“Willow” may well be one of those bloated-budget 1980s fantasy films that addicted Hollywood to mega- spending and special effects, but watching it again with children will make you appreciate the George Lucas frame of mind.
Lucas was rich, full of ideas and surrounded by people who wrote $10 million checks before breakfast. Why not blow the budget on costumes and elaborate backgrounds and fantasy worlds full of swordplay? If the adults kept handing him the tools of filmmaking joy, who was Lucas to refuse?
“Willow” is uneven to the more discriminating viewer, but children react powerfully to the little people who are the main characters, and the mythological quest to save a special baby.
An evil queen at the opening of “Willow” hears a prophesy that a child will bring down her wicked dreams, so she has all the pregnant women of her realm imprisoned. But protecters save the baby in question and send her downstream to be discovered by a peaceful race of dwarf-size Nelwyns.
That’s when we meet the dynamic actor Warwick Davis, who first won Lucas’s favor playing a key Ewok in “Return of the Jedi.” Davis projects natural love and believable crankiness as Willow Ufgood, the chosen yet reluctant guardian of the precious baby.
From there, it’s terrifying wild boars, desolate crossroads with desperate swordsmen (Val Kilmer, of all people), and a convoluted cast of fairies, brownies and imps. Lucas’ vision, as always, is so rich that there’s always something or someone in the background to capture a parent’s wandering eye.
“WILLOW”
Rated: PG, with some darker moods of threats, curses, spells and attacks.
Best suited for: Children ages 6 to 9, and all fans of the George Lucas fantasy world.
