Free Willy filmmakers went to wild lengths to create that iconic whale-jumping scene Danni Scott Published June 14, 2023 11:50am Updated June 14, 2023 2:18pm Comments ...

Keiko, the feisty orca hero of the hit children's movie "Free Willy," seems to be edging closer to a free life at sea. After a life of captivity, the 23-year-old whale has been traveling for ...

The team's comments contradict those made by members of the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation, who declared in 2003 that his case had challenged the perception that whales cannot be returned to the wild.

The jump scene in "Free Willy" was accomplished by strapping an animatronic whale to a rocket launcher. Director Simon Wincer recalled the process in a new interview with The Guardian. Lori Petty ...

Keiko was captured from the wild near Iceland in 1979 and lived in a number of aquatic parks before appearing in ‘Free Willy’. In 1996 he was moved to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon with ...

Free Willy taught us that killer whales belong in the ocean, not in swimming pools. Keiko taught us that returning some whales to nature is possible, and ethical, in my mind.

THE real-life orca star of blockbuster movie Free Willy was never truly free. The killer whale who starred in the 1993 classic, named Keiko, died an agonising death in 2003 after tragically failing… ...

By 2002, the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation was in crisis. Keiko cost almost $400,000 a month, and McCaw, the foundation's primary patron, scaled back support. Advertisement ...

Keiko, the killer whale star of the “Free Willy” movies, was buried Monday in a snow-bound pasture during the deep darkness of Nordic winter in a ceremony kept secret from the public. “We ...