Film #24: Willow
Reviewed April 13, 2014
Today, fellow readers and ’88 enthusiasts, we will be traveling into the fantasy world of Willow. The film was directed by Ron Howard with production and story by George Lucas. The screenplay credit goes to Bob Dolman (SCTV, WKRP, and our classroom historical staple film, Far and Away). It stars Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Jean Marsh, Rick Overton, Kevin Pollack, Pat Roach (staple giant man who meets horrific doom throughout the 80′s), Billy Barty, and Patricia Hayes.
Summary:
Historical Background…because you know you love it…we are a history class after all. Willow…Willow…Willow. This film has taken a long time for me to tackle because the history that surrounds its time and place in film history is so multi-layered. It was a pet project by George Lucas that, according to sources, he began pitching in the 1970′s. In fact, one cannot help but notice its constant reference points to the 1960′s counter cultural icon , Lord of the Rings…just substitute Ring of Doom for Elora, Aragorn for Mad Martigan, Bav Morda for Sauron,rather, rinse, repeat.You can also see its skeleton in other Lucas involved projects…Star Wars (rouge thief, comedy relief duo, wise old man, dark magic, chip on her shoulder princess who falls for the charms of the rogue to to soaring violins(this time conducted by the great James Horner), simple farm boy who discovers his role in the universe on a great adventure, the villain wears black and throws people with her hands.. alas, no Ewoks…wait…Warwick Davis is Wicket in Return of the Jedi! ), The Dark Crystal (substitute baby for crystal shard, podlings for Nelwyns, Garthim for Nockmaar hounds, etc),Indiana Jones (even going so far as to cast Pat Roach as General Kale. If you don’t know Pat Roach then you were not paying attention to the giant man that Indiana Jones fights and kills in Raiders in an airplane blade, and earlier as a Sherpa who fights Jones into his fiery death; in Temple of Doom as the Thuggee who gets crushed by the rock crusher, and in Last Crusade as the Gestapo on the Blimp/plane fight who meets his doom which got cut from the film).
To be fair to Lucas, much of 80′s fantasy film centered around a world saving quest through a maze of ethereal forests and bizarre creatures that would either assist you, trick you, or kill you. I think about The Princess Bride, The Never Ending Story, Time Bandits, and the less than stellar Disney stab at fantasy, Black Cauldron. Each of these stories has at its heart, a heroes quest that is usually taken on by a simple peasant or an anti-hero. Or, in the case of Wesley, in The Princess Bride, both. There is friendship, danger, a prize to be won, an evil ruler to destroy, a comic character or characters who join the quest on the way to their own destiny, and mazes and monsters. Perhaps, the early Tom Hanks film Mazes and Monsters accurately predicted the rise of the fantasy genre in the 80′s with the rise of Dungeons and Dragons popularity.
If you were not growing up in the 80′s then you probably don’t remember the furor that was made over D&D as a tool of devil worship among American teens. It was a game that was going to have us joining Satan, while watching MTV, defecting to the Soviet Union, and overdosing on Angel Dust. To see more of this “fear of Satanic influence in the 80′s”, see our review of Spellbinder. I remember playing a few games of D&D at my friend Chris’ house down the street, and allegedly killing like 6 orcs in one swing (I am told this is illegal). I also remember how confused I was at most everything that was being narrated. I guess it was that disorganization of thoughts that kept me from turning to evil. Thank goodness D&D was also a Saturday morning cartoon with its Yodalike Dungeon Master.
I found a really great commentary on the rise of fantasy films in the 1980′s from a twitter user who calls himself or herself, wernherzbear. (article here)Bear makes a pretty decent point that the fantasy genre may have developed as an answer to our highly technological based culture in the 80′s. Everything was changing so fast from computers, to animation, to the way we listened to music that perhaps we longed for a simpler, pre-tech world filled with heroic quests, where the villains would lose in the end. I would go one step further to say that we existed in a world that seemed to be moving towards an uncertain future with nuclear weapons and questionable world politics. Maybe it was nice to live in a world of fairies and magic for a little while, a place where we could breathe. Its modern parallel would be the comforting effects of Harry Potter in a post 9-11 world. The benefit of having George Lucas in our lives has always been in his ability to take us from reality for a few hours at a time. Plus, his knack for merchandise kept my toy shelves full to the sighs of my parents. (I still have my metal General Kael, complete with John C Calhoun neckbeard and jagged sword)
The Plot:
A Baby, who has an uncanny resemblance to baby Michelle on Full House, is born with a prophetic birthmark. The Evil Queen (Jean Marsh) sends out her daughter Sorsha and the previously mentioned John C Calhoun-neck-bearded, Skeletor mask wearing, General Kael, to find the child and destroy it.
Elora is sent down the river, a-la Moses, while the midwife turns in peasant-kibble for the wolf-dog-boars of Nockmaar. The baby drifts down stream into the lands of the Nelwyn(small humans) people. They are peace-loving, down to earth, farmers who are in the midst of a celebration where one of them will be selected as apprentice to the High Aldwyn. (the ever fabulous Billy Barty)The baby is found by a couple of local kids who happen to be the children of Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis), a local wannabe magician . Long story short; the festival commences, Willow blows his chance in front of the wise old wizard, the mean dogs attack, and Willow is given the ultimate task of returning Elora to the Daikini (big humans). He is sent out with his friend Megosh and some Nelwyn fighters (Tony Cox!!!!). The music is flutey and the landscape is New Zealand-ish.
Eventually, the other Nelwyn get scared of the dangers that lie ahead and Willow is left alone to follow the quest at a dusty crossroads. It is at this forgotten spot where he meets a Daikini, kept in a cage for theft, who claims to be the greatest swordsman ever. His name is Madmartigan (played by a classically sly and awesomely smirky Val Kilmer) and he offers to take the baby in return for freedom. Suddenly, a vanquished army rides by and we meet Airk. Holy Richie Cunningham directed film! Airk is played by the long lost Cunningham, Chuck!!!. He tells Madmartigan that they were beaten back by Nockmaar and they are in retreat.
Willow gives the baby to Madmartigan, and then heads for home. Film over? Nope, Willow is attacked by tiny Brownies(very very small people) and learns they have also taken Elora-Michelle from Val Kilmer. The brownies take Willow to a magical forest fairy who looks like Galadriel who proceeds to fill him in on the whole backstory of the film. Willow is entrusted with Elora and a magic wand and told to find Fin Raziel, who will train him to be a great wizard and save the universe. He is given his marching orders and two brownie guards Franjean and Rool (wonderfully casted Overton and Pollack, which for some reason I used to think were played by Lennie and Squiggie). They have a run in Madmartigan at an Inn, dressed like a woman. They manage to escape Sorsha and Kael just in time and find Fin Raziel’s (Patricia Hayes) island, where she has been enchanted into a possum, the ugliest animal on the planet…blech. There, Han Solo Martigan criticizes magic while Raziel and Willow experiment…if only they had the Millenium Falcon and that weird Tazer ball.
Longer story short, they are captured, tenseness ensues between Sorsha and Martigan, they are taken to a snow camp where Willow turns Raziel into a bird, while the Brownies dust Madmartigan with love potion that makes him fall in love with Sorsha. Some love themey Han Solo-Leia music plays, and is broken up by the sirens. (General Kael ruining Martigans game). Martigan shows off his sword fighting skills and the oft quoted line by eleven year old me is uttered, “You really are great”. They sled down the hill, which looks like a ton of fun, and proceed to Tier Asleen (out of breath)(hold on) The old castle is deserted, as the people have been turned to ice by Bav Morda (the statues in Return to Oz, the abandoned Gelfling center, Asgaard in StarGate)..and there is a great big pile of troll droppings…ewwww. The armies of Nockmaar arrive just after Willow turns Raziel into a goat, bringing about my favorite impression line when describing Willow to my kids…”W—i—i–i—l-l-o-w-w-w-w, what haaaaave you done to me?” Of course, battle happens, Sorsha and Madmartigan fall in pre Carbon freeze chamber love…and the trolls appear. They look like horridly small Klingons. Willow accidentally turns one of them into a two headed dragon, in which both heads resemble the Rancor Monster, but who I read was supposed to be Siskel and Ebert. Pretty cool effect for 1988!
Kael hides Elora in his neckbeard and rides off to Nockmaar (bad place…Mordor, Snake Mountain, Goblin King’s palace, Aquila in LadyHawke, The World Trade Center in Mazes and Monsters), where the final battle is to take place to save the world. I couldn’t help but think of the last run at invasion of the French castle in “Holy Grail” and waited for the cops to show up to arrest the ringleaders. Everyone is turned into pigs, until Willow changes back Raziel, who changes the pigs back. They pull a reverse Trojan Horse (something I also saw later in Robin Hood;Prince of Thieves, which also used the great Pat Roach), and arrive in the castle to fight the battle of battles. Madmartigan vs General Kael, who will win?(Roach fights with Indiana Jones like passion) Bav Morda vs Fin Raziel?(if you kill me I will only become more powerful sequence).Will Willow save the universe? Will he be a magician? Will Elora growup to make a multi million dollar industry off of merchandise and straight-to-video movies with her twin sister? Will Ron Howard and Lucas ever draft a Willow 2?
Our Thoughts:
A Baby is born (who looks weirdly like baby Michelle on Full House) with a prophetic birthmark. The Evil Queen (Jean Marsh, who also looks like the Evil Queen from Snow White, and who actually played the Evil Queen Mombi in Return to Oz, even though as a deep and loyal Ozite I know that Mombi was never queen of Oz, but advised General Jinjur in her coup against the Scarecrow…but that is another story, and plays a great deal into my bitterness towards projects like Wicked. Needless to say as Mombi in RTO, Ms Marsh freaked me out) sends out her daughter Sorsha and the previously mentioned John C Calhoun-neck-bearded, Skeletor mask wearing, General Kael to find the child and destroy it. She should have read how that plan backfires repeatedly in the Bible and in Ghostbusters II.
Baby Michelle..er..Elora is sent down the river a la Moses, while the midwife becomes peasant kibble to the wolf-dog-boars of Nockmaar (the evil creatures that always follows our hero in this genre…see the Nazgul, Garthim, Gmork, Prince Humperdink to name a few). The baby ends up in the lands of the Nelwyn people, peace loving down to earth farmers who are about to celebrate one of them being selected as apprentice to the High Aldwyn. He is played by the ever fabulous Billy Barty…although I often get this role confused with the one played by Burgess Meredith in Santa Claus: the movie (which also gave me the weird craving to always have Coca Cola when I eat fried chicken…whole other story).
The baby is found by a couple of local kids who are the children of Willow Ufgood, local magician wannabe. Long story short, the festival commences, Willow blows his chance in front of the wise old wizard (see Gandalf, Dumbledore, Yoda), the mean dogs attack (which has always reminded me emotionally and musically of the moment the Garthim bust in on the podlings in the middle of their Ewok soundtracked pan flute party), and Willow is given the ultimate task of returning Elora to the Daikini (big humans). He is sent out with his friend Megosh (see Samwise) and some Nelwyn fighters (Tony Cox!!!!). The music is flutey, the landscape is New Zealandish. This got me wondering if this was a strange convergence whereWillowwas paying homage to Lord of the Rings and then Peter Jackson payed homage to Willow with the soundtrack and location shoots. Mind blowing eh?
Anyhow, the others get scared and Willow is left alone to follow the quest at the crossroads, where he meets a Daikini kept in a cage for theft who claims to be the greatest swordsman ever(Han Solo(who shot Greedo first), Aragorn, Inigo Montoya). His name is Madmartigan (played by the classically sly and awesomely smirky Val Kilmer) and he offers to take the baby in return for his freedom. This Val Kilmer makes me long for the easy going days of Real Genius and Top Secret. Suddenly, a vanquished army rides by and we meet Airk (Holy Ritchie Cunningham directed film! It is the long lost Cunningham, Chuck!!! I guess if Ron’s real brother Clint can’t be in his film, he can use his long lost departed, never spoken of fictional older brother). He tells Madmartigan that they were beaten back by Nockmaar (Gondor beaten by Sauron, Lord Haggard killing the unicorns) and they are in retreat.
I get the sense of some Norse mythology mixed into this piece, just by the garments, names, etc. Willow gives the baby to Madmartigan, and then heads for home…film over. Nope, he is attacked by tiny Brownies and learns they have also taken Elora-Michelle from Val Kilmer (“How rude!”…had to be done). They take Willow to a magical forest fairy who looks like Galadriel and tells him the whole backstory. He is entrusted with Elora and a magic wand and told to find Fin Raziel (aka Obi Wan) who will train him to be a great wizard and save the universe. He is given his marching orders and two brownie guards Franjean and Rool (wonderfully casted Overton and Pollack…which for some reason I used to think were played by Lennie and Squiggie). The two of them become the R2-D2-C3PO, Montoya-Fezzig, Hamlet gravediggers of the piece, cracking jokes, pulling pranks, slapsticking and bumbling. They meet Madmartigan at an Inn (Three Amigos line popped into my head “Someone hit this place with the ugly stick”), dressed like a woman. They manage to escape Sorsha and Kael just in time and find Fin Raziel’s (Patricia Hayes) island, where she has been enchanted into a possum, the ugliest animal on the planet…blech. There, Han Solo Martigan criticizes magic while Raziel and Willow experiment…if only they had the Millenium Falcon and that weird Tazer ball.
Longer story short, they are captured, tenseness ensues between Sorsha and Martigan, they are taken to a snow camp where Willow turns Raziel into a bird, while the Brownies dust Madmartigan with love potion that makes him fall in love with Sorsha. Some love themey Han Solo-Leia music plays, and is broken up by the sirens. (General Kael ruining Martigans game). Martigan shows off his sword fighting skills and the oft quoted line by eleven year old me is uttered, “You really are great”. They sled down the hill, which looks like a ton of fun, and proceed to Tier Asleen (out of breath)(hold on) The old castle is deserted, as the people have been turned to ice by Bav Morda (the statues in Return to Oz, the abandoned Gelfling center, Asgaard in StarGate)..and there is a great big pile of troll droppings…ewwww. The armies of Nockmaar arrive just after Willow turns Raziel into a goat, bringing about my favorite impression line when describing Willow to my kids…”W—i—i–i—l-l-o-w-w-w-w, what haaaaave you done to me?” Of course, battle happens, Sorsha and Madmartigan fall in pre Carbon freeze chamber love…and the trolls appear. They look like horridly small Klingons. Willow accidentally turns one of them into a two headed dragon, in which both heads resemble the Rancor Monster, but who I read was supposed to be Siskel and Ebert. Pretty cool effect for 1988!
Kael hides Elora in his neckbeard and rides off to Nockmaar (bad place…Mordor, Snake Mountain, Goblin King’s palace, Aquila in LadyHawke, The World Trade Center in Mazes and Monsters), where the final battle is to take place to save the world. I couldn’t help but think of the last run at invasion of the French castle in “Holy Grail” and waited for the cops to show up to arrest the ringleaders. Everyone is turned into pigs, until Willow changes back Raziel, who changes the pigs back. They pull a reverse Trojan Horse (something I also saw later in Robin Hood;Prince of Thieves, which also used the great Pat Roach), and arrive in the castle to fight the battle of battles. Madmartigan vs General Kael, who will win?(Roach fights with Indiana Jones like passion) Bav Morda vs Fin Raziel?(if you kill me I will only become more powerful sequence).Will Willow save the universe? Will he be a magician? Will Elora growup to make a multi million dollar industry off of merchandise and straight-to-video movies with her twin sister? Will Ron Howard and Lucas ever draft a Willow 2?
Review
So, what do I think? Well, I will fall on a very ancient standard of measurement for this film, the “did I like it as a kid, do I still feel the same way?” scale. I loved this movie as an 11 year old kid. I collected the toys, quoted the lines, pretended sledding down my hill on Dover Road was the same as sledding away from Kael, and imagined myself as the handsome sword fighter of Henderson Elementary. When NES put out a Willow game (The Game!!), I was there to play it…mind you, not well, which is why someone else will be reviewing 1988 games.
I was a big reader of mythology and comic books. A lot of other guys I knew were going to Waldenbooks and buying Terry Brooks’ books (giggle for rhyming),but I thought that was TOO nerdy… as I retreated into my Broadway soundtracks and Voltron action figures. Nope, my fantasy fix came from the movies, and Willow fed that fever. Although, I did write a book once about a super powerful phoenix and a griffin (after I had read Order of the Phoenix). I was big fan of Star Wars, magical creatures, and Val Kilmer. So that, was the standard of my childhood in 1988 and Willow. After watching it last week, I would say that my relationship with it has stayed pretty much the same. I know that it is not the most surprising of plots, but at its heart it was following the lead of some pretty similar franchises who also gave us obvious endings. I know that the effects are not like they are in 2014 or in Lord of the Rings, but we have to be able to appreciate the film in its time context. Wanting to update it or change it, is just the kind of thinking that allowed Greedo to shoot first or that erased the Nub, Nub singing from Ewok Village. I appreciate it for being fantasy escapism if even for a few hours.
The cast seems to enjoy being in the film, Warwick Davis is everyone’s hero, and Pollack and Overton are a significant part of the whimsical anarchy that hold this movie up over time. In a twitter interview with Rick Overton, he informed us of the fun he and Pollock had making the film, and of the impact it had on future effects driven movies like LOTR. When asked about the memories he had of the film and the effects, he began by telling us that it was an amazing time, but that it was just him and Pollack. “They’d (the rest of the cast) wrapped already by the time we started at ILM in San Rafael” He talked about being a part of the groundbreaking techniques that Willow is often not given much credit for when people mention milestone film. “We were special effects back then, We actually did that squeaky laugh.” When asked about the green screen process he reminded us that in 1988, it was a “Blue Screen. There was no Green Screen yet back then. ILM invented “Morphing” process for Willow”
My biggest complain is how choppy the flow of the movie seems to be. We jump from location to location without much connective tissue which I think makes the story seem a little flat, when you put the film up against something like The Princess Bride. It bears that problematic ability of Lucas to cram too many ideas and characters into a crowded universe. However, Ron Howard is a great visual director, and knows how to pull the most out of the scenery to make us feel like this unreality is reality. All in all I would give this film a 7 out of 10, and definitely watch it again. I wouldn’t go into it with the expectation that it is going to be life changing and I like that it is a fantasy film that I can show to my kids…heaven knows they can’t ever see Game of Thrones. Here is what Roger Ebert has to say about Willow in 1988
Summary:
Historical Background…because you know you love it…we are a history class after all. Willow…Willow…Willow. This film has taken a long time for me to tackle because the history that surrounds its time and place in film history is so multi-layered. It was a pet project by George Lucas that, according to sources, he began pitching in the 1970′s. In fact, one cannot help but notice its constant reference points to the 1960′s counter cultural icon , Lord of the Rings…just substitute Ring of Doom for Elora, Aragorn for Mad Martigan, Bav Morda for Sauron,rather, rinse, repeat.You can also see its skeleton in other Lucas involved projects…Star Wars (rouge thief, comedy relief duo, wise old man, dark magic, chip on her shoulder princess who falls for the charms of the rogue to to soaring violins(this time conducted by the great James Horner), simple farm boy who discovers his role in the universe on a great adventure, the villain wears black and throws people with her hands.. alas, no Ewoks…wait…Warwick Davis is Wicket in Return of the Jedi! ), The Dark Crystal (substitute baby for crystal shard, podlings for Nelwyns, Garthim for Nockmaar hounds, etc),Indiana Jones (even going so far as to cast Pat Roach as General Kale. If you don’t know Pat Roach then you were not paying attention to the giant man that Indiana Jones fights and kills in Raiders in an airplane blade, and earlier as a Sherpa who fights Jones into his fiery death; in Temple of Doom as the Thuggee who gets crushed by the rock crusher, and in Last Crusade as the Gestapo on the Blimp/plane fight who meets his doom which got cut from the film).
To be fair to Lucas, much of 80′s fantasy film centered around a world saving quest through a maze of ethereal forests and bizarre creatures that would either assist you, trick you, or kill you. I think about The Princess Bride, The Never Ending Story, Time Bandits, and the less than stellar Disney stab at fantasy, Black Cauldron. Each of these stories has at its heart, a heroes quest that is usually taken on by a simple peasant or an anti-hero. Or, in the case of Wesley, in The Princess Bride, both. There is friendship, danger, a prize to be won, an evil ruler to destroy, a comic character or characters who join the quest on the way to their own destiny, and mazes and monsters. Perhaps, the early Tom Hanks film Mazes and Monsters accurately predicted the rise of the fantasy genre in the 80′s with the rise of Dungeons and Dragons popularity.
If you were not growing up in the 80′s then you probably don’t remember the furor that was made over D&D as a tool of devil worship among American teens. It was a game that was going to have us joining Satan, while watching MTV, defecting to the Soviet Union, and overdosing on Angel Dust. To see more of this “fear of Satanic influence in the 80′s”, see our review of Spellbinder. I remember playing a few games of D&D at my friend Chris’ house down the street, and allegedly killing like 6 orcs in one swing (I am told this is illegal). I also remember how confused I was at most everything that was being narrated. I guess it was that disorganization of thoughts that kept me from turning to evil. Thank goodness D&D was also a Saturday morning cartoon with its Yodalike Dungeon Master.
I found a really great commentary on the rise of fantasy films in the 1980′s from a twitter user who calls himself or herself, wernherzbear. (article here)Bear makes a pretty decent point that the fantasy genre may have developed as an answer to our highly technological based culture in the 80′s. Everything was changing so fast from computers, to animation, to the way we listened to music that perhaps we longed for a simpler, pre-tech world filled with heroic quests, where the villains would lose in the end. I would go one step further to say that we existed in a world that seemed to be moving towards an uncertain future with nuclear weapons and questionable world politics. Maybe it was nice to live in a world of fairies and magic for a little while, a place where we could breathe. Its modern parallel would be the comforting effects of Harry Potter in a post 9-11 world. The benefit of having George Lucas in our lives has always been in his ability to take us from reality for a few hours at a time. Plus, his knack for merchandise kept my toy shelves full to the sighs of my parents. (I still have my metal General Kael, complete with John C Calhoun neckbeard and jagged sword)
The Plot:
A Baby, who has an uncanny resemblance to baby Michelle on Full House, is born with a prophetic birthmark. The Evil Queen (Jean Marsh) sends out her daughter Sorsha and the previously mentioned John C Calhoun-neck-bearded, Skeletor mask wearing, General Kael, to find the child and destroy it.
Elora is sent down the river, a-la Moses, while the midwife turns in peasant-kibble for the wolf-dog-boars of Nockmaar. The baby drifts down stream into the lands of the Nelwyn(small humans) people. They are peace-loving, down to earth, farmers who are in the midst of a celebration where one of them will be selected as apprentice to the High Aldwyn. (the ever fabulous Billy Barty)The baby is found by a couple of local kids who happen to be the children of Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis), a local wannabe magician . Long story short; the festival commences, Willow blows his chance in front of the wise old wizard, the mean dogs attack, and Willow is given the ultimate task of returning Elora to the Daikini (big humans). He is sent out with his friend Megosh and some Nelwyn fighters (Tony Cox!!!!). The music is flutey and the landscape is New Zealand-ish.
Eventually, the other Nelwyn get scared of the dangers that lie ahead and Willow is left alone to follow the quest at a dusty crossroads. It is at this forgotten spot where he meets a Daikini, kept in a cage for theft, who claims to be the greatest swordsman ever. His name is Madmartigan (played by a classically sly and awesomely smirky Val Kilmer) and he offers to take the baby in return for freedom. Suddenly, a vanquished army rides by and we meet Airk. Holy Richie Cunningham directed film! Airk is played by the long lost Cunningham, Chuck!!!. He tells Madmartigan that they were beaten back by Nockmaar and they are in retreat.
Willow gives the baby to Madmartigan, and then heads for home. Film over? Nope, Willow is attacked by tiny Brownies(very very small people) and learns they have also taken Elora-Michelle from Val Kilmer. The brownies take Willow to a magical forest fairy who looks like Galadriel who proceeds to fill him in on the whole backstory of the film. Willow is entrusted with Elora and a magic wand and told to find Fin Raziel, who will train him to be a great wizard and save the universe. He is given his marching orders and two brownie guards Franjean and Rool (wonderfully casted Overton and Pollack, which for some reason I used to think were played by Lennie and Squiggie). They have a run in Madmartigan at an Inn, dressed like a woman. They manage to escape Sorsha and Kael just in time and find Fin Raziel’s (Patricia Hayes) island, where she has been enchanted into a possum, the ugliest animal on the planet…blech. There, Han Solo Martigan criticizes magic while Raziel and Willow experiment…if only they had the Millenium Falcon and that weird Tazer ball.
Longer story short, they are captured, tenseness ensues between Sorsha and Martigan, they are taken to a snow camp where Willow turns Raziel into a bird, while the Brownies dust Madmartigan with love potion that makes him fall in love with Sorsha. Some love themey Han Solo-Leia music plays, and is broken up by the sirens. (General Kael ruining Martigans game). Martigan shows off his sword fighting skills and the oft quoted line by eleven year old me is uttered, “You really are great”. They sled down the hill, which looks like a ton of fun, and proceed to Tier Asleen (out of breath)(hold on) The old castle is deserted, as the people have been turned to ice by Bav Morda (the statues in Return to Oz, the abandoned Gelfling center, Asgaard in StarGate)..and there is a great big pile of troll droppings…ewwww. The armies of Nockmaar arrive just after Willow turns Raziel into a goat, bringing about my favorite impression line when describing Willow to my kids…”W—i—i–i—l-l-o-w-w-w-w, what haaaaave you done to me?” Of course, battle happens, Sorsha and Madmartigan fall in pre Carbon freeze chamber love…and the trolls appear. They look like horridly small Klingons. Willow accidentally turns one of them into a two headed dragon, in which both heads resemble the Rancor Monster, but who I read was supposed to be Siskel and Ebert. Pretty cool effect for 1988!
Kael hides Elora in his neckbeard and rides off to Nockmaar (bad place…Mordor, Snake Mountain, Goblin King’s palace, Aquila in LadyHawke, The World Trade Center in Mazes and Monsters), where the final battle is to take place to save the world. I couldn’t help but think of the last run at invasion of the French castle in “Holy Grail” and waited for the cops to show up to arrest the ringleaders. Everyone is turned into pigs, until Willow changes back Raziel, who changes the pigs back. They pull a reverse Trojan Horse (something I also saw later in Robin Hood;Prince of Thieves, which also used the great Pat Roach), and arrive in the castle to fight the battle of battles. Madmartigan vs General Kael, who will win?(Roach fights with Indiana Jones like passion) Bav Morda vs Fin Raziel?(if you kill me I will only become more powerful sequence).Will Willow save the universe? Will he be a magician? Will Elora growup to make a multi million dollar industry off of merchandise and straight-to-video movies with her twin sister? Will Ron Howard and Lucas ever draft a Willow 2?
Our Thoughts:
A Baby is born (who looks weirdly like baby Michelle on Full House) with a prophetic birthmark. The Evil Queen (Jean Marsh, who also looks like the Evil Queen from Snow White, and who actually played the Evil Queen Mombi in Return to Oz, even though as a deep and loyal Ozite I know that Mombi was never queen of Oz, but advised General Jinjur in her coup against the Scarecrow…but that is another story, and plays a great deal into my bitterness towards projects like Wicked. Needless to say as Mombi in RTO, Ms Marsh freaked me out) sends out her daughter Sorsha and the previously mentioned John C Calhoun-neck-bearded, Skeletor mask wearing, General Kael to find the child and destroy it. She should have read how that plan backfires repeatedly in the Bible and in Ghostbusters II.
Baby Michelle..er..Elora is sent down the river a la Moses, while the midwife becomes peasant kibble to the wolf-dog-boars of Nockmaar (the evil creatures that always follows our hero in this genre…see the Nazgul, Garthim, Gmork, Prince Humperdink to name a few). The baby ends up in the lands of the Nelwyn people, peace loving down to earth farmers who are about to celebrate one of them being selected as apprentice to the High Aldwyn. He is played by the ever fabulous Billy Barty…although I often get this role confused with the one played by Burgess Meredith in Santa Claus: the movie (which also gave me the weird craving to always have Coca Cola when I eat fried chicken…whole other story).
The baby is found by a couple of local kids who are the children of Willow Ufgood, local magician wannabe. Long story short, the festival commences, Willow blows his chance in front of the wise old wizard (see Gandalf, Dumbledore, Yoda), the mean dogs attack (which has always reminded me emotionally and musically of the moment the Garthim bust in on the podlings in the middle of their Ewok soundtracked pan flute party), and Willow is given the ultimate task of returning Elora to the Daikini (big humans). He is sent out with his friend Megosh (see Samwise) and some Nelwyn fighters (Tony Cox!!!!). The music is flutey, the landscape is New Zealandish. This got me wondering if this was a strange convergence whereWillowwas paying homage to Lord of the Rings and then Peter Jackson payed homage to Willow with the soundtrack and location shoots. Mind blowing eh?
Anyhow, the others get scared and Willow is left alone to follow the quest at the crossroads, where he meets a Daikini kept in a cage for theft who claims to be the greatest swordsman ever(Han Solo(who shot Greedo first), Aragorn, Inigo Montoya). His name is Madmartigan (played by the classically sly and awesomely smirky Val Kilmer) and he offers to take the baby in return for his freedom. This Val Kilmer makes me long for the easy going days of Real Genius and Top Secret. Suddenly, a vanquished army rides by and we meet Airk (Holy Ritchie Cunningham directed film! It is the long lost Cunningham, Chuck!!! I guess if Ron’s real brother Clint can’t be in his film, he can use his long lost departed, never spoken of fictional older brother). He tells Madmartigan that they were beaten back by Nockmaar (Gondor beaten by Sauron, Lord Haggard killing the unicorns) and they are in retreat.
I get the sense of some Norse mythology mixed into this piece, just by the garments, names, etc. Willow gives the baby to Madmartigan, and then heads for home…film over. Nope, he is attacked by tiny Brownies and learns they have also taken Elora-Michelle from Val Kilmer (“How rude!”…had to be done). They take Willow to a magical forest fairy who looks like Galadriel and tells him the whole backstory. He is entrusted with Elora and a magic wand and told to find Fin Raziel (aka Obi Wan) who will train him to be a great wizard and save the universe. He is given his marching orders and two brownie guards Franjean and Rool (wonderfully casted Overton and Pollack…which for some reason I used to think were played by Lennie and Squiggie). The two of them become the R2-D2-C3PO, Montoya-Fezzig, Hamlet gravediggers of the piece, cracking jokes, pulling pranks, slapsticking and bumbling. They meet Madmartigan at an Inn (Three Amigos line popped into my head “Someone hit this place with the ugly stick”), dressed like a woman. They manage to escape Sorsha and Kael just in time and find Fin Raziel’s (Patricia Hayes) island, where she has been enchanted into a possum, the ugliest animal on the planet…blech. There, Han Solo Martigan criticizes magic while Raziel and Willow experiment…if only they had the Millenium Falcon and that weird Tazer ball.
Longer story short, they are captured, tenseness ensues between Sorsha and Martigan, they are taken to a snow camp where Willow turns Raziel into a bird, while the Brownies dust Madmartigan with love potion that makes him fall in love with Sorsha. Some love themey Han Solo-Leia music plays, and is broken up by the sirens. (General Kael ruining Martigans game). Martigan shows off his sword fighting skills and the oft quoted line by eleven year old me is uttered, “You really are great”. They sled down the hill, which looks like a ton of fun, and proceed to Tier Asleen (out of breath)(hold on) The old castle is deserted, as the people have been turned to ice by Bav Morda (the statues in Return to Oz, the abandoned Gelfling center, Asgaard in StarGate)..and there is a great big pile of troll droppings…ewwww. The armies of Nockmaar arrive just after Willow turns Raziel into a goat, bringing about my favorite impression line when describing Willow to my kids…”W—i—i–i—l-l-o-w-w-w-w, what haaaaave you done to me?” Of course, battle happens, Sorsha and Madmartigan fall in pre Carbon freeze chamber love…and the trolls appear. They look like horridly small Klingons. Willow accidentally turns one of them into a two headed dragon, in which both heads resemble the Rancor Monster, but who I read was supposed to be Siskel and Ebert. Pretty cool effect for 1988!
Kael hides Elora in his neckbeard and rides off to Nockmaar (bad place…Mordor, Snake Mountain, Goblin King’s palace, Aquila in LadyHawke, The World Trade Center in Mazes and Monsters), where the final battle is to take place to save the world. I couldn’t help but think of the last run at invasion of the French castle in “Holy Grail” and waited for the cops to show up to arrest the ringleaders. Everyone is turned into pigs, until Willow changes back Raziel, who changes the pigs back. They pull a reverse Trojan Horse (something I also saw later in Robin Hood;Prince of Thieves, which also used the great Pat Roach), and arrive in the castle to fight the battle of battles. Madmartigan vs General Kael, who will win?(Roach fights with Indiana Jones like passion) Bav Morda vs Fin Raziel?(if you kill me I will only become more powerful sequence).Will Willow save the universe? Will he be a magician? Will Elora growup to make a multi million dollar industry off of merchandise and straight-to-video movies with her twin sister? Will Ron Howard and Lucas ever draft a Willow 2?
Review
So, what do I think? Well, I will fall on a very ancient standard of measurement for this film, the “did I like it as a kid, do I still feel the same way?” scale. I loved this movie as an 11 year old kid. I collected the toys, quoted the lines, pretended sledding down my hill on Dover Road was the same as sledding away from Kael, and imagined myself as the handsome sword fighter of Henderson Elementary. When NES put out a Willow game (The Game!!), I was there to play it…mind you, not well, which is why someone else will be reviewing 1988 games.
I was a big reader of mythology and comic books. A lot of other guys I knew were going to Waldenbooks and buying Terry Brooks’ books (giggle for rhyming),but I thought that was TOO nerdy… as I retreated into my Broadway soundtracks and Voltron action figures. Nope, my fantasy fix came from the movies, and Willow fed that fever. Although, I did write a book once about a super powerful phoenix and a griffin (after I had read Order of the Phoenix). I was big fan of Star Wars, magical creatures, and Val Kilmer. So that, was the standard of my childhood in 1988 and Willow. After watching it last week, I would say that my relationship with it has stayed pretty much the same. I know that it is not the most surprising of plots, but at its heart it was following the lead of some pretty similar franchises who also gave us obvious endings. I know that the effects are not like they are in 2014 or in Lord of the Rings, but we have to be able to appreciate the film in its time context. Wanting to update it or change it, is just the kind of thinking that allowed Greedo to shoot first or that erased the Nub, Nub singing from Ewok Village. I appreciate it for being fantasy escapism if even for a few hours.
The cast seems to enjoy being in the film, Warwick Davis is everyone’s hero, and Pollack and Overton are a significant part of the whimsical anarchy that hold this movie up over time. In a twitter interview with Rick Overton, he informed us of the fun he and Pollock had making the film, and of the impact it had on future effects driven movies like LOTR. When asked about the memories he had of the film and the effects, he began by telling us that it was an amazing time, but that it was just him and Pollack. “They’d (the rest of the cast) wrapped already by the time we started at ILM in San Rafael” He talked about being a part of the groundbreaking techniques that Willow is often not given much credit for when people mention milestone film. “We were special effects back then, We actually did that squeaky laugh.” When asked about the green screen process he reminded us that in 1988, it was a “Blue Screen. There was no Green Screen yet back then. ILM invented “Morphing” process for Willow”
My biggest complain is how choppy the flow of the movie seems to be. We jump from location to location without much connective tissue which I think makes the story seem a little flat, when you put the film up against something like The Princess Bride. It bears that problematic ability of Lucas to cram too many ideas and characters into a crowded universe. However, Ron Howard is a great visual director, and knows how to pull the most out of the scenery to make us feel like this unreality is reality. All in all I would give this film a 7 out of 10, and definitely watch it again. I wouldn’t go into it with the expectation that it is going to be life changing and I like that it is a fantasy film that I can show to my kids…heaven knows they can’t ever see Game of Thrones. Here is what Roger Ebert has to say about Willow in 1988