Willow

Willow (1988) -  Dir. Ron Howard  Writ. George Lucas

A budding magician is sent to protect a human child from a dangerous queen.

Hollywood hit a streak in the 80′s and early 90′s with some great movie classics for kids that I think would shape the future of our entertainment world forever. Fantasy was en vogue again and it allowed a creative outlet for adults who never quite left their residence at Neverland. 

Willow has everything to make an exciting movie. Action scenes filled with the crashing of steel on steel, Monsters, fairies, magic, a love story, evil queen… the list goes on and on. I was looking for a movie to watch this weekend that my friend and I could both enjoy. While we have many interests and can talk about a wide variety of topics I wanted to watch something that wouldn’t require a serious discussion afterward. I settled on Willow because it came to my mind on its own and suddenly the answer I needed was already there inside my brain even after not thinking about it for years. 

Willow’s Wife (Julie Peters) finds a baby in the water and like many women (myself almost 100% certainly included) are overwhelmed by the baby’s bright eyes and red curly hair and decide to keep it much to Willow’s own dismay. When giant rat/lion/dogs come to the town and wreck havoc Willow (Warwick Davis) is told by the elder magician in the town that he and a group of others must make the journey to the crossroads where they will hand the baby off to the first Dakini (human) they find. 

The first human Willow and his committee find is wild but deadly handsome Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) who is left for dead in a cage after committing some crime. Willow’s committee is relieved that they can unload the baby onto him and return to their home in the woods but Willow is not convinced and decide to stay behind to make sure she will be taken care of.  After Madmartigan is released they begin again to continue where they stumble half blindly into a society of fairies who illuminate that the baby is named Elora (played by twin babies Ruth and Kate Greenfield) and will be the downfall of the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh) who is leading a hunt for this child and therefore is the reason the river had pushed the baby figuratively and almost literally into Willow’s hands. 

Willow, whose first committee had left him, is now joined by a new cast and crew. Willow, Madmartigan, and the two brownies who supply the comic relief, Franjean and Rool (Rick Overton and Kevin Pollak) embark on the second chapter of the journey: to get Elora to a powerful witch, Fin Raziel, to care and protect her. On hot pursuit by Queen Bavmorda’s beautiful daughter, Sorcha (Joanne Whalley) and her evil general Kael (Pat Roach), Willow and co. manage to escape most of the time. However eventually, they are captured by Sorcha and evil General Kael, whose name reminds me of that terrible crunchy leaf and only solidifies his evilness in my own mind. 

When they find Fin Raziel (Patricia Hayes) and we are surprised to see the cutest, littlest, fuzziest, creature ever and learn that Queen Bavmorda has transformed her and left her useless. Willow understands now that this is not the end of his journey and he must begin phase three to protect Elora from Queen Bavmorda to the end with the help and guidance of Fin Raziel. But seriously look at this little thing.

Also, I just learned that this thing is a muskrat which is kinda ew but oh well. I’m already in love against my better judgment like Madmartigan to this tiny little thing.

This is where people always run into trouble when they try to understand prophesies themselves and then try to control it. It didn’t work for Oedipus’ parents and it won’t work here either for Queen Bavmorda. The biggest snare in her plan was trusting that her daughter was as devoid of character as she was, however where only ugliness shows on Queen Bavmorda’s face, Sorcha is an image of radiant loveliness that captures even the wild Madmartigan’s attention (maybe with a little help from the Brownie’s thoughtful love potion as well). While the gang is able to escape we are almost sorry to be parted from Sorcha and Madmartigan and their refreshing love story that is beginning to unfold. 

After escaping the group finds their way to the desolate castle of Tir Asleen where they were told that they would find protection for Elora. Madmartigan is not impressed and points to the bodies that are encased in stone as proof that this was not the best idea. The Queen’s army is already on the way so there is no time to lose to prepare and Madmartigan gets ready for battle. 

They are surprised by another army joining them and during the ensuing battle Sorcha turns sides and joins along to defend Elora and her new love Madmartigan. While they battle in a truly suspenseful scene including some gross special effects and a whacked out hydra, General Kael is able to steal Elora away from Willow and managed to get her to queen Bavmorda while Willow desperately tries to transform Fin Raziel back into a human, which after much struggling he is able to do. 

If you thought the dueling wizards in the two towers to be laughable, you must have forgotten the scene where two elderly witch women roll around with sticks and shout and grunt at each other for a scene that seems about 3 minutes way too long. Eventually, Fin Raziel wins and the evil Queen Bavmorda is conquered. 

Thereby sealing her own fate, her daughter is joined in marriage by Madmartigan and they adopt Sorcha thereby revealing the prophecy in a much gentler way that could have been ENTIRELY avoided if the Queen had not been so evil. When Willow arrives home he is greeted heartily by his family and his knowledge of the adventure gives him the self-confidence that he was lacking all along to select the right answer to the wizard’s question and hence he becomes the next apprentice.