This episode, Whale Wars, is about a little boy named Stan, trying to save dolphins and whales from being killed by the Japanese. The story started of with the scene of the Japanese entering a dolphinarium where he was celebrating his 9th birthday, and thus, he witnessed the murdering of the poor little dolphins. At home, there were news on the Japanese not only killing dolphins, but whales as well. He was very much disturbed by it and was determined to make a change - to stop the Japanese from killing any more dolphins and whales.
He then invited his friends along but his friends replied by saying "That's just the way they are. You can't change the way an entire country thinks." and that they couldn't care less about dolphins and whales being murdered. Thus, he began his own adventure by participating in a activity to stop the killing hosted by Paul Watson and his crew in the Sea Shephard. However, he was quite upset with the way they use to deal with the problems - by throwing stinky butter at the Japanese. One of the Japanese responded by shooting a harpoon into Paul Watson's head and he died instantly. Stan took this chance and threw flare guns at the Japanese fuel barrels. The rest of the crew saw this and joined him too. With that, Stan became the new captain of the ship. His friends joined him later, this time by saying that they do care about dolphins and whales and it is not about joining him to gain a little bit of fame. Stan also received lots of criticism from some medias who claimed that he is just doing this to gain attention from the public. At the later part of the movie, Stan was arrested by the Japanese and was then brought to the Emperor Akihito where the emperor explained the motive behind the killing - The Americans handed them a doctored photograph of a killer whale and dolphin in a plane, bombing Hiroshima. So then, Stan handed over a new doctored photograph of a chicken and a cow instead in the plane. The movie ended with Randy congratulating Stan in making the Japanese "normal" by now making them killing chicken and cows instead.
So, what IS normal? Killing chicken and cows are normal because we consumed them as food instead of dolphins and whales? How is it that killing dolphins and whales abnormal? Are they not animals too? Or is it because dolphins and whales are relatively quite close to the nature of a human? There is a significance in the last scene where it suggests some kind of imposition of culture. It seems that it is "right" to kill chickens and cows because they are seen as food.
Another thing that we can see from this movie is that fame can buy you fake friends. Stan's friends didn't want to help him out initially and they were more interested in their games rather than be bothered to save whales and dolphins that are being killed. They even told Stan that he couldn't do much because he, alone, couldn't change the way the whole world thinks. However, after Stan became famous for succeeding in bringing down the Japanese and preventing them from killing anymore whales and dolphins, his friends came to join him and they claimed that they wanna help because they too, feel pity for the whales and dolphins. It is obvious that they are just helping Stan because they too want to be famous.
It is amazing how this movie portray that a simple, innocent little kid manage to raised public awareness out of pure love towards the whales and dolphins. Although many media critics are blaming him for doing it out of fame, he just stick to his same old answer, that is, doing it to save the whales and dolphins.
This movie also has a subtle meaning behind it. It is shown when the Japanese quickly believed that it was a dolphin and a killer whale that is behind the bombing of Hiroshima and quickly declared peace with America after America had shown them the doctored photograph. However, despite several controversies and critics, Whale Whores was nominated for a Genesis Award in the television comedy as it raises public awareness and understanding regarding animal rights.
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