Pint-Sized Hero Makes Good
Warwick Davis (Leprechaun, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) stars as Willow Ufgood, a diminutive Nelwyn farmer who desperately wants to be a magician. When his children discover a red-haired Daikini (read: "big" person) baby floating down the river, and her advent is quickly followed by a pack of demon dogs tearing through the Nelwyns' village, he finds himself the unlikely leader of a quest to return the baby — who is destined to defeat the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh) — to her kind. A few misadventures and a run-in with a beautiful forest sorceress later, Willow joins forces with rogue warrior Madmartigan (Val Kilmer), a pair of mischievous Brownies (Kevin Pollack, Rick Overton), and a powerful enchantress trapped in an animal's body (Patricia Hayes) to save baby Elora from Bavmorda's fierce daughter, Sorsha (Joanne Whalley) and take her to the castle where she will reign as princess.

Willow is crammed with battles, sweeping scenery, and special effects (which, although they're showing their age now, were pretty impressive for 1988), with a healthy dose of humor and romance thrown in for good measure. It's a mix that's fairly standard in fantasy films because it works: There's nothing like a wise-guy hero, a perilous quest, some dazzling swordplay, and a stolen kiss or two to engage an audience looking for an escape. Sure, Willow has its faults — the plot isn't all that hard to figure out in advance, and some of the dialogue sounds more like it comes from an episode of Friends than a sword-and-sorcery epic ("I don't know why I try," a put-upon Madmartigan moans while he's trapped in a cage) — but when push comes to shove, it's still an imaginative adventure.

The appealing, talented cast certainly helps a lot, too. Kilmer, whose long, dark locks bear a striking resemblance to Xena's mane, is a particular standout. He plays Madmartigan as a charming, womanizing rogue with a heart of gold; he's Han Solo with a broadsword instead of a blaster. Kilmer's rep these days is that he's a nightmare to work with, but he certainly seems game enough here, whether he's dressing in drag or shooting down a mountainside on a makeshift sled. It's his grin and good humor that make Davis' sometimes over-earnest Willow a little easier to bear, and it's his chiseled features that make the film's opposites-attract romantic subplot so much fun. Looking at Kilmer, who can blame Whalley for falling for him — on-screen and in real life? The couple married after meeting on the Willow set (they divorced in 1996), which explains why the tension between them is so believable. She's suitably grrl-powered-up as Sorsha, the woman warrior who finds herself torn between passion and daughterly duty. The rest of the supporting cast — from Billy Barty's turn as a wizened Nelwyn wizard to Pollack and Overton's over-the-top hamming as Brownies Rool and Franjean — turns in decent performances too; one of the few exceptions is the usually stellar Marsh, who chews more scenery than Faye Dunaway in Supergirl.

Making Movie History
Plot and characters aside, Willow may be most significant for the special effects techniques it helped introduce. For example, when Willow transforms Hayes' Fin Raziel from bird to woman, she melts into and out of a lot of steps in-between: tiger, ostrich, goat, etc. As you'll discover when you delve into the new 17-minute "From Morf to Morphing" featurette on Fox/Lucasfilm's special edition DVD, Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic team had to come up with brand-new computer tools to make that scene (and others like it) work. Those innovations led to ILM's groundbreaking effects work in The Abyss and Terminator 2 — not bad for a little Nelwyn.

That's just one of many interesting behind-the-scenes anecdotes and tidbits filed under "special features" on the Willow disc. In his chatty, engaging audio commentary, Davis — who was only 17 when Willow started filming — offers all kinds of insider's stories and reminisces; among them: John Cusack auditioned for the Madmartigan role, the Nelwyns originally had extra-long earlobes (a concept that was scrapped after someone realized they'd have to make 600 pairs for the village scenes), and Elora's curly red wig was attached with food syrup. Davis, who refers to himself and the other folks who played Nelwyns as "short actors," is warm and witty (at one point he quips, "It's funny to think that [the babies who played Elora] are now both 14 years old and bigger than me. Actually, who isn't?"), and his commentary is a nice, gossipy listen.

Other extras include "Willow: The Making of an Adventure," a fairly detailed 21-minute documentary from 1988 that includes interviews with Lucas and a much younger-looking Howard; eight TV spots; three trailers; and a photo gallery with some good behind-the-scenes shots. The letterboxed widescreen transfer is great; it's crisp and clear, and the special effects don't look too obvious. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is quite good, too (all the better to hear James Horner's sweeping score); other audio options include English 2.0 and Spanish 2.0 tracks and English subtitles. Willow may not be Star Wars or Indiana Jones, but it still holds up well, and it's nice to see it making such a nice DVD debut.