name | Willow |
---|---|
border | yes |
alt | Poster shows the heads of film's three main characters, a man, a woman, and a boy. The film's title is below. |
director | Ron Howard |
producer | George LucasJoe JohnstonNigel Wooll |
screenplay | Bob Dolman |
story | George Lucas |
starring | Warwick DavisVal KilmerJoanne WhalleyJean MarshPatricia HayesBilly BartyPat Roach |
music | James Horner |
cinematography | Adrian Biddle |
editing | Daniel P. HanleyMike HillRichard Hiscott |
studio | LucasfilmImagine Entertainment |
distributor | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
released | |
runtime | 126 minutes |
country | |
language | English |
budget | $35-50 million |
gross | $57,269,863 (USA) }} |
Lucas conceived the idea for ''Willow'' in 1972, approaching Howard to direct during the post-production phase of ''Cocoon'' in 1985. Lucas believed he and Howard shared a relationship similar to the one Lucas enjoyed with Steven Spielberg. Bob Dolman was brought in to write the screenplay, coming up with seven drafts before finishing in late 1986. ''Willow'' was then set up at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and principal photography began in April 1987, finishing the following October.
The majority of filming took place at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England, as well as Wales and New Zealand. Industrial Light & Magic created the visual effects sequences, which led to a revolutionary breakthrough with digital morphing technology. ''Willow'' was released in May 1988 to mixed reviews from critics, but was a modest financial success and received two Academy Award nominations.
However, before the black sorceress has a chance to kill the infant via a nefarious ritual, the midwife escapes with the baby. Bavmorda sends her daughter Sorsha (Joanne Whalley) and General Kael (Pat Roach), the leader of her army, after them to retrieve Elora. She then orders for the child's mother to be killed. After a long pursuit, the Nockmaar hounds catch up with the midwife. Knowing she can't escape, she puts the baby on a raft and sends it downstream, trusting fate to run its course. The midwife is killed by the hounds shortly after. The child washes up on shore near a village inhabited by a race of dwarf-like people called Nelwyns, derisively called "Pecks" by humans, and is found by the children of Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis), a farmer and amateur conjurer (though he has actual, if latent, magical talent). Willow is at first loath to take in the child, but eventually he comes to care for it. The most famous baby in Willow was Andrew Robson but four babies played the part.
The next day, however, a Nockmaar hound tracking the baby attacks the village. Once the cause of the attack is found, Willow is chosen by the town council to return the child to the world of the "large people," or Daikini (humans). The first Daikini Willow comes upon is a boasting warrior named Madmartigan (Val Kilmer), being held captive in a crow's cage by the side of the road for an unspecified crime, who offers to take care of the baby. During their interaction, they meet the retreating army of the kingdom of Galladoorn, which was recently destroyed by Bavmorda, under the leadership of Madmartigan's old friend Airk Thaughbaer, an officer in the army. With no alternative, Willow entrusts the baby to Madmartigan, but on his way home, Willow is attacked by a clan of Brownies, who stole the baby from Madmartigan. Willow is then told by the Brownie fairy queen of the forest, Cherlindrea, that the baby, Elora Danan, has chosen Willow to be her guardian. She gives Willow a magic wand and commissions him to find the sorceress Fin Raziel, with two of her brownies, Franjean and Rool, acting as his guides. Along the way, they bump into Madmartigan, who helps them escape from Sorsha.
Willow and the rest of the group finally meet Fin Raziel (Patricia Hayes), only to find that the sorceress has been turned into a possum by Bavmorda. Soon afterwards Sorsha captures Willow and the others, and they start the long trek to Nockmaar castle. In a mountain camp, Willow attempts to use magic to turn Fin Raziel back into her human form, but transforms her into a raven instead. Franjean and Rool cause further mayhem when they accidentally expose Madmartigan to a fairy love dust they are carrying, which makes him become infatuated with Sorsha, but eventually they manage to escape.
The group eventually finds the castle of Tir Asleen, which has been put under Bavmorda's spell; all its inhabitants are frozen in ice. Madmartigan, refusing to give up hope, prepares for Sorsha's attack while Willow once again fails transforming Raziel into human form, this time turning her into a goat. Sorsha, Kael and their army arrive and give battle. Willow also has to handle a few trolls, and after a botched magic spell, even transforms one into a horrific two-headed dragon. Luckily, the remnants of the Army of Galladoorn arrive just in time to relieve the friends. A battle ensues, and Sorsha finally discovers her love for Madmartigan. Kael, however, captures Elora and takes her to Nockmaar.
Willow, Madmartigan, Sorsha, the Brownies, Fin Raziel, and Airk's army set up camp at Nockmaar, preparing to storm the castle in a final attempt to rescue Elora. Bavmorda turns all the soldiers into pigs, but Raziel quickly teaches Willow how to protect himself from the spell. Willow finally returns Raziel to human form, and the sorceress is able to transform the soldiers back to their true forms as well. But since Nockmaar seems impenetrable, all despair until Willow proposes an ingenious trick which gets them inside the walls. Thus begins the battle of Nockmaar, in which Kael kills Airk and is in turn killed by Madmartigan, and Willow manages to save Elora at the last moment from Bavmorda's murderous ritual, whose victim the evil queen herself becomes, with one of his sleight-of-hand tricks. Willow leaves the baby in caring arms of Madmartigan and Sorsha and returns to his Nelwyn village and his beloved family with a special reward: a spellbook from Raziel, which helps him develop his own magical abilities.
Lucas explained that he had to wait until the mid-1980s to make ''Willow'' because visual effects technology was finally advanced enough to execute his vision. Meanwhile, actor-turned-director Ron Howard was looking to do a fantasy film. Howard was at Industrial Light & Magic during the post-production phase of ''Cocoon'', when he was first approached by Lucas to direct ''Willow''. Howard had previously starred in Lucas' ''American Graffiti'', and Lucas felt that he and Howard shared a simpatico relationship similar to the one Lucas enjoyed with Steven Spielberg. Howard nominated Bob Dolman to write the screenplay based on Lucas' story. Dolman worked with Howard on an unsold television pilot called ''Little Shots'', and Lucas admired Dolman's work on the sitcom ''WKRP in Cincinnati''.
Dolman joined Howard and Lucas at Skywalker Ranch for a series of lengthy story conferences, and wrote seven drafts of his script between the spring and fall of 1986. Pre-production began in late-1986. Various major film studios turned down the chance to distribute and co-finance ''Willow'' with Lucasfilm because they believed the fantasy genre was unsuccessful. This was largely due to films such as ''Krull'', ''Legend'', ''Dragonslayer'' and ''Labyrinth''. Lucas took ''Willow'' to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which was headed by Alan Ladd, Jr. Ladd and Lucas shared a relationship as far back as the mid-1970s, when Ladd, running 20th Century Fox, greenlighted Lucas' idea for ''Star Wars''. However, in 1986, MGM was facing financial troubles and its major investment of a fantasy film was perceived as a risk. Ladd advanced half the $36,000,000 budget for ''Willow'' in return for theatrical and television rights, leaving Lucasfilm with home video and pay television rights to offer in exchange for the other half.
Lucas based the character of General Kael (Pat Roach) on the famous film critic Pauline Kael. On a similar route, the two-headed dragon was named "Eborsisk" after film critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel.
Muren found both stop motion and optical effects to be too technically challenging and decided that the transformation scene would be a perfect opportunity for ILM to create advances with digital morphing technology. Muren proposed filming each animal, and the actress doubling for Patricia Hayes, and then feeding the images into a computer program developed by Doug Smythe (''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'', ''Iron Man''). The program would then create a smooth transition from one stage to another before outputting the result back onto film. Smythe began development of the necessary software in September 1987. By March 1988, the impressive result Muren and fellow designer David Allen (''Young Sherlock Holmes'', ''Ghostbusters II'') achieved what would represent a breakthrough for computer-generated imagery (CGI).
name | Willow |
---|---|
type | soundtrack |
artist | James Horner |
released | 1988 |
genre | Film music |
length | 69:23 |
label | Virgin |
producer | James Horner, Shawn Murphy }} |
;Track listing # "Elora Danan" – 9:45 # "Escape from the Tavern" – 5:04 # "Willow's Journey Begins" – 5:26 # "Canyon of Mazes" – 7:52 # "Tir Asleen" – 10:47 # "Willow's Theme" – 3:54 # "Bavmorda's Spell is Cast" – 18:11 # "Willow the Sorcerer" – 11:55
Roger Ebert admitted he thought ''Willow'' was entertaining, but nonetheless gave a largely negative review. Ebert wrote that the film is "too dark for children" and that he was "largely disappointed" with the story structure. Richard Corliss of ''Time'' magazine believed the sword and sorcery themes presented in ''Willow'' were overtly clichéd. Janet Maslin from ''The New York Times'' praised Lucas' storytelling, but was critical of Ron Howard's direction. "Howard appears to have had his hands full in simply harnessing the special effects," Maslin said.
Desson Thomson, writing in ''The Washington Post'', explained "Rob Reiner's similar fairytale adventure ''The Princess Bride'' (which ''Willow'' cinematographer Adrian Biddle also shot) managed to evoke volumes more without razzle-dazzle. It's a sad thing to be faulting Lucas, maker of the ''Star Wars'' trilogy and ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'', for forgetting the tricks of entertainment." Mike Clark in ''USA Today'' wrote that "the rainstorm wrap-up, in which Good edges Evil is like ''Led Zeppelin Meets The Wild Bunch''. ''Willow'' is probably too much for young children and possibly too much of the same for cynics. But any 6–13-year-old who sees this may be bitten by the "movie bug" for life."
Category:1988 films Category:1988 soundtracks Category:Virgin Records soundtracks Category:James Horner albums Category:American films Category:English-language films Category:American fantasy films Category:Fantasy adventure films Category:Fantasy-comedy films Category:Films directed by Ron Howard Category:Imagine Entertainment films Category:Lucasfilm films Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Category:Shapeshifting in fiction Category:Stop-motion animated films Category:Sword and sorcery films Category:Film soundtracks
bg:Уилоу (филм) cy:Willow (ffilm) de:Willow es:Willow (película) fr:Willow (film) gl:Willow it:Willow (film) lt:Vilou nl:Willow (film) ja:ウィロー nds:Willow pl:Willow (film) pt:Willow ru:Уиллоу fi:Willow – suuri seikkailu sv:Willow (film)This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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