his environment and forced to live a life in captivity.

* BrokenAesop: The whole notion of freeing an animal who was wrongfully taken out of his environment and separated from his family doesn't exactly work out too well when one remembers that this film could only have been made possible by using an animal who ''was'' taken out of his environment.

** Actually, it all depends on how you look at the situations. In the first movie, Willy is a "show whale" and is physically set free to live in the wild. In the second movie, getting Willy and his family from the cove and the oil spill could be considered setting him free.

* HaveAGayOldTime: Free ''Willy''. Um... ([[DontExplainTheJoke It is funny because Willy]] [[YugiohTheAbridgedSeries means 'penis.']])

* AnimatedAdaptation: And it was weird even by the standards of animated adaptations. Let's see, Jesse turns out to be a "[[TheDoctorDolittle Truth-Talker]]", there's a LostWorld-style island where recently extinct species thrive in secret, and -err- there is an antagonistic character called The Machine. He is a cyborg who lives in a technological fortress underwater and wants to kill every living thing. No, this was real; you can see him at around the 18 second mark in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFMXKb9OAVE the opening credits]]. Because why not replace the "let's keep Willy away from humans who want to mistreat him" conflict from the films with "there's an underwater cyborg who hates everyone"?

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/freewilly.bmp