Runtime: 126 minutes
Directed by: Ron Howard
Starring: Warwick Davis,
Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Jean Marsh
From: Lucasfilm and
Imagine Entertainment
This is a movie I had seen before-in fact, one time in a movie
theatre than a second time at a drive-in back in '88-but the last
viewing had to be on VHS, so I was a little peck and that was many, many
years ago. I remember liking it as a kid so it was a relief that I
still like the movie as an adult.
This is high fantasy set in a medieval world and the story is not revolutionary, but that is OK. The title character (part of a race of humans with dwarfism) has to protect a baby he found as in a prophecy it will bring down an evil queen, and various characters help him out, including a rogue badass not unlike Han Solo. I can't complain about this being a typical adventure story, as typical adventure stories have entertained people for literally thousands of years and this has such things as weird creatures, magic and sorcery.
It is easy to root for Willow and you hope that he gains more confidence and becomes better as a budding sorcerer. The rural locations in several countries made for a scenic bucolic world and James Horner contributed a nice score. There was more humor than I remembered but it usually wasn't grating or felt out of place. Very importantly for a movie with many practical effects, most of them still look good 31 years after the fact. This includes those transformation scenes, which were the moments I remembered the strongest for my youth, as for a seven year old they were “yikes!”... as an adult of course it is rather mild, although still creepy.
This is from both Ron Howard and George Lucas, before both made questionable decisions when it came to a few subsequent movies. As others have noted before, this has aged well because it is NOT sexist and actually treats its female characters well, and those with dwarfism are shown to be heroes and not child-like creatures which need help from average-sized adults to succeed.
This is high fantasy set in a medieval world and the story is not revolutionary, but that is OK. The title character (part of a race of humans with dwarfism) has to protect a baby he found as in a prophecy it will bring down an evil queen, and various characters help him out, including a rogue badass not unlike Han Solo. I can't complain about this being a typical adventure story, as typical adventure stories have entertained people for literally thousands of years and this has such things as weird creatures, magic and sorcery.
It is easy to root for Willow and you hope that he gains more confidence and becomes better as a budding sorcerer. The rural locations in several countries made for a scenic bucolic world and James Horner contributed a nice score. There was more humor than I remembered but it usually wasn't grating or felt out of place. Very importantly for a movie with many practical effects, most of them still look good 31 years after the fact. This includes those transformation scenes, which were the moments I remembered the strongest for my youth, as for a seven year old they were “yikes!”... as an adult of course it is rather mild, although still creepy.
This is from both Ron Howard and George Lucas, before both made questionable decisions when it came to a few subsequent movies. As others have noted before, this has aged well because it is NOT sexist and actually treats its female characters well, and those with dwarfism are shown to be heroes and not child-like creatures which need help from average-sized adults to succeed.
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