WillowNo one had a hero's journey by staying home. Willow is a fantasy adventure movie about a dwarf--called "Nelwyn" in the movie--farmer and amateur magician named Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis). Willow finds himself at the crux of a prophesy after being tasked to protect an infant child called Elora Danan (Kate and Ruth Greenfield/Rebecca Bearman) from the paranoid wrath of an evil sorceress and tyrant named Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh). Willow begrudgingly allies himself with a wild warrior named Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) as they journey with the promised baby to its destiny while fending off attacks by Bavmorda's army.
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If the basic premise of Willow sounds familiar--that is, it sounds like "Lord of the Rings"--it should come as no surprise. Rumor has it that George Lucas (who wrote the story for Willow) had desired to do an adaptation of "Lord of the Rings", but could not secure the rights to it; hence Willow was born. The story of an unlikely hero from a dwarf race of reclusive people who quests into the heart of darkness to face untold peril and where the fate of the world rests on his shoulders is part and parcel with the most famous work by J.R.R. Tolkien, but the tone of it differs substantially. Willow is largely a light-hearted, even whimsical, tale despite the thought of Bavmorda wanting to essentially destroy the soul of a baby to safeguard her evil legacy, while employing man-eating warthog-esque hounds and sinister magic to do it. After Willow's children discover (the yet unnamed) Elora Danan in the river à la Moses, he is initially reluctant to introduce any more variables into his life and blithely suggests pushing the makeshift raft further downstream. Willow is feeling pressured by a local blowhard named Burglekutt (Mark Northover), who is threatening to take over his farm; and Willow's impending audition to become the sorcerous successor to the town elder--called "The High Aldwin" (Billy Barty)--adds to his stress. Willow's loving wife, Kaiya (Julie Peters), helps level out Willow's towering anxiety and her affection for Elora rubs off on her husband. But as The High Aldwin observes when Willow hesitates during his audition, the amateur sorcerer lacks faith in himself. He has become complacent with the day-to-day woes of domestic life, and is initially blinded to the very urgent need to take care of this baby because of all of the other proverbial albatrosses around his neck. An unspoken message of Willow that makes this movie so effective is that Willow is compelled to lead a more meaningful live only by way of adversity. Like they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger; and by the end of Willow, the titular hapless farmer and stage performer becomes a real hero.
Willow's partnership with Madmartigan initially comes from an antagonistic encounter, where the perceived giant-sized "Daikini" (read: human) outright peppers Willow and his companions with the equivalent of racial epithets (by calling them "pecks", due to their size). There is a clear division between the Nelwyn and the Daikini in lifestyle and geography, and raises the interesting question about why the midwife who stole Elora away from the clutches of Bavmorda and her put-upon daughter, Sorsha (Joanne Whalley) travelled to the Nelwyn lands in the first place. Willow offers no illumination on this point, but one could speculate that the Daikini lands are all but overwrought by Bavmorda's malevolence to such an extent that this seems like the only possible bastion for the destined child. After all, while Madmartigan remains imprisoned in his gibbet at the crossroads to the Daikini lands, an old soldierly acquaintance of his named Airk Thaughbaer (Gavan O'Herlihy) informs them that his army is fighting a war of attrition with Bavmorda...and losing. Despite Bavmorda's already intimidating armed forces--led by the skull-masked General Kael (Pat Roach)--swarming the Daikini lands, Bavmorda herself is more than capable of dispatching an entire army with little effort, like when she transmutes the army outside her castle into pigs with little more than a few mocking shouts from her balcony. Despite a few petrifying acorns which The High Aldwin gives Willow, the unlikely hero doesn't possess any true innate magical abilities. And after he leaves Elora in Madmartigan's care, it isn't more than a few minutes later that he catches sight of a brownie (a diminutive forest sprite) carting off the baby via the clutches of a bird. Willow chases the brownie, only to be captured himself, along with his travelling companion and friend, Meegosh (David J. Steinberg). But when the fairy queen, Cherlindrea (Maria Holvöe), instructs the brownies to free the Nelwyn, she charges Willow to seek out Bavmorda's rival, Fin Raziel (Patricia Hayes), for support and gifts her lost wand to Willow for safe keeping. But Willow is no warrior, and his magical prowess is fussy at best. So his alliance with Madmartigan becomes one of necessity. Yet despite Madmartigan's roguish ways, the warrior is not only skilled with a blade but deep down has a benevolent and heroic disposition. He may crave battle and glory, but it's clear that when he and Willow reunite and journey together that Elora likes the big, brutish barbarian, and he her...even if Willow chides him for feeding her blackroot. Even though their initial encounter is bitter, Willow swallows his pride and asks Madmartigan for help because he knows that the welfare of Elora depends on it. Willow may not be the father of the Daikini child, but he respects life and imperils himself to see her survive--a brave message that shows how love and decency can transcend boundaries like biology and geography.
Recommended for: Fans of a fantasy adventure movie in the "Lord of the Rings" vein, combining mirth and merriment with excitement, danger, (then) highly sophisticated special effects, and even romance. Willow only recently (in 2019) was made available for streaming, and because Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd (along with so many other things these days), it is now on Disney+. Unlike much Disney fare, it does have some semi-grisly moments, but nothing truly that would make it inappropriate for younger audiences.
Willow's partnership with Madmartigan initially comes from an antagonistic encounter, where the perceived giant-sized "Daikini" (read: human) outright peppers Willow and his companions with the equivalent of racial epithets (by calling them "pecks", due to their size). There is a clear division between the Nelwyn and the Daikini in lifestyle and geography, and raises the interesting question about why the midwife who stole Elora away from the clutches of Bavmorda and her put-upon daughter, Sorsha (Joanne Whalley) travelled to the Nelwyn lands in the first place. Willow offers no illumination on this point, but one could speculate that the Daikini lands are all but overwrought by Bavmorda's malevolence to such an extent that this seems like the only possible bastion for the destined child. After all, while Madmartigan remains imprisoned in his gibbet at the crossroads to the Daikini lands, an old soldierly acquaintance of his named Airk Thaughbaer (Gavan O'Herlihy) informs them that his army is fighting a war of attrition with Bavmorda...and losing. Despite Bavmorda's already intimidating armed forces--led by the skull-masked General Kael (Pat Roach)--swarming the Daikini lands, Bavmorda herself is more than capable of dispatching an entire army with little effort, like when she transmutes the army outside her castle into pigs with little more than a few mocking shouts from her balcony. Despite a few petrifying acorns which The High Aldwin gives Willow, the unlikely hero doesn't possess any true innate magical abilities. And after he leaves Elora in Madmartigan's care, it isn't more than a few minutes later that he catches sight of a brownie (a diminutive forest sprite) carting off the baby via the clutches of a bird. Willow chases the brownie, only to be captured himself, along with his travelling companion and friend, Meegosh (David J. Steinberg). But when the fairy queen, Cherlindrea (Maria Holvöe), instructs the brownies to free the Nelwyn, she charges Willow to seek out Bavmorda's rival, Fin Raziel (Patricia Hayes), for support and gifts her lost wand to Willow for safe keeping. But Willow is no warrior, and his magical prowess is fussy at best. So his alliance with Madmartigan becomes one of necessity. Yet despite Madmartigan's roguish ways, the warrior is not only skilled with a blade but deep down has a benevolent and heroic disposition. He may crave battle and glory, but it's clear that when he and Willow reunite and journey together that Elora likes the big, brutish barbarian, and he her...even if Willow chides him for feeding her blackroot. Even though their initial encounter is bitter, Willow swallows his pride and asks Madmartigan for help because he knows that the welfare of Elora depends on it. Willow may not be the father of the Daikini child, but he respects life and imperils himself to see her survive--a brave message that shows how love and decency can transcend boundaries like biology and geography.
Recommended for: Fans of a fantasy adventure movie in the "Lord of the Rings" vein, combining mirth and merriment with excitement, danger, (then) highly sophisticated special effects, and even romance. Willow only recently (in 2019) was made available for streaming, and because Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd (along with so many other things these days), it is now on Disney+. Unlike much Disney fare, it does have some semi-grisly moments, but nothing truly that would make it inappropriate for younger audiences.