Willow
I love fantasy movies. The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Percy Jackson & the Olympians… But they are all modern fantasy with modern high-tech effects - which I love to watch most of the time. But this review will be about an "old" (1988) fantasy movie: Willow.
Willow was written and produced by none other than George Lucas, widely famous for the Star Wars movies, and directed by Ron Howard (The Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind). And in the lead role as Willow: our favourite short actor, Warwick Davis (you know, Griphook and Professor Flitwick?).
In a land far, far away the evil queen Bavmorda has ordered that all newborn girls are to be brought to her. A prophecy has said that the girl with a special sign will cause her death, so she is intent on killing the child before the prophecy can become true. But a brave midwife runs away with the baby and puts her on a raft in the river, just before the queen's hounds catch up with her.
The baby ends up in the land of the Nelwyn people (dwarves). Two children find her and she ends up in the home of Willow Ufgood, a short (even for a Nelwyn) farmer who dreams of becoming a great sorcerer. But the village is attacked by one of the queen's hounds, and the village council decides that Willow has to bring the baby girl back to the land of the Daikini (Big Men).
And so the fates of all peoples are in the hands of Willow. Reluctantly he sets off to find a Daikini who can take care of the baby. Will he be able to protect her until he finds a safe place for her? Or will the evil queen Bavmorda find them and put an end to hope?
This is a true old-fashioned fantasy adventure. There are humans, dwarves - and even smaller people - as well as fairies, heroes, bad guys (and gals), talking animals, lots of humour and a touch of romance. The movie is quite long - almost 2 hours - but it's fast paced and really funny. Even though it's pretty dark at times I was laughing so hard at all the humorous details! Gotta love Franjean and Rool… They're Brownies, by the way. Yeah, I was dying for a chocolate brownie when they kept repeating that word…
I highly recommend this movie. It feels different from modern-day high-tech movies, but that's one of the things I like about it! And the music, oh, it's great! I'm giving the movie 3.5 stars out of 5 (which is a lot of stars coming from me). Make sure to watch it, if you can find it!
