Willow
Short description
Willow is a fantasy adventure about a baby destined to end the reign of a tyrant. In a land divided between the small Nelwyns and the taller Daikinis, the evil queen Bavmorda learns of a prophecy that a newborn girl will bring her down, so she orders the child killed. The infant, Elora Danan, escapes and ends up in a Nelwyn village, where a farmer named Willow Ufgood, who dreams of becoming a real sorcerer, takes her in. He wants only to return her to her own people, but that task draws him into the wider struggle against Bavmorda. Along the way he joins forces with the swordsman Madmartigan, the brownies, and the sorceress Fin Raziel, who together work to end the queen's rule.
Ron Howard directed the film, the fifth of the thirty-two features he has directed in chronological order, following Gung Ho and preceding Parenthood, from a screenplay by Bob Dolman. Warwick Davis leads the cast as Willow, with Val Kilmer as Madmartigan, Joanne Whalley as Sorsha, Patricia Hayes as Raziel, Gavan O'Herlihy as Airk and Phil Fondacaro as Vohnkar. The production involved 63 credited cast members and 72 credited crew, and was made for about 35 million dollars, taking roughly 57 million at the worldwide box office.
On IMDb the film holds a rating of 7.2 from around 139,000 votes, while on TMDB it has a rating of 7 from over 2,200 votes, and film critics gave it 6.1 from 63 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- The sorceress's commander, General Kael, received his name in honor of film critic Pauline Kael. And the two-headed dragon, according to the press release materials, was named Eborsisk – this nickname, in turn, is derived from the names of film critics such as Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. True, this name was never spoken in the film itself, but was used in several reviews.
- Devil dogs are Rottweilers in rubber masks and costumes.
- After the film's unsuccessful release, screenwriter and producer George Lucas abandoned ideas for a sequel and returned to work on "Star Wars."
- "Willow" was the first film in history to use morphing objects – people transform into pigs there, and a gorilla-like troll turns into a lump of bare flesh.
- The idea to make the film belonged to George Lucas. Lucas spent a long time developing the fantastical universe, but the project was offered to an old friend, Ron Howard, whom Lucas had known since the film "American Graffiti" (1973), where Ron played one of the roles.
- In 1988, Wayland Drew wrote a novelization of "Willow" based on the film's screenplay.
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