"Free Willy 3: The Rescue" is an Adventure - Drama movie and the third movie of the "Free Willy" franchise in which we watch teenager Jesse trying to protect Will and his pregnant mate by an illegal whaler threatening them both. Since I had watched the two previous movies I knew what to expect but I hoped from this movie to be better than the second. Unfortunately, it followed the path of the second movie and it was equally bad. I believe that "Free Willy" franchise has to stop with this movie because it does not have anything more to give. The direction which was made by Sam Pillsbury followed the footsteps of the previous movie without having any suspense and being a bit boring at some points of it. All in all, I have to say that "Free Willy 3: The Rescue" is another average family movie that I do not recommend anyone to watch because I am sure that you can find better family movies than this to watch.
Whale action was accomplished with a real whale and animatronic or mechanical whales, both life-size and miniature. The producers of this film have a special interest in the plight of whales and took exceptional care to avoid endangering or stressing not only the whales, but all the animals in this film. All filming with the live whale was done at a seaquarium in Mexico City and our American Humane representative was present at all times. The whale portraying Willy is Keiko, a 13-year-old 7,000 pound Orcinus Orca, who resides at the seaquarium. Amid soaring background music, the film begins with some spectacular footage of a pod of whales cavorting freely in the ocean. Before long, whaling boats appear and men set nets as they pursue and encircle the whales. One whale is separated from the rest behind a net and calls to the others outside. This scene was accomplished by editing documentary wildlife footage with scenes staged with animatronic whales. Only animatronic whales were used for interplay between the whaling boats and the Orcas. On Jesse’s first day at work at the aquarium, he observes two sea lions performing. They kiss, wave, stand on their front flippers, bow, and do a variety of other tricks. These were trained sea lions that were responding to trainers visual and verbal cues with fish as a reward. Willy circles and swims about the pool during this scene. The whale was responding to his trainers cues and was rewarded with fish. A life-size, 20 foot animatronic whale was used in the sequences with the whale and Jesse interacting in the tank and in all scenes with the whale out of the tank. For the scene where Jesse falls into the pool, unconscious, a photo-double was used for the actor. The scene was shot in cuts. As the photo-double went to the bottom of the pool, a trainer cued Willy to go to the photo-double. The whale swam to the bottom of the tank and placed his nose under the double and moved her to the surface, over to the pool’s edge, and nudged her onto the platform. The actor then replaced the double. The trainer then cued the whale to come up and nudge Jesse by using his fist as a target on Jesse’s side and instructed the whale to push. The whale received a food reward for each of his actions. When Willy is in a net in the pool being examined by the veterinarian, the animatronic whale was used. For the scene where Jesse feeds Willy by hand and pets Willy and Willy performs for Jesse, the scene was shot in many cuts. These were all trained behaviors by the real whale and trainers were placed strategically off camera so that they could cue the whale and give him his fish reward. The young actor also cued the whale at strategic times and personally fed the whale. For the scene where Jesse works with Willy and gets into the pool and rides him, a photo-double for the young actor was used. The whale was given sufficient time to become accustomed to both the photo-double, a female, and the young actor who played Jesse. The whale had learned all of his behaviors prior to filming and he performed them by responding to cues, by either the actor or trainer, with food as a reward. When Jesse and Willy bond with a tongue pat, a trainer stationed Willy by the tank edge. The actor knelt by Willy and personally cued him to open his mouth and rubbed his tongue and fed him. Jesse then patted Willy’s face and gave him another food reward. When Jesse and Willy perform for the aquarium’s owner, the scene was shot in cuts using both the young actor and his photo-double. Again, these were all trained behaviors which the whale performed in response to cues by either the actor, the double, or an off-camera trainer with food as a reward. For the scene where Jesse and Willy do their show for the public and Willy will not perform, the whale responded to his off-camera trainers cues rather than to any of the cues Jesse gave him. For the scene in which the children are banging at the windows of Willy’s tank, a full-sized articulated or mechanical whale was used. For the scene where Jesse visits Willy at night just before Jesse decides to run away from home again, Willy made his movements in response to cues by his off camera trainer. The scene where Jesse gets Willy into a harness and sling and hoists him out of the water was accomplished with the real and mechanical whale and was shot in cuts. A fake harness with only two sides was used on the real whale. From this point on all of Willy’s action in the film is accomplished with either a full-sized or miniature articulated whale and/or special effects which are extraordinarily realistic. The final effect is very moving emotionally. Audiences will cheer as Willy explodes out of the water. The dead fish present in many scenes and used as both seal and whale food, were all purchased dead fish. A representative of American Humane was present throughout filming with the live whale in Mexico City and also observed work with the animatronic whale. A representative of the Oregon Humane Society also observed some work with the mechanical whale filmed in the United States. Keiko, the killer whale made famous by the “Free Willy” movies, has died in Norwegian coastal waters after suffering from pneumonia.  Dec. 13, 2003, 4:44 AM UTC / Source: The Associated Press Keiko, the killer whale made famous by the “Free Willy” movies, has died in Norwegian coastal waters where he remained after millions of dollars and a decade of work failed to coax him back to the open sea, his caretakers said early Saturday. The whale, who was 27, died Friday afternoon after the sudden onset of pneumonia in the Taknes fjord. He was old for an orca in captivity, though wild orca live an average of 35 years.David Phillips, executive director of the San Francisco-based Free Willy-Keiko Foundation, said Keiko had been in good health but started showed signs of lethargy and loss of appetite on Thursday. “This is a long sad day for us,” Phillips said. One of his handlers, Dale Richards, also said Keiko died quickly. “We checked his respiration rate and it was a little irregular ... he wasn’t doing too well,” Richards told The Associated Press. “Early in the evening, he passed away.” In captivity since 1979Keiko — which means “Lucky One” in Japanese — was captured in Iceland in 1979 and sold to the marine park industry. Starting in 1993, the six-ton, 35-foot-long mammal starred in three “Free Willy” movies, a heartwarming box-office franchise from Warner Brothers in which sympathetic humans help set a long-captive killer whale free. The drive for the real-life reintroduction of the movies’ star started after he was found ailing in a Mexico City aquarium. The project — to reintegrate Keiko with a pod of wild killer whales — cost more than $20 million and stirred interest and ire worldwide. Keiko was rehabilitated at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, then airlifted to Iceland in 1998. His handlers there prepared him for the wild, teaching him to catch live fish in an operation that cost about $500,000 a month. That amount recently paid for a year of care, Phillips said. Keiko was released from Iceland in July 2002, but he swam straight for Norway on a 870-mile trek that seemed to be a search for human companionship. He first turned up near the village of Halsa in late August or early September of 2002. There, he allowed fans to pet and play with him, even crawl on his back, becoming such an attraction that animal protection authorities imposed a ban on approaching him. A quick deathKeiko lived in Taknes Bay, a clear, calm pocket of coastal water deep enough that it doesn’t freeze in winter. Keepers fed him there, but he was free to roam and did, often at night. He was equipped with a VHF tracking device that let his four handlers pinpoint his location provided he stayed within a range of about five miles. Keiko’s keepers said the whale seemed to adapt to living in the wild despite so many years in captivity, learning to slap his tail and do jumps called side breaches that are typically done to stun fish. To keep Keiko in shape, his caretakers took him on “walks,” leading him around the fjords from a small boat at least three times a week. Nick Braden, a spokesman of the Humane Society of the United States, said veterinarians gave Keiko antibiotics after he showed signs of lethargy Thursday, but it wasn’t apparent how sick he was. “They really do die quickly and there was nothing we could do. ... It’s a really sad moment for us, but we do believe we gave him a chance to be in the wild,” Braden said. |
What whale was used in Free Willy 3
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