 Tagline: A world where heroes come in all sizes and adventure is the greatest magic of all. Journey to the far corners of your imagination with Willow, for the first time ever on Blu-ray! Now fully digitally restored, this release features a dazzling array of extras, including new, never-before-seen exclusive content. From legendary filmmakers George Lucas and Ron Howard comes a timeless fantasy tale in which heroes come in all sizes...and adventure is the greatest magic of all. When young Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis) finds an abandoned baby girl, he learns she is destined to end the reign of the wicked Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh). In order to protect the child, Willow must team up with a rogue swordsman (Val Kilmer) and overcome the forces of darkness in the ultimate battle of good versus evil! Storyline: A baby girl is discovered in a river by Ranon and Mims, the children of Willow Ufgood, a dwarf farmer and magician and the baby girl is taken into the care of Willow's family. But when a terrifying dog-like creature attacks Willow's village, whilst tracking down the baby. Willow consults the village council and the wizard The High Aldwin. The High Aldwin gives Willow a task and Willow leaves the village and embarks on the task to give the baby girl to a responsible person. But Willow soon learns the baby is Elora Danan, the baby girl destined to bring about the downfall of the evil sorceress Queen Bavmorda. Joined by his allies: swordsman Madmartigan, sorceress Fin Razel and the Brownies Franjean and Rool, Willow takes it upon himself to protect Elora from Queen Bavmorda, who intends to kill Elora and prevent Elora from fulfilling her destiny. And Willow and his allies are pursued by Queen Bavmorda's daughter Sorsha and the evil commander of Queen Bavmorda's army General Kael, whom ... Written by Dan Williams Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Casey Broadwater on March 7, 2013 -- Before Peter Jackson's take on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the closest J.R.R. Tolkien fans ever got to a live-action film adaptation of Middle Earth was 1988's Willow, which borrows heavily from the writer's alternate medieval universe. Besides dueling sorcerers, castle sieges, and trolls, both works feature diminutive heroes who heed the call of adventure, set out on uncertain quests to save the world, and return home as changed men. This is the archetypal hero's journey, of course, the dramatic arc favored by executive producer George Lucas, who devised Willow's story, having previously applied Joseph Campbell's monomyth theories to Star Wars. Instead of directing the project himself, Lucas farmed it out to actor-turned-filmmaker Ron Howard, who was then coming off his success with Splash and Cocoon. The two worked with screenwriter Bob Dolman (How to Eat Fried Worms) to flesh out the script, and together they created a film that wasn't hugely successful in its own day, but has since become one of the most memorable cult kids' movies of the 1980s. Although it's not without its flaws—glacial pacing, some obnoxious side characters—Willow is one of those films that, if you grew up with it, always sticks with you. It's enveloping, sweet, and like a lot of kids movies from the era, surprisingly dark and violent. Short-statured actor Warwick Davis—who got his acting start as Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi—stars as Willow, a member of a hobbit- like race called the Nelwyns, who live in a shire-like hamlet far from the strife of the bellicose average-sized humans, or Daikini. Willow is a lowly farmer who dreams of becoming a sorcerer's apprentice, and his destiny arrives when he discovers a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, floating down the river Moses-like on a grassy clod. His wife and two kids convince Willow to keep the child, Elora Danan, who—unbeknownst to them—is a Daikini princess, prophesied to one day ensure the downfall of the wicked Queen Bavmorda of Nockmaar (Jean Marsh), who's recently been on a Herod-like baby killing spree in a desperate attempt to keep the prediction unfulfilled. When one of Bavmorda's snarling dog/boar hybrids descends on the town looking for the baby, village elder The High Aldwin (Billy Barty) orders Willow to travel with a band of fellow Nelwyns to the Daikini Crossroads and give Elora to the first human they meet. What Aldwin doesn't anticipate is that the first Daikini they come across will be the serves-no-master scoundrel Madmartigan (Val Kilmer), a disgraced swordsman and thief who's equal parts Aragorn and Han Solo. Madmartigan joins the quest reluctantly after the fairy goddess of the forest—a Galadriel-like Maria Holvöe—bestows upon Willow a magic wand and tells the pint-sized protagonist to 1.) find the white sorcerer Fin Raziel (Patricia Hayes) and 2.) deliver Elora into the safe- keeping of the good king and queen of Castle Tir Asleen. To act as guides, the fairy sends along two of her "Brownies," 8-inch warrior nymphs who speak in bad French accents and, combined, are essentially the Jar-Jar Binks of the film. That is, you'll be glad when they're off-screen, because they're generally cringe-inducing and unfunny. Fortunately, the rest of the film has held up rather well. If Willow is a good fifteen minutes too long, it's at least the kind of slow, epic adventure movie you can get lost in, simply because the world is so charmingly wrought and the characters—barring the Brownies, anyway—are so likable. The scene where Willow's wife bids him farewell at the start of his journey, handing him a braid of her hair? Chokes me up every time. Val Kilmer swashbuckling like a latter-day Errol Flynn, winning the heart of Bavmorda's daughter, Sorsha (Joanne Whalley)? Yes, please. The fact that Bavmorda's minion General Kael (Pat Roach) not only looks like He-Man's nemesis, Skeletor, but is also intentionally named after caustic film critic Pauline Kael? Priceless. The set design and matte paintings, the fun action sequences, the sense of real danger and evil—Willow is that rare children's movie from the '80s you can re-watch as an adult and not be disappointed. More than anything, though, it's Warwick Davis who carries the film as the meek little soul who goes up against some big, powerful adversaries and prevails. It's a very George Lucas-y tale in this regard, and you tend to see his fingerprints on the film perhaps more so than Ron Howard's, from the iris dissolves and screen-wipes to the simple, mythic storytelling. This was Lucas before the endless Star Wars tinkering and prequel disappointments, back when he still commanded audience awe through unadulterated moviemaking magic. And there's plenty of it here thanks to Lucas' effects company, ILM, which provided some pioneering visual trickery. Willow was made at an interesting point in movie history, when practical and photo-chemical effects were beginning to give way to digital imagery and compositing. Both old and new-school approaches were used for the film, which is probably best known for it's innovative CGI morphing during the scene where Willow attempts to transform Fin Raziel from a goat back to a human. It looks quaint now—primitive, even—but looking at it through 1980s glasses, it's damn impressive. And, really, that's a good way to view Willow in general—with nostalgia for what was arguably the golden age of kids' movies. Cast Notes: Val Kilmer (Madmartigan), Joanne Whalley (Sorsha), Warwick Davis (Willow Ufgood), Jean Marsh (Queen Bavmorda), Patricia Hayes (Fin Raziel), Billy Barty (High Aldwin), Pat Roach (Gen. Kael), Gavan O'Herlihy (Airk Thaughbaer), David Steinberg (Meegosh), Phil Fondacaro (Vohnkar), Tony Cox (Vohnkar Warrior), Robert Gillibrand (Vohnkar Warrior), Mark Northover (Burglekutt), Kevin Pollak (Rool), Rick Overton (Franjean). IMDb Rating (04/12/13): 7.1/10 from 56,030 users
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