Willow

The 1988 high-fantasy film, Willow, is an odd movie to say the least. Despite receiving mixed reception upon release, the film seemed to have a strong hold on its audience through its box office and its strong home video and tv returns. Even though the film may not have been the huge blockbuster some expected it to be, it still managed to leave an impression on those who saw it, enough so that it even got nominated for two Oscars and eventually got a follow-up Disney+ series in 2022. Despite this, how well has the film held up overtime? In the all-to-familiar lands of unnamed fantasy location, a young baby girl is born and is suspected to be the one who will bring about the downfall of the evil sorceress Queen Bavmorda (played by Jean Marsh). She attempts to slaughter every baby who poses a threat, but this child, later named Elora, is whisked away from the kingdom, and taken far away to a small village of Nelwyn (a race of dwarves) and found by farmer and aspiring magician, Willow (played by Warwick Davis). Although he and his family grow to care for the child, monsters attack the village and they quickly realize they are after her, so Willow decides to set off to the world of the Daikini (Nelwyn’s term for ‘’tall people’’) in order to get Elora somewhere safe. Along the way, Willow comes across a mercenary named Madmartigan (played by Val Kilmer), an aging enchantress whose been cursed into animal form named Fin Raziel (played by Patricia Hayes), and two annoying comic relief creatures named Brownies, while also being tracked down by the Queen’s daughter, Sorsha (played by Joanne Whalley) who might have a change of heart herself. The group make their way to Bavmorda’s castle to confront the evil queen and finish her off once and for all, with Willow discovering down the way that he could have the potential to be this child’s protector and become a grand wizard. Willow as a film is very traditional and expected, not really taking many chances with its portrayal, resulting a harmless but otherwise messy film.

For a film that was considered to be a cult classic, it has some big names attached to it with George Lucas producing and writing the story and Ron Howard directing. It was hard to get a fantasy film green-lit at the time as they weren’t seen as profitable anymore, and upon release, it didn’t satisfy people initially with its decent but no overwhelming box office. Despite this, it clearly had a specific fan-base, so it was winning over enough people, but that small margin brings up so glaring issues. The problem continued to surface with how this film was received. In the most basic of terms, this film is the most cookie-cutter beginner friendly fantasy story you could ask for, and that comes as both a pro and a con. The film is almost insultingly generic with its story, characters and pacing, to the point where you never feel like you’re in this new world with new characters, but rather just a template with recognizable fantasy tropes inserted in to the point where you start to become distracted by what its taking from, rather than feeling like you’re experiencing something fresh. Everything from Lord of the Rings, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, She-Ra, Wizard of Oz, Gulliver’s Travels, etc, they don’t feel like light homages and more like blatant taking of ideas because nothing new is added in to make it feel like its own thing. The pace of the film is slow and monotonous, and because nothing feels unique or different from any other fantasy, it offers nothing surprising and therefore makes the film feel even longer. It also suffers because of Lucas’  and Howards’  involvement as both have their fair share of issues with their films that are sadly very evident here. Ron Howard’s portfolio of films is diverse in genre, tone, and presentation, but a more kid-centric film that needs to be more off-the-walls and creative doesn’t match with his style, making for an otherwise bland experience, and Lucas’ writing style can be very hoaky as well as very by-the-numbers due to him taking from classic examples. But at least Star Wars added some spice to a generic fantasy story through its character design, locations, and mythology, whereas this has very little of that. With that said, while bland and unoriginal, the light, beginner-friendly vibe does make for a good taster of the genre for young children, which is probably a good chunk of the fan-base.

Being a Lucas production, its funny how even when he doesn’t direct the film, his essence can be felt through some of the acting choices as a lot of the acting in this film isn’t particularly strong. It appears that none of the actors were huge stars yet, so for some, this acted as a nice stepping off point. Warwick Davis definitely benefited from being in this film and it seemed to help land him opportunities later in his career, but the writing and the directing can make him come across a little stilted. At least to his credit, the idea of his character feels like the most uncommon in the cast; as instead of being the prophesied one to destroy the Queen, he’s instead the chosen guardian of said child, but even then, its not done in an engaging way and the fact that so much hinges on this baby who doesn’t contribute anything outside of being kidnapped is a little annoying. It feels like there’s a decent idea with Davis in the lead and it is pretty cool to see someone like him as the star in a fantasy story as he’d usually be reserved for a side-character that could be an elf, dwarf or some other form of magical small creature, its just a shame that his character can’t support this level of potential. With that said, the other characters are honestly far worse; Val Kilmer feels like he’s emulating his best Tom Cruise impression with whatever hyper-actively confused portrayal he’s going for here, Jean Marsh as the villain is so over-the-top that its almost funny, but her limited screen-time and bland motivation and dialogue really make her not engaging, Sorsha as a character could work but the actress is sadly not that strong and all she does is find Val Kilmer hot and then suddenly decides to switch sides, and the annoying comic relief are really painful to sit through, they feel entirely useless and add nothing but annoyance.

One of the elements of this film that was given praise even when it came out was its special effects and how they even helped push the boundaries of what CGI could do. This was during the late 80s when CGI was still a new toy that not many people had tried out yet, so there was still experimentation with the technology and Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic worked on this film and did just that. While they definitely do look dated by today’s standards, given when they were created and how they were meant to be presented, they look impressive regardless in terms of the creature designs, stop-motion delivery and even some nice double perspective with the smaller Brownies against the main cast of characters. In a fantasy environment, you want there to be this feeling of magic surrounding even generic locations, and while the world is not properly established, it does manage to handle that element decently enough thanks to the hoaky and bare-bones, but still innocent atmosphere presented.  The music by James Horner is a score that a majority of the fans have a nostalgic attachment too, and for the most part, that makes sense as well. While the music doesn’t feel that much different from other medieval fantasy films, the tune, energy and light-hearted adventurous spirit has a charming quality to it that makes it nice to listen to, and it carries with it a sense of gravitas which adds a nice touch of scale into an otherwise small story.

Willow doesn’t seem to be a franchise that has a huge fan-base. Even that Willow TV series that was made years later didn’t pull in a lot of numbers from viewers and those that did weren’t impressed with what they saw, so it feels like a film that connected with people during a specific time of their lives, and in that regard, its perfectly serviceable at that.  There’s always media we grew up with that we either outgrow and see the flaws, or remain faithful to in spite of issues, and Willow feels like it exists as that slightly uncertain picture with enough connectable elements to keep those people attached. There are plenty of better fantasy stories out there that are going to offer so much more in terms of character, story and personality, but for a first-timer who wants a blanket example of what the genre is like, this pulls it off fine. The characters are bland and not always the best acted, but they are harmless enough, the visuals look impressive even to this day, the atmosphere and musical score help makes things feel more lively and engaging, and despite having a plot on par with a high-fantasy board game, it clearly doesn’t distract those that get into the magic.