Free Willy — Season 1, Episode 5: The Eel Beast
Animation, Kids, Sci-Fi & Fantasy • 30 min • 1 season, 21 episodes • ★ 5.0/10
Episode synopsis
Jesse and Willy's trip takes an unexpected turn when Jesse encounters a giant eel while exploring underwater caves. When the eel threatens him, Jesse attempts to communicate with it and discovers that its anger stems from the radioactive waste that has transformed this once ordinary eel into a monstrous creature. Jesse quickly informs his friends at the Oceanographic Institute about the situation.
About Free Willy
Free Willy is an animated television series, inspired by the 1993 film of the same name. This television series was produced by Warner Bros. Television, Regency Enterprises and the Canadian company Nelvana for Warner Bros. Studios. The show, which aired for one season on American Broadcasting Company, continues the adventures of the orca Willy and Jesse, the boy who freed him from captivity as shown in the film. In retrospect, the series also anticipates multiple plot elements of the film sequel, Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, released the following summer. The overarching conflict is reminiscent of Moby-Dick: a powerful oil baron, known to the main characters only as a cyborg called "The Machine" until the final episodes, loses his arm and part of his face to Willy while committing an environmental atrocity and wants revenge upon "that rotten whale... and his boy".