George Lucas’ and Ron Howard’s box office bomb of 1988, Willow is a tepid and all-effects-no-story fantasy that was done far better in Wolfgang Petersen’s The Neverending Story. Although the dragon is a fantastic early computer generated creation and must have cost a bundle to design, the film itself is too long, too slowly paced, and not very intelligent. Warwick Davis, who looks like a cross between his former Ewok self and Linda Hunt’s Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously, is Willow Ufgood, a little person from a whole colony of little people. Willow is selected by his people to transport a baby back to her family who are Daikinis, another race. Along the way, Willow encounters the usual group of fantasy characters, from fire-breathing dragons to a warrior imprisoned in a cage. Val Kilmer – not a very good actor to begin with and here he is just going through the motions – plays the warrior.
The baby is heir to the throne of the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh in a villainous role) who has put out a death sentence on all girl children of Daikinis. With the help of Madmartigan (Kilmer), Willow must slay the dragons and outsmart the queen to return the baby safely. The problem, unfortunately, is getting there. Three quarters of the film is the quest of Willow and Madmartigan and is downright dull. The special effects might have been something in 1988 but in retrospect, a lot of them are almost amateurish and look cheap. The same could be said for the special effects in the first three Star Wars films but hey, it’s Star Wars! Willow does not have the story or the cult following of other classic fantasy films. That said, the dragon is fantastic, even by today’s special effects standards. It is obvious that a lot of effort and ingenuity went into creating the elaborate sets and if not for such a boring and predictable story, some of this great work would have shone much more brightly.
I believe Willow was toned down to reach mainstream audiences, and that the original idea of George Lucas (who wrote the story) and screenwriter Bob Dolman is not what we see on the screen. Lucas wanted another Star Wars with Willow but he enlisted a weak cast and a hack director who could not see his vision the way Irwin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back) and Richard Marquand (Return of the Jedi) had. Alas, the audience is left with an expensive flop that should have been a lot more than what it turned out to be.
The best part of the film is Willow. Davis gives the performance of his career and it should be mentioned that it was the first time a short actor had been the lead character in a major motion picture. He should be proud of what he accomplished and he is proof that not every fantasy film needs a big name or a blonde Adonis in the lead role. However, for a better fantasy film with similar elements, I would recommend The Neverending Story and for a more successfully realised script and a far funnier effort, watch Shrek.
