Willow (1988)

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

As a child, I don't remember if I first watched this in theater or on home video shortly afterward.But for me, it is a classic film.I don't want to critique it — positives or negatives.It's just timeless.Thank you to everyone involved. :)

A prophecy foresees the downfall of evil sorceress Queen Bavmorda by a baby girl with a special birthmark. Bavmorda imprisons all pregnant women to check for the birthmark. A nursemaid secrets away the baby floating her down the river. Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis) is a struggling Nelwyn farmer. His kids find the baby and decide to keep her despite his objection. Bavmorda sends her daughter Sorsha (Joanne Whalley) and General Kael to lead a search for the baby. Nelwyn sorcerer The High Aldwin decide to send Willow to find a Daikini willing to care for the baby. Willow finds Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) locked in a cage. Airk Thaughbaer leads what remains of his army to battle Bavmorda. With no other options, Willow releases Madmartigan and gives the baby to him. The tiny Brownies steal the baby and capture Willow. Fairy queen Cherlindrea explains that the baby is Elora Danan and she chooses him for a quest. Cherlindrea gives him a powerful wand and sends him to find sorcerer Fin Raziel with the help of Rool and Franjean.Lucas is pushing the envelop on what is possible in computer graphics. It is not quite there but it is interesting in the attempt. As for the story, it has all the elements of high adventure. Willow should complain a little less in the first act. He sounds too whiny in that first part especially during the escape in the cart. Val Kilmer is a good cad. The story needs a few more passes to make it flow better. The action could be better choreographed especially the hand-to-hand fighting. This could be a great fantasy adventure but the CGI is not completely ready and the story needs a little more work. Ron Howard needs to worry more about the story and less about the computer work.

An older film - but worth watching if you love fantasy. It is a simple story plot "a reluctant dwarf helps to protect a special baby from an evil queen" but the movie will take you on an incredible adventure with lots of action and magic. The story is so much better than the film's description.This a film from my teen years - I loved it back then it was one of my favorites and today I still find it a good motion picture.If you like the movie Willow then you might like the following good classic films: "Legend", "The Dark Crystal", "Labyrinth", "Ladyhawke", "Krull" and "Time Bandits".8.5/10

As a youngster, "Willow" was one of my absolute favorites, but with the critical perspective granted by a distance of more than 25 years, I am disappointed to find that it does not hold up in many important respects. Foremost among them, the plot bears clumsily obvious similarities to "The Lord of the Rings" but does not remotely approach the dimensions of its scale or sophistication. I count myself fortunate to have owned the accompanying novel (and, yes, video game) which smoothed over the film's narrative gaps and inconsistencies, highlighted details that were barely touched upon, and clarified various aspects that simply defied sense or understanding. For all those who do not benefit in like fashion, however, "Willow" might not make for pleasurable viewing. Though easier said than done, it probably would not have required a great deal of effort to instill the film with elements of the unique atmosphere that were present in the source material – not the "concept" handed down by George Lucas, but the story as detailed and elaborated upon by the actual screenwriter, Bob Dolman, and adapted into book form by Wayland Drew – thereby making it into something that could stand on its own throughout the years.I imagine Warwick Davis was grateful for the chance to shed the ratty pelt of Wicket the Ewok in his first major role. Yet the primary arc of Willow Ufgood's development – gaining confidence through the mastery of magic – is not altogether convincing, let alone substantial, enough to make for a dynamic, engaging, or ultimately satisfying character. His fundamental passivity, intractable aversion to risk, and persistent lack of self-determination hardly recommends him as a figure worthy of respect, all of which necessarily interferes with the sort of personal identification that would otherwise result in catharsis by journey's end. In general, the Nelwyns are rendered in a manner that is rather precious and patronizing for my taste – inviting comparisons to the Munchkins in "The Wizard of Oz": "They're people, too... but aren't they just the dearest little things?" This works against them being taken seriously, and even goes so far as to undermine their dignity.Val Kilmer's portrayal of Madmartigan is often stilted, artificial, and smirkingly insincere. I had trouble detecting any trace of authentic nobility at his core. As a consequence, the path of redemption he travels from dissolute scoundrel to manifest hero does not feel organic, let alone honest. To say that I loathe Kevin Pollak and Rick Overton as the Brownies is an understatement of the most egregious sort. Not unlike the Ewoks in "Return of the Jedi", the leaden hijinks of these vile faeries are a heavy-handed means of providing "comic relief" in order to keep the kiddies distracted. I recall their nauseating banter induced me to eye-rolling contempt at ten years of age, and it has not acquired any charm with the passage of time. In a similar respect, the talent of Patricia Hayes (while hardly evident here) as Fin Raziel is squandered in a series of animal voices that are perhaps intended to be "cute" but instead come across as shrill, particularly on those numerous occasions when she upbraids Willow for his shortcomings (pun intended) as a sorcerer. This inevitably detracts from Raziel's one-note authority – to say nothing of her simple likability – in human form. Jean Marsh, on the other hand, is a genuine delight in her campy but nonetheless menacing turn as Queen Bavmorda. Nobody would begrudge the inimitable Billy Barty the fun he is clearly having in his brief appearances as the crotchety High Aldwin. And even without displaying much range, Pat Roach is well-used as the brutish General Kael; at least here he is given a chance to talk, as opposed to his high-profile though mute role in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom".By far, the most outstanding performances, in my opinion, are given by characters with mere minutes of screen time, one of whom almost has no speaking lines to her credit, which makes her accomplishment in this regard all the more impressive: Zulema Dene as Ethna, the nursemaid who spirits the newborn child of prophecy, Elora Danan, out of Bavmorda's grasp and sets the events of our story in motion; and Julie Peters as Kiaya, Willow's wife (the touching scene in which she gives him a braided lock of her hair always brings a tear to my eye).The actors' accents are literally all over the map. Fight scenes are risible in their staged fakery. Production design is stylistically chaotic (e.g., the Nockmaar army looks more like a rag-tag band of mercenaries than an unstoppable kingdom-conquering force). The special effects, innovative if not ground-breaking for their time, now seem antiquated, and so the film, being heavily dependent upon them, loses some of its appeal as a result. Conversely, the beautiful score by James Horner – unfairly burdened by having to compensate for the frequent inadequacy of script, direction, and performance to heft their share of the film's emotional weight – retains the full measure of its stirring quality after more than two decades of repeated viewing, and has become one of the main reasons I continue to watch "Willow".Although formulating this thought feels like an act of betrayal to the child I once was – and, to an extent, still am – I have at last determined that "Willow" fails to meet the most fundamental objective of all such work in the category to which it purportedly belongs: providing a rich, immersive, self-contained, internally coherent, personally relevant and meaningful fantasy-adventure experience. This is not to say the film is entirely without merit; indeed, in the final analysis, perhaps it is better than it has any right to be. Any enjoyment I derive from watching it, however, is propelled in no small part at this late remove by the momentum of nostalgia. Insofar as I am concerned, "Willow" is entertaining, but nothing more profound than that.