1995 American film
Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (also known as Free Willy 2) is a 1995 American family film directed by Dwight H. Little from a screenplay by Karen Janszen, Corey Blechman and John Mattson. It is the sequel to the 1993 film Free Willy and second installment in the Free Willy film series distributed by Warner Bros. under their Warner Bros. Family Entertainment label. Jason James Richter, Jayne Atkinson, August Schellenberg, Michael Madsen and Mykelti Williamson reprise their roles from the first film. New cast members include Jon Tenney and Elizabeth Peña. Unlike the previous film where Keiko played Willy, a robotic double created by Edge Innovations was used to play the eponymous whale while the Free Willy Keiko Foundation devised a plan to bring Keiko to the Oregon Coast Aquarium where he would be rehabilitated from poor health, although Keiko did make an uncredited appearance, reprising his role as Willy through an archival clip shown in the film.
Set two years after Jesse freed his orca friend Willy, who is now reunited with his family which includes sister Luna, brother Littlespot and mother Catspaw, the plot follows Jesse in a race against time after an oil spill separated Willy and his siblings from their mother and it is up to him to get them back home before the oil traps them in the cove for good.
Filming commenced in Astoria, Oregon and the San Juan Islands between April and August 1994 with additional filming taking place in California. The film received mixed reviews from critics and despite underperforming at the box office, a third film Free Willy 3: The Rescue was subsequently released in 1997.
Plot summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.