Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home

Now we come to the sequel, “Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home,” released in 1995. This for some reason has been criticized as being worse than the first movie, and the worst in the series, currently holding a 36% on Rotten Tomatoes. In my opinion, I thought it was better than the first one. Here are my reasons why:

In this sequel, Jesse finds out from the cop from the first movie, played once again by Mykelti Williamson, that his biological mother has passed away and that he has an eight-year-old half-brother, Elvis, played by Francis Capra, who is coming to live with Jesse and his foster parents. Despite that Elvis is a fast talker, he says very little about their mother’s passing, and at first, Jesse does not want to consider himself related to Elvis, especially since Elvis can be a real nuisance. This is probably the reason why a lot of hate went into “Free Willy 2,” and in all honesty, I can see that. However, Jesse was very unstable in the first movie as well, and you might say that Elvis is worse, but remember, if you have younger siblings, they were probably a lot of trouble for your parents as well. Think of it from that point of view. Also, almost all of the original cast returns, minus Lori.

For Jesse and Elvis to bond, the family goes out on a camping trip, where Jesse is reunited with Willy. Another familiar face that pops into the movie is Randolph, who now is a whale spotter and has located where Willy is with his mother, sister, and brother. Also, Jesse finds love with Randolph’s daughter, Nadine, played by Mary Kate Schellhardt, who is impressed with Jesse and Willy’s friendship and how Jesse trains Willy. Then disaster strikes when a tanker, played by Jon Tenney, arrives onto the reef and decides that is the place for his company to dump oil into. After seeing this, everyone, including Elvis, puts their heads together to find out what they can do in order to save the whales and rid the oil company from this reef.

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat said it very nicely in their review, “Free Willy 2 is fine family entertainment laced with ecological ideals.” The storyline teaches the younger audiences that they should fight for the relationship between animals and humans. Willy and Jesse grow closer to one another in this movie with both of them performing heroism. What I mean is that they both save one another from near-death experiences. The message in this movie is that all creatures are fellow travelers and spiritual companions. Also, with the environmental message in this movie to save the whales, and showing you why, I found to be stronger than in the first movie. I liked the message a lot, and I think the situation was high at the time for the filmmakers to put that in “Free Willy 2.”

Also, when you get the DVD, it includes behind-the-scenes features, Michael Jackson’s music video to “Childhood” (which plays when Elvis runs away and the family tries to find him), and theatrical trailers to all three “Free Willy” movies.

In the end, I say to give this movie a chance. I personally like this one over the first, but that’s just my opinion. I’m not saying that I’m right and everyone else is wrong, no. Remember that this is all opinion-based. However, since I have an online blog, that automatically means that my opinion is better than yours (Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah). Wait, are you all leaving? I was only kidding, please don’t leave. It was just a joke. Ok, good, now I’m feeling better.

Stay tuned next week when I talk about “Free Willy 3.”