#FreeWillyFriday: Free Willy 2 (but not the real one)

I write a web comic, called “Support Group,” about a support group for people with lame super powers, in case your origin doesn't end up like they show it in the comics.

If you wonder why I write it and Nathan Arnold draws it, consider this:

I drew this in eighth grade, and while I guess it's not horrible, I don't think my artistic technique has significantly improved since then.

Why did I decide “Free Willy” needed a horror-tinged sequel? And why did I keep drawing sequel movie posters – so many sequel posters, as you'll eventually see here – in a school notebook?

Part of it was that I believed I was too cool and mature to go see a sentimental movie like “Free Willy,” which is problematic on multiple levels. “Cool” and “mature” are not high on the list of words people, including myself, would use to describe me. Also, I'm a fairly sentimental guy. Give me “Patch Adams” any day over “Kill Bill.”

I believe I went to see “Free Willy” with my cousins and I wasn't given another option. When they visited five years earlier, I rebeled against going to “The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking.” That was a movie for girls, I believed. (Oddly enough, in 2004, I went with my brother to watch “13 Going on 30,” ostensibly for review purposes, but more than a little because Jennifer Garner. I thoroughly enjoyed it.)

But in 1988, 8-year-old me put his foot down and went with my stepfather to see “Caddyshack II,” despite having never viewed the first installment. (This gives me the opportunity to say “Caddyshack II” – not “Footloose” or “Top Gun” – features my favorite Kenny Loggins soundtrack entry.)

I'm sure I chose the horror motif for my fictional sequel because it contrasted with the family friendly elements of “Free Willy.” I was no horror movie fan. Most of my friends had seen multiple entries in the “Friday the 13th” and “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchises by then; I'd only caught bits and pieces of a couple installments of the former on USA.

As my project went on, it probably also had to do with the fact that horror movies were the only films back then that seemed to have a relentless supply of sequels. These days, there have been so many “Fast and Furious” movies you can probably skip the first three and still have a massive series.

Back then, we managed to get four Christopher Reeve “Superman” movies, and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” barely made it to three. “Die Hard” and “Lethal Weapon” eventually extended their runs past three, but it took a while. Outside of the never-numbered James Bond series, horror movies were usually the only ones to make it past a part two.

Surprisingly, the studio did not follow my lead when they eventually made a sequel to "Free Willy."