Sammy, The Way-Out Seal

Release Date: October 28 – November 4, 1962

Watch Date: February 13 – February 15, 2024

“Take two boys, add one rambunctious seal and what do you get? Way-out fun at is funniest. After Arthur and his brother Petey find an injured seal and nurse it back to health, they hide it away in their room. But they soon learn that you can’t keep a seal a secret. After Sammy escapes and turns their town into a circus, a greedy land developer wants to turn him into a sideshow performing for tourists. The boys then make the fateful decision that changes their lives-and Sammy’s-forever. Sammy, The Way-Out Seal is a hilarious story the whole family will enjoy.”

   Sammy, The Way-Out Seal is not a hilarious story the whole family will enjoy.

   It is a disjointed mess.

   I’ve heard that scenes were taken out of the home/Disney+ release, but I couldn’t tell you why. But what it means is that you skip from scene to scene, and your brain can sort of fill in the blanks as to why certain decisions were made, but whole discussions and events that characters reference seem to have been removed from the narrative.

   I have, for reasons I can’t really explain, watched this movie twice now in my life, and I sincerely believe my life would have been better having never seen it.

   The seal looks like it’s being mistreated, the scene where it’s being chased by/chasing dogs there looks to be multiple wounds on it’s chest and one of it’s flippers, not to mention the original wound the kids are treating. Bob kept singing about animal abuse, which sounds weird but if you knew my husband you wouldn’t think it was that bad.

   The whole thing is awful, and I’ve got nothing more to say about it, because to say any more would to give it more attention and care than Disney ever gave it, and certainly more than it deserves.