Free willy ' the animated series'!

 Dear Blog...

This post is about Free willy (yet again) but this time.. more or less something lesser known about the free willy franchise.. I didn't had a clue, but somewhere in the '10s I found some old VHS tapes about something free willy like, the animated series!! :O

I was baffled (yet again) but managed to get 3 copies of this show with even dutch titles on the tapes AND the tapes being subtitled in dutch! YAY.. some treasures you can find on yard sales.. :O

Here is more info about it.. (just for me, because no-one reads this blog - ahwel - it IS interesting!)

Too know this animated series just came out in 1994, thus jumping on the free willy wave of that time!

note: the first Free willy came out 16th of July 1993!

More info about the series:

Free Willy the animated series on IMDB

Free Willy the animated series on WIKI

Blog about the series

Dave's obsession with Free Willy the animated series 

A little bit more:

Free Willy is an animated television series, inspired by the 1993 film of the same name.^[1] The television show was produced by Warner Bros. Television, Regency Enterprises, Canadian company Nelvana and French company Le Studio Canal+ for Warner Bros. Studios.

The show continues the adventures of the orca Willy and Jesse, the boy who freed him from captivity as shown in the film.^[2] 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". The show aired on ABC from September 24, 1994 to December 16, 1995.

Plot

Jesse has been adopted by his foster parents, the Greenwoods, and they have moved from Seattle to the Pacific coast. He is given a job at the Misty Island Oceanic Reserve, a local wildlife rescue and research institute where Randolph, his Native American mentor from the film, now works. In the first episode, Jesse discovers he has the ability to talk to animals and understand their speech; Randolph, a Haida, explains that he is a Truth Talker. This revelation allows for Willy and the other sea creatures featured in the show to have full personalities and more prominent roles in key plot events. Jesse and Randolph work with Mr. Naugle, the head biologist, and Marlene, a research assistant, who are studying Einstein, a dolphin, and Lucille, a sea lion, teaching them behavioral communication with normal humans. In the animated series the sea animals can talk including Willy. Jesse is the only one who can talk to Willy and the sea animals.

Whaaaat?? It aired on september the 24th?? =P like.. it was my 9th birthday!! coincidence? I think not =P.. wat a cool anekdote.

And now the funny part... somewhere in 1995 somebody screwed up (or has it?) some of the episodes on this particular vhs tapes.. because the 3 VHS are in absolutely the wrong order.

on the first VHS (tape 1) it has episodes 4 and 5 on it..

on the second VHS (tape 2) it has episodes 1 and 2 on it..

and on the third tape (tape 3) it has episodes 6 and 9 on it... 

????? strange.

unfortunatly i cannot find other examples of VHS from the animated series.. (even wiki doesn't know about these) so it will remain a mystery for just ever. 

After a quick resarch it looks like every copy of VHS (also in other languages) are these with the same episodes on! Strange. 

The animated series looks nothing like the movies and have no link to them too whatsoever - no original voices - the voice of Jesse sounds a little bit like the real Jason James Richter. but that's it! It also introduces the fact (SPOILER ALERT) that Jesse can talk to the animals (and the animals as wel!) .  And it's def. a kids show.. (do not try to watch this as an adult =P) It has a little bit of Captain planet thrown in, but on a sea level =).. if you can remember captain planet.. it also focuses a lot on environment and pollution and stuff.. thus trying to be a little educational here! It ran for 2 seasons and has 21 episodes.

BUT THANK GOD for YOUTUBE.. yet again!

Here are the episodes 1 and 2 from the VHS tapes =) YAY!

so.. should I toss the VHS away? Or not? That's the question! =)

xx

K.