In the 80’s there were a few great fantasy movies. Krull, Princess Bride, Labyrinth, Legend….ok ok there were more than a few. But none in my book had the effect on me more than Willow. The George Lucas created, Ron Howard directed masterpiece is a film that I can remember watching over and over again, and a movie that I will enjoy for years to come. With the upcoming release of the 25th anniversary edition for the first time EVER on Blu-ray I thought that I would take a wee bit and reflect on the film.
Willow follows the story of young Willow Ufgood, a struggling wizard wannabe, who one day discovers a lost baby in the forest. Little does he know that the baby, Elora, is really the baby of prophecy…the one who would one day destroy the evil sorceress Queen Bavmorda. You see once the Queen found out about this prophecy she hunted down all the pregnant women in the realm and had them locked away! The mother of Elora convinces her midwife to take Elora away to safety, unfortunately the hunting parties track the midwife down but she has just enough time to put the baby into a makeshift raft and send Elora down the river, where eventually she is discovered by Willow, thus the adventure begins!! I won’t spoil the rest of the story for any of you Towelites who haven’t had the pleasure of watching this classic, and I highly recommend you do!
Starring in this movie is Star Wars veteran Warwick Davis as Willow, and also a young Val Kilmer who plays the sword master, Madmartigan (still one of my favorite Kilmer roles of all time). Rounding out the cast is the beautiful Joann Whalley, who plays Sorsha, Queen Bavmorda’s daughter, who I had a huge crush on, oh those redheads! Also on the villain end are General Kael, played by Pat Roach, who to this day is one of the most bad-ass looking villains ever, and Queen Bavmorda played by Jean Marsh.
I am super-excited to see how the HD transfer ends up looking! It’s these kinds of films that I look forward to the most for the Blu-Ray transfer, and of course the additional extras. It’s like watching the movie all over again for the first time! Look for Willow to be released the in the first quarter of 2013! You can preorder it here on Amazon !
Stay tooned 😛
~CynicNerd
