This one's from deep in my memory, it was crazy, & weird, & really entertaining, a great bit of childhood nostalgia.

A charming fantasy film with heart! Ron Howard's Willow (1988) is a brave and delightful fantasy film of remarkable craftsmanship with a few flaws here and there. Howard's direction is beautiful with gorgeous natural scenery that makes you instantly believe you are witnessing a fantasy world with the vast English, Welsh, and New Zealand backdrop. Peter Jackson must have drawn inspiration from Howard's intimate direction and sweeping grandeur for The Lord of the Rings. George Lucas's story is essentially a ripoff of The Lord of the Rings and The Dark Crystal, but with a few neat narrative twists. The writing is so sincere and tender, always grounded in character interactions, that you cannot help but be charmed by Willow's decency. It's really a story about finding confidence within yourself and doing the right thing. James Horner's score is a beautiful fantasy symphony of delightful whimsy and epic adventure. I can tell that Howard Shore heard James Horner's compositions for Willow before he composed The Lord of the Rings. Warwick Davis is the excellent unlikely hero Willow Ufgood. His genuinely emotional reactions to the world around are so realistic that you are constantly rooting for Davis. Davis proves his dramatic skill as an actor in that he is Willow's heart and soul. Val Kilmer is hilarious and righteous as the energetic swordsman and heartthrob Madmartigan. Joanne Whalley is the stunning Sorsha with her quick witted delivery and fierce stature as the daughter of the antagonist. Whalley is mesmerizing in Willow and enchanting as the strong heroine along with the likable love interest to Kilmer. Jean Marsh is great as the evil Queen Bavmorda. She is underutilized until the end, but she gives heinous spell casting and evil cackling a zealous madness. Now, after all the good and charm of Willow's wondrous cast and brilliant practical effects, it does feature some terrible choices. Namely, the two miniature friends that accompany Willow are so annoying and the special effects CGI looks terrible. The practical effects are still magical, but the spliced in characters look so fake. The annoying voices of the two friends are just awful and they ruin each scene they are in. Unfortunately, they are in far too many scenes. Some of the action choreography, while thrilling, is oddly awkward and aged poorly. The adventure and interactions are the highlight of Willow. The CGI people and goofy green screen moments are terrible and weigh Willow down unnecessarily. Ron Howard's Willow is a lovely little movie that will surely entertain anyone. Willow just needed to edit out some unnecessary extra characters. Howard's direction keeps you engaged and Warwick Davis is just captivating and endearing as the hero.

RIP Val. This film was a staple of my pre-teen years and Val was part of my adolescent awakening.

As a kid it was great but man it's beyond bad as an adult, even annoying

Fantasy epics don't get any better than this.

Definitely worth a watch. Some effects might be dated, but the soundtrack and sense of adventure is just amazing!!

Good for what it is 0 stress, and cheeezy really really cheesy. If you love cheese , this is vintage cheddar.

Willow is a remarkably original and exciting fantasy adventure. Sometimes, there is a movie you love when you’re a kid that you come to realize is not as good when you’re older, such is not the case with Willow. Sure there’s some cheesy 80’s goodness throughout but overall it’s thrilling and led by a stellar cast.

A childhood classic for me. I remember being about 11 and watching this nightly on my tiny 11in CRT on the bedside. Always falling asleep at the same time, during the giant two headed creature scene. On re-watching, some pretty glaring flaws show through to me. I found the brownie characters to be really annoying. Some highly nonsensical character decisions, particularly Sorsha's decision to fall in love with Madmartigan on seemingly a whim? I wonder if anyone else found the eerie similarities with the LOTR movies? I think this would be an appropriately beloved title for contemporary younger audiences, and perhaps modern kids with a penchant for 80's quirkiness. Not appropriate for any other demographic though, lol.

Had some good moments but overall trying too hard to force story and character beats rather than let them develop organically. Written by George Lucas so plenty of silly sidekicks. The story felt pretty generic - a prophesy about a mystical princess, a wicked queen, a hobbit on a big adventure, the redemption of a bad character etc etc. Warwick Davies was the standout. He seemed to be the only one taking the quest seriously.

Why did critics take a big smelly dump on this film? Sure, it's not great and, even amongst '80s fantasy films, I do think there are better films such as The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth but I thought Willow was a delightful adventure in its own right. Warwick Davis is likeable in the lead role, the characters are memorable, the set design is immersive, it has a fun mix of action and comedy, features groundbreaking visual effects (though the Ray Harryhausen-style stop-motion animation does hold up reasonably well) and James Horner delivers a rousing, orchestral score. Admittedly, some things could've been handled better such as one character's Heel-Face Turn (which has a bit more depth to it in the deleted scenes) and those little guys called Brownies could be annoying sometimes but overall, I do think this is an underrated fantasy adventure that's worth watching at least once. It's certainly a much better Lucasfilm-produced Ron Howard film than the impersonal Solo was, anyway.

"Willow" follows a lot of the basic high fantasy tropes. There are wizards, elves, a dark lord and a prophecy about a chosen one destined to defeat the dark lord. What helps "Willow" stand out is that the "chosen one" is still a baby. With the dark lord knowing the prophecy, she pulls a Ramses and decrees to search all babies for the chosen one. Through means of trying to hide the baby, she ends up in the hands of Willow. So, the focus of the story is not on "The chosen one" but instead the random person who happened to stumble into the situation. That is an interesting twist. Willow, himself is never mentioned in the prophecy, he just is the one taking care of the chosen baby. But man, this movie makes a lot of strange decisions. It can become very clear that this was written by George Lucas. The story begins by putting a fellowship of characters together, only to have the group break up about two scenes later. It is difficult to grasp how the rules of this world work. There is one scene where the evil wizard just turns everyone into pigs, why couldn't she just use that power to begin with? There is a plot point where a love potion is used on a character, and they do the good old Bond style of: kiss her until she likes it. There are a lot of obnoxious side characters and they get far too much screen time. The story takes back seat for a long stretch of the movie and it chooses the oddest things to focus on. There are bonus points of originality, but boy is it ever strange. I can see it being some people's favorite movie, but for me it is too unfocused, confusing and filled with annoying characters. There is a little magic, but it falls short of coming together.

A beloved 80's classic which fascinates us until today. It's like Harry Potter & LOTR in one. Teary eyed after watching it again for more than 30 years.

Willow - 9/10. I remember watching this in English class way back in middle school. Honestly, my english teacher was a gym teacher at heart, so he thought that by playing movies all the time it would help teach us. Maybe the logic wasn’t there, but I surely appreciated all the great movies he showed us that year. Willow is a wonderful and unique tale. With a surprisingly mega wattage combo of Ron Howard as the director and George Lucas as the writer, we get an interesting and super original epic fantasy film. The one thing that I really remember about this movie was that the set design, costumes, and music were all pitch perfect. Again, there’s so much ideas and untapped stories in Hollywood that there are possibly many other original ideas that could be on the same level as Willow. The film acts almost like a fable or fairy tale at times too, which lends it a classic feel. I kinda wish Lucas continued giving his story ideas to others, because in the 80’s alone he allowed other people to continue his Star Wars movies, and gave Spielberg Indiana Jones, and gave Howard Willow. That right there could’ve gone wayward if Lucas wanted to do the direction as well, but he was smart by allowing others to interpret his works. Cause though some people might have forgotten about this film, it still has a following because it was done in such a cool and memorable way. Great film, and one that feels like a storybook being made into a film as well!

Although plagued by horrible tone inconsistency, Willow is still a decent movie with more pros than cons.

One of my favorites from when I was a kid. I still love it today. Great cast, setting and music.

The greatest movie. This is Lucas' celtic version of Lord of the Rings with the ring removed and the good celtic people fighting the evil germanic people. This movie teaches kids to believe in themselves. All of the actors and actresses are superb.

This epic dark fantasy adventure film is directed by Ron Howard and based on a story by George Lucas in which a young farmer who aspires to be a magician is chosen to undertake a perilous journey in order to protect a special baby princess from an evil queen. This is a remarkable fantasy world put into a single film that speaks volumes about 80s movies. The state-of-the-art special effects are delightful, when they are not laughable but it is understable for the time. It is overall a charming and heart-warming story with good performances, and the great Warwick Davis makes it really compelling. Even if the finale could have been more epic, the film itself has likeable characters, beautiful scenery and some nice and cheesy comedy.

Truly a classic of the genre. The new one is an embarrassment compared to the original.

Un clásico del cine de aventuras y fantasía de los años 80 con buenos personajes, una trama para toda la familia y una banda sonora buenísima.