Willow – Directed by Ron Howard – 1988

Someone Give Warwick Davis More Work!

Story: This is the archetypal David and Goliath style story of a little man (literally) vs. the big bad. It's also the quest style of fantasy story. It has more than a few similarities to the Lord of the Rings, not to mention some parallels with the story of Moses from Bible, but it does it in it's own way. All around, aside from some startling badass decay, which we'll explore in the acting section, the only real complaint I have with the story is that the ending is not terribly self explanatory. Whenever I make someone watch this movie for the first time, they always turn to me and ask, “What just happened there?” and I do consider this a failure on the part of the movie. They could have explained it after the fact. B

Acting: Val Kilmer is my favorite actor, largely because of this movie, Tombstone, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Spartan, and At First Sight, and while he's really, really good in this movie, I don't understand why he and Joanne Whalley got higher billing that Warwick Davis. Warwick is in nearly every shot of this movie, he's the titular character, and he really was the meat the holds the movie together. I guess it was a marketing decision. Anyhow, Warwick is awesome in this movie and really needs to be given more to do than be a side character in every Star Wars, Harry Potter, or odd ball fantasy movie/miniseries that comes down the pipes. Don't believe me? Watch Ray. He's in it, he's a little man, and it doesn't matter. It doesn't impact the story practically at all. He gives a strong performance and it works.

Anyhow, back to Val. Madmartigan is probably the loudest, most animated character that Val has ever played, which is cool when you consider that he usually plays very thoughtful, understated characters (like his Ice Man character in Top Gun). He sort of plays this movie's version of Han Solo, the skeptic, smart mouthed fighter. His character does experience a certain level of badass decay as the movie approaches its climax, as he loses his smart mouth in favor of being the generic, noble warrior character. To a certain extent, this understandable, but I would like to have seen him retain more of his personality. That said, his sword fight with Pat Roach more than makes up for this.

Madmartigan may experience badass decay, but not nearly as badly as Sorsha, the character played by Joanne Whalley. She starts out tough as nails with a strong personality. She's got a sword that looks like pain harnessed in steel form, and she's here to kick your ass... until she falls in love with Val Kilmer. After this, she barely gets two lines in for the rest of the movie and also devolves into an idealized sort of warrior woman.

However, I think the real star of this movie is Jean Marsh. Queen Bavmorda is evil and powerful. She's knows magic spells to kill you in many painful ways and a enough of a lacking conscience to use it. When the Nostalgia Chick listed her top lady villains, I was quite disappointed to see that Bavmorda didn't make the list when the wicked witch of the west from the Wizard of Oz did (I realize that I'm about to utter blasphemy, but the witch didn't do anything in that movie except laugh in an over the top manner. Oh, and she used flowers to put people to sleep and employed an hour glass of doom, oh the horror!) Her acting is almost over the top, but not quite. She hits her note perfectly.

Lastly, they got the cutest, most expressive baby in the world to play Elora Danan. She smiles and laughs at all the right times. B

Visuals: This movie was really revolutionary at the time for raising the bar on visual effects with the whole process of morphing. The special effects hold up to this day and look better than a lot of digital effects you'll see on a Sci-Fi (or is it Sy Fy?) channel original. Also, may I say that Nockmaar castle is the most evil looking castle ever (sorry Orthanc and Barad-dur). I realize that sixty percent of it is a painting, but seriously I love the look of that castle. A

Sound: The music in this movie is beyond epic, although I know I heard the same music in an ad for Disney's the Three Musketeers, so I don't know who borrowed it from whom. Whatever, it works in this movie. The sound effects are awesome, they completely compliment what we're seeing on screen. A

Overall: This is one of my favorite movies from my childhood, not to mention my favorite NES game. I probably drove my parents crazy between the two of them. However, this is one of the few childhood memories that held up over the years. I definitely can't say the same for the Thundercats. B


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