As a little boy Kei (voiced by Noriko Sasaki) saw his fisherman father lost at sea only seconds after catching his parting gift of a pan flute carved from whalebone. A few years later young Kei and his kid brother Moito (Kazue Ikura) discover a baby whale trapped by a rock in a shallow inlet near the Spanish coast. They name the whale Peek and decide to help it return to its mother on the open sea. After local bullies coerce Kei into proving his ability to charm Peek with his pan flute word swiftly reaches bumptious ringmaster Odeon (Shozo Iizuka). Seizing his chance to make big bucks, Odeon brings the whale to his Sea Circus, but his feisty daughter Maira (Keiko Yokozawa) has a change of heart and helps Kei try to set Peek free.
Of course Japan does not have the best track record when it comes to whale conservation but scores of whale themed anime including The White Whale of Mu (1980), Tico of the Seven Seas (1994) and even Moby Dick in Space (1997) tried hard to imply otherwise. Based on a story by Hidehito Hara, Fly! Peek the Baby Whale briefly surfaced on British video in the mid-Nineties. At a time when distributors shunned even Studio Ghibli movies as too risky for the burgeoning marketplace, the film sadly confirmed their suspicions and was swiftly forgotten amidst the tidal wave of ultra-violent cyberpunk and tentacle porn. Now viewed in retrospect this gently lyrical, family friendly fable looks like the precursor to that feel-good favourite Free Willy (1993). In fact the climax to both movies are virtually identical although Fly! Peek… got there first.
Endearingly low-key and sensitive rather than saccharine, the drama is nevertheless sentimental and simplistic in the manner of most animal films. It treads a delicate line between pleasing generosity of spirit and naivety given Odeon goes from cursing Kei and using sonic torture on Peek to risking his life to save both. Rather more disarming is the artful manner in which the film depicts how grownups seek to conceal their harsh-seeming, pragmatic natures from children but are often shaken by kids’ directness and sincerity. Fearsome Odeon is reduced to a quivering mound of jelly by his dauntless daughter Maira. There is a charming moment when whilst talking with Kei, his diligent mother briefly transforms back into the tomboy she used to be and dazzles her boys by a leaping off the rooftop.
Satoru Utsunomiya’s engagingly simple, button-eyed character designs belie the artistry of animation that captures the summer light dancing on the turquoise sea but also presents the flipside via the nightmarish opening scene where the waves seemingly to malevolent life. The whales are presented in a manner similarly minimalist to the human characters, echoing how they would be perceived by a wide-eyed child. Although a handful of plot points (including the cruel taunting bullies) are abruptly dropped, the coastal town setting beguiles and the awkward adolescent romance between Kei and Maira is nicely drawn.
