---
title: "Free Willy"
year: 1993
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/free-willy"
fi1m_id: "free-willy"
imdb_id: "tt0106965"
tmdb_id: 1634
wikidata_id: "Q473628"
fi1m_score: 68
critics_score: 74
critics_reviews: 8
published: "2026-10-04T23:20:17.388832+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-04T23:20:35.634020+00:00"
region: "NZ"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Free Willy (1993)

Directed by Simon Wincer · 1h 52m · Family, Adventure, Drama

## Identity

Free Willy

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/free-willy
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** free-willy
- **IMDb ID:** tt0106965
- **TMDB ID:** 1634
- **Wikidata ID:** Q473628
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106965/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1634, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q473628

**Fi1m score: 68** · Critics 74 from 8 reviews

*In a sentence:* The whale gets second billing and is the only one on screen never caught acting

> Simon Wincer’s film about a foster kid and a captive orca is sentimental, its villain is cardboard and its family scenes are thin. But the whale is real, the boy is good, and the scenes between them still land. For children, and for the interested.

## Synopsis

Off the coast, a pod of orcas swims free until a fishing boat’s nets close round one of them. The whale, now called Willy, sulks in a small tank at an amusement park and refuses to perform. Jesse (Jason James Richter), a runaway living rough with his friend Perry (Michael Bacall), is caught spraying graffiti on the park’s glass. Social worker Dwight Mercer (Mykelti Williamson) places him with foster parents Glen and Annie Greenwood (Michael Madsen and Jayne Atkinson) and sets him to scrub off his own paint. At the park he meets Randolph Johnson (August Schellenberg), who looks after the whale, and Rae Lindley (Lori Petty), the trainer. One night Jesse plays his harmonica at the tank. Willy comes to the glass.

## Review

*Free Willy* is a film about a boy nobody wants and a whale nobody can use, and it is not coy about the rhyme. Jesse has been left by his mother and passed from one home to the next; Willy has been taken from his pod and is losing condition in a tank he can barely turn round in. Simon Wincer, working from a screenplay by Keith Walker and Corey Blechman, puts them either side of a sheet of glass and waits. It is a plain idea, and the film is at its best when it trusts the plainness. It is a decent family film, soft in the middle, carried by the pair at its centre and let down by nearly everyone around them.

The opening is the part we did not expect. Robbie Greenberg shoots the pod in open water from above and below, black backs rolling through blue sea, and then the boats arrive, the nets go down, and Basil Poledouris’s score stops. For a minute there is only the engines and the whales calling to each other as the net closes. We were upset by it, more than a U certificate usually manages, and Wincer does not soften it with a cutaway or a joke. The rest of the film lives off that minute.

Jason James Richter plays Jesse as a kid who has learned that wanting things is how you get hurt, and he does most of it by not looking at people. Keiko, the orca billed second, is the reason the film works at all. Nobody has told him to be charming. He watches Jesse through the glass with one eye, surfaces when the harmonica starts, and in the night scenes, when Greenberg lights the tank from below so the water goes green and the whale a wet black, the boy’s reflection and the animal’s face share the same frame. O. Nicholas Brown cuts between Keiko and an animatronic double for the contact shots, and if you look you can tell. Most of the time you will not look.

August Schellenberg’s Randolph is the steadiest thing in the film, a man who has spent long enough with the whale to talk about him quietly, and Lori Petty’s Rae gets the practical business, the fish bucket, the hand signals, the weighing, that the film is unusually detailed about. Charles Rosen’s production design makes the park exactly the wrong place for a whale: peeling blue paint, a tank you could cross in a few strokes, an empty grandstand with a view of the sea. April Ferry puts Jesse in a jacket two sizes too big that he never takes off and Randolph in work shirts washed a thousand times. The clothes know who belongs where before the script does.

The rest is cardboard. Michael Ironside’s Dial, the park’s owner, is bad in the way men in suits are bad in children’s films, and Richard Riehle’s Wade has nothing to do but agree with him. Michael Madsen and Jayne Atkinson, as the foster parents, are decent and under-written; Glen wants to be left alone, Annie wants him to try, and their scenes with Jesse are the ones where the dialogue tells us what the actors have already shown. Mykelti Williamson’s social worker arrives to move the plot and leaves. We noticed that the house scenes go by in a grey hurry while the tank scenes are allowed to breathe, and we suspect Wincer noticed too.

The ending is the image everybody remembers, and the title tells you most of it, so we will only say that it is the one shot where the sentiment and the craft arrive together, and that Poledouris finally lets the full orchestra off the leash he has kept it on. Against the boy-and-animal films it descends from, *Ring of Bright Water* and *The Black Stallion* among them, it is broader, softer and more American, and it does not pretend otherwise. At 112 minutes it is about ten minutes longer than its story needs.

Children of about Jesse’s age will not notice the villain is cardboard; they will notice the whale. Adults will notice both, and may find, as we did, that the whale wins.

*Fi1m score 68, published 4 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics are warm towards Free Willy, and they judge it on its own terms: a family film with a moral purpose that sets out to move its audience and largely does. The praise clusters around the bond between the boy and the orca, which reviewers find believable and affecting, and around the care the film takes in showing the daily business of looking after the animal. The score and the underwater photography come in for repeated mention, as does the blend of animatronics with footage of the real whale, Keiko.

The reservations are familiar ones. Several reviews call the plotting clichéd and the sentiment laid on thick; the Los Angeles Times notes strained turns in the story, and Radio Times finds the family scenes weak and the villains overdrawn. Nobody is hostile and the spread is narrow. Three of the eight reviews, including Roger Ebert’s and the New York Times’s, could only be partly read, so the picture rests on the five that could.

## Straight answers

**Is Free Willy worth watching?**

*Free Willy* is worth watching for children and for anyone who wants a boy-and-animal film with a real whale in it, and we scored it 68. The villain is cardboard, the foster-home scenes are thin and it runs about ten minutes long, but the scenes between Jesse and Willy at the glass still land. Adults may find the whale wins.

**How long is Free Willy, and what is it rated?**

*Free Willy* runs 1h 52m. It is a family and adventure film.

**Where can I watch Free Willy in New Zealand?**

*Free Willy* is streaming on Netflix in New Zealand, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from NZ$5.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How does Free Willy compare to Blackfish?**

*Free Willy* is a sentimental children's drama about a boy and a captive orca, while [*Blackfish*](https://film.one/film/blackfish) is a documentary about what tanks do to killer whales, and the documentary is the tougher and better film. The two share a subject and almost nothing else in tone. Watch *Blackfish* afterwards, without the children, if the whale has got to you.

### Reviews we read (8)

- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Duane Byrge (90/100, inferred): Byrge praises the film as a timeless, emotionally effective family story with a strong balance of entertainment and moral purpose. He especially commends the score and cinematography for conveying the characters’ powerful connections. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/free-willy-review-movie-1993-1221569/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, MICHAEL WILMINGTON (85/100, inferred): Wilmington finds the film a moving, worthwhile family adventure despite its sentimentality and strained plot turns. He especially praises the genuine, emotionally compelling bond between Jesse and Willy. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-16-ca-13537-story.html)
- **Variety**, Leonard Klady (85/100, inferred): The critic calls the film an intelligent, highly enjoyable family entertainment that skillfully tugs at the heartstrings. He especially praises its detailed depiction of caring for and observing the orca, along with its visual splendor. [Read](https://variety.com/1993/film/reviews/free-willy-1200432813/)
- **Empire**, Phil Thomas (75/100, inferred): Thomas finds the film clichéd but ultimately well-made, entertaining and genuinely moving. He singles out the likeable young lead and the awe-inspiring, moving ending for praise. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/free-willy-review/)
- **Time Out**, SFe (65/100, inferred): The accessible page does not reveal the critic’s verdict. Its description singles out the contrast between balletic whales in a brilliant blue sea and the cacophony of their capture. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/free-willy)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (64/100, inferred): The page could not be accessed, so the critic’s verdict is unavailable. No praise or complaint can be reliably identified from the supplied text. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/free-willy-1993)
- **The New York Times**, Janet Maslin (64/100, inferred): The page is identifiable as a review of Free Willy, but its verdict cannot be recovered from the blocked text. No specific element of praise or complaint is available to report. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/16/movies/review-film-boy-and-orca-meet-cute.html)
- **Radio Times**, David Parkinson (3/5): The critic finds the film entertaining and hard to resist, especially for younger viewers. They praise the skillful blend of animatronics and footage of real whale Keiko, while criticizing the family scenes and exaggerated villains. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-8q36te/free-willy/)

## Details

- **Director:** Simon Wincer
- **Director:** Simon Wincer
- **Screenplay:** Corey Blechman, Keith Walker
- **Story:** Keith Walker
- **Cinematography:** Robbie Greenberg
- **Editor:** O. Nicholas Brown
- **Music:** Basil Poledouris
- **Production design:** Charles Rosen
- **Costume design:** April Ferry
- **Producer:** Lauren Shuler Donner, Jennie Lew Tugend
- **Cast:** Jason James Richter as Jesse; Keiko as Willy; Lori Petty as Rae Lindley; August Schellenberg as Randolph Johnson; Michael Madsen as Glen Greenwood; Jayne Atkinson as Annie Greenwood; Michael Ironside as Dial; Richard Riehle as Wade
- **Runtime:** 1h 52m
- **First release (Canada):** 16 July 1993
- **Genres:** Family, Adventure, Drama
- **Budget:** $20 million
- **Box office:** $154 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQZES1EtZ2w

## Where to watch in New Zealand

- Netflix: streaming
- Amazon Prime Video: rent NZ$5.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy NZ$14.99, hd

*Checked 2026-10-04.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CL, CO, DE, DK, EC, ES, FI, FR, GB, IE, IN, IT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie 1994: Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *Whale Rider* (2002): A Maori girl, a line of chiefs and a beached pod; graver, and better argued.
- *The Black Stallion* (1979): Boy and horse on an island, nearly wordless for half an hour, and it holds.
- *Ring of Bright Water* (1969): A man, an otter and the west coast of Scotland; gentler, and it will still get you.
- *Fly Away Home* (1996): A grieving girl teaches geese to migrate; the same shape, with a sharper eye for family.
- *Blackfish* (2013), Fi1m 78: The documentary about orcas in tanks. Watch it after, not before, and not with the children. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/blackfish.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/free-willy