Development Hell: The film had been penned as far back as the early 80's before being filmed and released in 1993.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: The first 13 episodes of the animated series have been available to purchase digitally, but the remaining 8 episodes have yet to see an official release of any kind.
Market-Based Title: In Quebec, the movie is titled Mon Ami Willy ("My Friend Willy").
Playing Against Type: Michael Madsen, known for playing grizzled hard-asses, plays a nice family man for a change. Madsen later joked that when he first received the script he looked for a part where Glen cut Willy's head off.
Sleeper Hit: The movie had a decent opening weekend on release, coming in at 5th just behind Hocus Pocus. It kept a steady place in the box office over the summer however, especially due to the lack of new family films opening over the next couple of months, and by the end of the year was the 11th highest grossing film.
Vindicated by Video: While the movie did great at the theater alone, it can't be understated how wildly successful it was on home video; The DVD releases of the film were still appearing in the monthly top selling charts as late as 2010.
Keiko's first two names were "Siggi" and "Kago". If either of those names had stuck before the filming of Free Willy began, then the name "Keiko" would've been largely forgotten to history.
The role of Dial was offered to Jack Nicholson, but he turned it down due to the low pay salary.
The original script of the film was much different: Jesse was younger, mute, and living with nuns, and it was much more lighthearted to the point that a producer later mentioned it in an interview as "too mushy". A rewrite was ordered from a different writer to give what ended up being used for the film.
