Willow
Platform: VUDU (owned movie)
Director: Ron Howard
Release Year: 1988
Watch Date: May 24, 2021
My Rating: 9.6
In 1991 my family was moving from Guam to my dad’s new duty station in Nebraska. My mom wanted me out of the way while the movers were packing our things (and she was throwing out a bunch of my stuff), so she put me in day care. This is the only time during my childhood that I ever had to go to daycare. Now, I’m not exactly sure what the day care workers were thinking, but one afternoon they let us watch Willow. Some of the other kids were scared. I was fascinated.
It isn’t often that an almost perfect movie comes along. Willow has a little bit of everything. Romance, action, comedy, horror, fantasy. It continues to stand up against the test of time. The story follows Elora Danan, a special baby who is found by Willow’s children. Willow is played by the always wonderful Warwick Davis. Willow is tasked with giving Elora to a “Daikini” (what we would call an average sized person….Willow is a Nelwyn or what I refer to as a little person….some people call little people dwarfs or midgets, but I don’t like that).
Willow and his group of Nelwyns find Madmartigan (played by Val Kilmer), who through a series of misadventures helps Willow to get Elora to safety after the rest of the Nelwyns go home. Along the way they meet two mice sized men, Sorsha the evil Queen’s daughter, faeries, a sorceress named Fin Raziel, trolls, warriors, etc. Naturally Willow outsmarts the evil Queen, saves Elora, and liberates the people of Tir Asleen. Madmartigan and Sorsha also fall in love and Shorsha realizes how awful her mother is.
Fast paced, witty banter, great scripting and cinematography. This movie is amazing. Every time I watch it I still find little details that I missed before. As I have been watching the Star Wars and other Lucasfilm creations (Labyrinth!!!) I was able to pick out more studio clues than I had not previously noticed (like how the two headed troll spawn looks like something out of Star Wars.
Photo Credit: imdb.com
