Free Willy: A Grande Fuga

I bought the movie in a set of pack of 4 with the first 3 intending to relive a peace of the 90's. Now certain aspects of the movie are right, and the idea is sort of there. the plot could have been developed a bit more. But I have a feeling this movie was intended to drag in the interest of a new generation of kids to get there interest going. Today, the kids are all watching computerized cartoons, and the idea, I think is to drum up the sales and to teach kids a interest of it, so they wont mind watching the older movies from the 90's which are much better. Oh yes, the actors and actresses did a good job for what they had to work with. A whale that washes into a cove is a whale that's stuck. Can't go nowhere and a man wants it. Family movies to obvious? Depends on which ones you watch. Are the 90's in this movie? Nope. The 90's are done. If you wanna go back to the 90's where you grew up, my advice is to get movies you might have watched growing up: Home Alone & H.A. 2, Free Willy 1; 2; 3. LOL. Kids today are NOT 90's kids and wont be. Or even those darn kid movies u watched as a kid. LOL, even if they were kids. As for the above movie, use it to get your kids interested in the originals. :)

This movie should not have been made, what is wrong with TV and movie producers these days.

More important it should not be called free Willy 4. Seriously.. its made 10 years later and has nothing to do with the original films and it takes place in like Britain or something. They couldn't have named it something else! And what is with the random penguin.. horrible movie, horrible acting. Just garbage there is a reason why this never made it to theaters. They only reason i tried watching this was because it came in a pack with the 3 original movies I think i might just throw it away.

I did not know there was a fourth 'Free Willy'. This is not exactly a follow-up. There's no connection between previous films and this, except the Orca named as Willy. They call it a reboot, but instead they should have turned it into a prequel. Because this storyline was very much like that kind. I'm not a big fan of this franchise, so I was not expecting anything big. One of the reason I watched it for our Steve Irwin's beloved daughter. This is her acting debute and she was quite good, though not the ideal one.

She as Kirra lives alone with her single father and after he met with an accident, she was sent to her grandfather's in South Africa. The old man who runs a small seaside amusement park, Kirra does not find hard to get adjusted, not without initial dislike for him. But it was when she finds a baby Orca that trapped in the park's small lagoon. Since she begins to fight for its freedom, but has to go through many obstacles and in the end how the story end was told with a tiny twist.

Not a bad film. Small cost film, a neat production. Nice performances too. Simple and predictable story, but would work well for little kids. Beautiful places, well, most of the film was shot in a single location, though it looked very nice. And the killer whale calf was a toy in most of the closer shots, as well in a few stunt sequences. Not a film for deliberately jump in to watch, but if you decide to watch, just keep away your grownup egos to enjoy it as a kid. Particularly for its message, to save the wild animals from human's captivity.

6/10

This is a nice little film that the whole family can enjoy together. It will not deliver any surprises or stun you with Academy award performances. Just a simple story requiring a suspension of disbelief and, perhaps, an open heart.

Bindi Irwin delivers a good performance and it's too bad she didn't continue to make movies as her acting ability was strong even as a child.

The plot is standard family fare - good guys win, bad guys lose and protagonists learn valuable life lessons.

The CGI whale is pretty good by 2010 standards. The robo-whale, however, is pretty dreadful and totally unconvincing.

I agree with many reviewers that the title of the film should not have included the phrase "Free Willy". This film exists in a separate universe and has no connection to the other three films whatsoever.

It's somewhat amusing to hear from the "Free Willy" purists who hold those films in such high regard. They were not the high-concept, altruistic message films these people imagine them to be. Although the production values were higher, all those films were implausible and predictable. The addition of a environmental blurb on the end credits does not raise the integrity of the film.

To those who feel this movie disrespects Keiko all I can say that the orca was exploited from the moment he was captured at about two years of age. He lived a miserable existence in concrete prisons where he was chronically ill from a variety of infections. Warner Brothers exploited him for the movies and even his disastrous release was hyped like a circus sideshow. For all its flaws, "Escape from Pirate's Cove" didn't exploit and harm a living orca.

I bought this DVD for two reasons. First, I'm a long-time fan of the Bridges acting family. Second, I was a huge fan of Steve Irwin and I thought that the combination of Bindi Irwin and Beau Bridges would be marvelous. For me, it was. I have read the negative reviews of this movie here and, while the plot is pretty predictable (what family-oriented film plot isn't?), I thought that the chemistry between the actors was wonderful and I disagree with the cynics, especially about Bindi's performance. I found Bindi Irwin's performance to be charming and Beau Bridges didn't disappoint either. Together, they are irresistible even in an obvious plot like this one, and the music is lovely as well.

I have no small children at this time and as yet I have no grandchildren. I bought this DVD for myself, and I would do it again. This film is fun and joyous and brought tears to my eyes at the same time. It is engaging and appealing on its own, even with the reference to the "Free Willy" franchise. This film could stand on its own without that title.

Australia should consider Bindi Irwin to be a national treasure, and I found this movie to be absolutely charming.