Free Willy — Season 1, Episode 9: Hope
Animation, Kids, Sci-Fi & Fantasy • 30 min • 1 season, 21 episodes • ★ 5.0/10
Episode synopsis
Lucille, the seal, reaches out to Jesse for assistance because there is an issue in Pelican Bay. For a while now, the birds have been laying eggs with such thin shells that they break before the chicks can survive. Jesse speaks with the pelicans and learns that DDT is being stored nearby in an old cannery. This herbicide poses a serious threat to wildlife. In response, Jesse 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".