Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (PG)

This rote sequel will thrill Willy fans.

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Movie details

Studio: Warner Bros.
Directed By: Dwight Little
Cast: Jason James Richter
Running Time: 96 minutes
Release Date: 06/05/2001
Video/DVD Release Date: 06/05/2001
Genre: Family and Kids
MPAA Rating: PG
MPAA Explanation: emotional intensity

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that without the freshness of the original film, this sequel is a little like watching the previous film's characters (various species) swimming laps. This sequel is strictly for young fans of the original who can't get enough of Willy. Kids above 12 may find this Willy a little too obvious and sugary.

Families can talk about how, in this movie, children put themselves at risk. How much risk is too much? How should kids handle deciding whether to take risks?

Message
Violence
Sex
Language

Message

Social Behavior:

Consumerism:

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

Violence

The mother of one child dies (offscreen); the children, while not hurt, put themselves in danger to rescue the whales.

Sex

Language

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Charles Cassady, Jr.

In this sequel, a Free Willy cast reunion takes place just offshore, with the marine mammals once again in peril and an extended human family still learning to get along. Jesse (Jason James Richter) is living happily with his foster parents until his troubled biological mom dies and half-brother Elvis becomes part of his family. Then an oil spill threatens the now-free killer whale Willy and his family. As if that's not enough for Jesse to handle, an amusement park owner sets out to capture the whale.

Is it any good?

You'd think there wouldn't be much to add to the Free Willy saga after Willy was freed, and you'd be right (unless you count the real-life movement to release Keiko, the captive orca used in these movies). FREE WILLY 2 treads some pretty familiar waters; it's not unlike a "Flipper" episode on steroids, especially in the action-filled climax, when whales and boys confront an ocean that's turned into sheets of flame.

But the first movie wasn't so much about stunts as the surprisingly touching relationship between Jesse and the troubled sea creature (Flipper never had such a bad attitude). There's an attempted substitute here in the emotional subplot of Jesse's jealousy, rivalry and reconciliation with Elvis, his obnoxious sibling. Much of their dramatics takes place in the midst of an environmental inferno. The producers correctly intuited that this brotherly spat alone would leave much of the audience cold.