In “Free Willy” the owners further compromised the whale’s living situation in hopes he would die and they could collect his $1 million insurance policy. Tokitae can no longer perform due to her new owner’s licensing arrangement with the USDA forcing her off public exhibition. Willy refused to perform, angering his owners who couldn’t profit from his commodification. Tokitae, like Willy, was ripped from her family and forced into a small tank to perform and make money for marine park owners. Tokitae, or Lolita (her performing name) is 57 years old and has resided at the Miami Seaquarium in one of the world’s smallest tanks housing a killer whale for almost her entire life. The parallels between the movie’s plot and Tokitae’s situation are striking. Now, 30 years later, there is another killer whale that the public needs to turn its attention to. Almost immediately, the movie spurred a nationwide effort to free its real-life star, the killer whale Keiko, from a lonely life in a cramped tank. It’s been ages since I’ve seen the film, but this time I viewed it through a different lens.
I recently watched “Free Willy” with my four-year-old son.
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