Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove
Directed By: Will Geiger
Starring: Bindi Irwin, Beau Bridges, Bongolethu Mbutuma, Siyabulela Ramba, Stephen Jennings, Kevin Otto
| Studio: Warner Bros. Year: 2010 Rated: PG Film Length: 101 minutes Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish Release Date: March 23, 2010 |
While I have to admit that the timing of the release of this direct to video film only a few weeks after an incident where an Orca named Tilikum killed its trainer, Dawn Brancheau, in Orlando, Florida did nothing to enhance my appetite to see a child cavorting in the water with such a creature, I have attempted to separate my review from this context which the filmmakers and distributors could not have anticipated.
The Film **½
In Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove, young Kirra Cooper (Irwin) is sent from her home in Australia to her Grandfather Gus Grisby's (Bridges) home in South Africa after her veterinarian father (Cooper) suffers injuries in a fall that require six weeks of hospitalization. Reluctant to go and none too fond of her disheveled gambler of a grandfather or the low-rent pirate-themed amusement park he runs near the ocean, Kirra is intent to "do her time" and return to Australia at the earliest opportunity. When a severe storm washes a baby Orca into the seaside cove, Kirra finds herself newly engaged with her surroundings and determined to return "Willy" to his family "Pod". She enlists the aid of Gus' staff including reliable handyman Mansa (Mbutuma) and a cheery young boy named Sifisu (Ramba). In order to succeed, she must overcome the technical challenge of teaching the young Orca to use his echo-location skills as well as the personal challenge of convincing the cash-strapped grandfather she barely knows to go along with her plan despite the popularity of the confined Willy as a park attraction and the financial offers from Rolf (Jennings), the wealthy and unprincipled owner of a nearby rival park.Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove is not so much a sequel to the three previous Free Willy films as a re-working of the same basic plot with different characters and a novel setting. While the screenwriters score no points for originality, the South African setting and location footage offer jaded adult viewers at least a little eye candy in compensation for the otherwise overly familiar plot and characterizations.
The cast is top-lined by Bindi Irwin in her feature film debut. Her on-camera experience working on her late father's televised nature programs notwithstanding, she gives a pretty decent performance for a first time juvenile actress. She runs into trouble whenever she is required to express extreme emotions in scenes involving crying, squealing, or yelling, but this is par for the course even for experienced child actors. Beau Bridges is by far the best known member of the cast, and while he is too much of a pro to phone-in a performance, the screenplay only gives him limited opportunity to invest his character with anything beyond his somewhat stock surface details. To his credit, he makes the most of these opportunities, which are essential to making the potentially silly climax of the film pay-off dramatically. Juvenile South African actor Siyabulela Ramba arguably steals every scene in which he appears as Sifisu and makes for a pretty entertaining sidekick character to Irwin's Kirra.
Production values are generally above average for a direct to video kid-flick with the location and animal footage being generally quite impressive. Critical viewers will not have much trouble telling the CGI whales from the real deal, but they are not a complete disaster, either. As previously mentioned, the South African locations are a highlight, and they are exploited for all they are worth by the director and cinematographer at appropriate opportunities.
The Video *****
The film is presented via a VC-1 1080p encoding that fills the entire 16:9 frame. It was an overall exceptional and film-like presentation with excellent detail, deeply saturated colors, and natural looking fine film grain. I thought I noticed some low intensity high contrast edge ringing during a couple of shots, but it turned out upon closer inspection to just be the natural sunlight transients across some wooden poles in the background which is a testament to the level of detail in this presentation.The Audio ****
The English DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track was above average for a direct to video release, but not as spatial and dynamic as a typical modern theatrical release. It features solid fidelity and occasional uses of the surround field for discrete dimensional effects (such as announcements at airports an environmental effects during a storm sequence) and light ambient support. The bulk of the film's mix is located in the front three channels with wide stereo effects generally reserved for the support of off-screen action and dialog.The Extras **½
All of the "Special Features" are presented in 1080p VC-1 video with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, although some of them appear to mix high-definition footage with upconverted 16:9 standard definition "behind the scenes" material:On the Set of Free Willy: Greetings from South Africa (7:37) is a brief kid-oriented "making of..." featurette consisting of behind the scenes footage and talking head interviews, discussion topics are the expected mix of comments on working with co-stars, the film's unique South African locations, and thoughts on Orcas, ecology, and the movie's themes. They are divided up by the following on-screen titles: My Adventure Begins, My First Movie, Wish You Were Here, Safari Park, Are We in Australia?, All Aboard, Lost in the Lagoon, and, Mission Accomplished. Organized mostly from the perspective of juvenile actress Irwin, additional on-screen comments are provided by her mother Terri Irwin, Writer/Director Will Geiger, and actors Beau Bridges, Bongo Mbutuma, and Siya Ramba
Meet My Wild Co-Stars (3:09) features Bindi Irwin taking the viewer on a brief visit to a number of the animal actors appearing in the film and discussing a little bit of background information on how she worked with them and how they were trained. In addition to Irwin, on-screen comments are also offered by Bridges and Ramba.
Deleted Scenes (2:07 w/Play All) is a collection of one deleted and one extended scene that did not make it to the film's final cut.
- Kirra Makes Dinner (:29) - is a brief deleted scene where Kirra cooks for her Grandpa and makes sarcastic comments about the sad state of his refrigerator
- Kirra and Sifiso Feed Willy (1:38) - is an extended sequence from the film with some additional dialog between Kirra and Willy including a bit where she makes a fish talk like a puppet while unsuccessfully attempting to feed him
Outtake - Kirra Talks to Willy (1:30) - is a reel of several attempts by Bindi Irwin to perform the "fish puppet" bit from the extended scene mentioned above with various accents. She has a tough time getting through without laughing and breaking character.
Bindi's First Movie Video Diary (4:27) - is a behind the scenes "video diary" that checks in with Irwin on various days of the film's shooting. It is set to some generally silly background music and includes occasional comments from folks on set such as Irwin, her co-stars, and even her tuba instructor. Explanatory on-screen titles also appear written as if they were actual diary entries from Irwin's perspective.
Exclusive to the Blu-ray release of the film is a Pop-up Fun Track that, when selected, displays pieces of trivia in a rectangular box near the bottom of the screen periodically throughout the film. Most of it consists of biographical information about the film's cast, production and location details, South African trivia, and whale trivia. The feature is implemented through subtitles, and does not require a bonus view-enabled Blu-ray player.
As has been the case with all Warner new release theatrical titles in 2010, this direct to video blu-ray release comes with a Bonus DVD with Digital Copy. The DVD is a bare-bones standard definition presentation with 16:9 enhanced video and English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio ancoded at a 384 kbps bitrate. No additional language audio dubs are present, but it does come with subtitles in English SDH, French, and Spanish. There are no DVD extra features present. The digital copy is compatible with iTunes or Windows Media.
When the disc is first played, the viewer is greeted with the following pair of skippable promos in 1080p VC-1 encoded video with Dolby Digital 2.0:
- Warner Digital Copy Promo (:55)
- Where the Wild Things Are DVD/BD Trailer (1:57)
Packaging
The BD and SD DVD/Digital Copy disc are packaged in a standard-sized "VIVA" BD case with hubs on both inner sides allowing the accommodation of both discs. The hard case is in turn placed into a cardboard slipcover that reproduces the same art with the exception of replacing some of it with language and graphics promoting the included digital copy. Paper inserts include a sheet explaining and providing the access code for the included digital copy and the standard "This Blu-ray disc is manufactured to the highest quality..." disclaimer about player compatibility issues.Summary **½
Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove repurposes the premise of the original Free Willy film to a different set of characters and a novel South African location. Kids may be entertained by the animal action and low-rent amusement park setting, particularly if they are fans of Bindi Irwin from her "Bindi the Jungle Girl" days on television. More demanding adult viewers may appreciate the unique South African locations, but will likely be bored by the stale derivative plotting and generic characterizations. It is presented on blu-ray with a highly detailed and film-like video presentation and solid DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless audio with a modestly dynamic and dimensional mix by direct-to-video standards. Extras are slight and kid-oriented, but they do offer a few tidbits of interesting behind the scenes informationRegards,
