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.

Our Flick of the Week is “Free Willy,” which is as simple-minded a love story as “Sleepless in Seattle,” this time with a boy in the troubled Meg Ryan role and the tortured … ...

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 ...

When audiences, including millions of children, learned that the animal that played Willy — an orca named Keiko — was confined to a shallow pool in Mexico, they started a campaign to free him.

The Free Willy Saga — or perhaps we should call it the “Free Willy Trilogy” — began in 1993, with the original “Willy,” a surprise hit that I enjoyed immensely.

After the "Free Willy" films, he was rescued from a Mexico City amusement park in 1996 and brought to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.