Only partially successful in punching across the requisite excitement, which is often crippled by a nagging air of familiarity (it’s as much Tolkien as it is Lucas).

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 21, 2024

Willow has received a much stronger response in the home video release market, and for fans of the film, the 4K steelbook edition is a true delight.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 15, 2024

The creaky monster effects are a delight, and James Horner's rousing score elevates the story to epic heights, ensuring that Willow delivers a stirring jolt of old-school escapism.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 28, 2022

[Willow] is a good movie for kids. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jun 21, 2022

In the wake of series like The Lord of the Rings and the later Harry Potter entries, Willow cannot help but feel catered to children with little awareness of how much it borrows from other sources.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 18, 2022

The underappreciated fantasy film from George Lucas and Ron Howard delighted the young audiences it was intended for, poked fun at its critics -- by name -- and is now set for a Disney+ reboot.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Oct 4, 2021

Willow mostly calls to mind dozens of other, better movies, ranging from Lucas's own Star wars to the Ten Commandments and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It's a malformed Tolkien-type fantasy.

| Dec 21, 2020

Cult favourite Willow saw producer George Lucas attempting to recreate the fantasy-adventure spirit of his Star War films in a sword-and-sorcery setting.

| Dec 15, 2020

The character designs are fascinating, as are the creature effects (helmed by Industrial Light & Magic and nominated for an Academy Award).

| Original Score: 8/10 | Sep 8, 2020

Willow borrows shamelessly from sources as varied as the Bible, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Wizard of Oz and even from Star Wars itself, plastering it all together in a witless, muddled pastiche.

| Mar 27, 2019

There isn't a single major character in the film who is engaging.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 6, 2018

If it evaporates from memory with the airiness of a bubble bath, at least it leaves a friendly glow and a sense of a magical world lovingly evoked.

| Dec 6, 2018

Willow feels like the kind of movie that might have worked considerably better on the printed page.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 6, 2018

Willow is not without its charms -- the effects are more than special, the set-pieces suitably epic -- but it just doesn't fulfill the promise of certain other fantasy films.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 6, 2018

It takes forever for the story to get started, and once it does it holds few surprises.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 6, 2018

The plot grinds on inescapably to its predictable climax, with the viewer fully aware of what awaits long before the events unfold.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 6, 2018

It's forced, formulaic and sadly lacking in that sense of magic that's at the root of all successful fantasy.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 6, 2018

Willow exchanges the high-tech gleam of the Star Wars universe for the low-tech look of a Tolkienesque world, but otherwise it's business as usual.

| Dec 6, 2018

At the heart of this overproduced jumble you can still hear the faint beat of the simple story Lucas conceived about 15 years ago while researching Star Wars.

| Dec 6, 2018

Sometime during the second hour I pinpointed the trouble: The movie is so full of tricks and gimmicks that it doesn't care enough about being just plain funny.

| Dec 6, 2018