Director Ron Howard’s collaboration with George Lucas in 1988 conjured a swords-and-sorcery epic that finally debuts in ultra-high definition and sheathed in metal, no less, in Willow: Collectible SteelBook Edition (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, rated PG, 2.39:1 aspect ratio, 126 minutes, $65.99).
The dark fantasy explores the birth of a girl in the realm of Nockmaar that will bring about the downfall of powerful Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh).
In the finest traditions of the “Ten Commandments” and “The Lord of the Rings,” the special baby girl, with help from a midwife escapes the queen’s minions and floats down a river to land in a village of hobbits, er dwarves.
The family of aspiring sorcerer Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis) takes her in, and the patriarch is reticent to adopt her. After an attack by Nockmaar hounds, the village council demands Willow return the child to the “tall” people.
Willow accepts the mission and through a journey where the baby is stolen, recovered, lost and eventually kidnapped and delivered to the queen, the pint-sized hero is joined by mercenary Madmartigan (Val Kilmer), a pair of annoying brownies (Rick Overton and a totally miscast Kevin Pollack) and even the queen’s daughter Sorsha (Joanne Whalley) to rescue the child.
The supposed family friendly film takes some violent miscues such as a bizarre moment with a two-headed, fire-breathing monster munching on trolls and soldiers, warriors turning into pigs and a ghoulish sequence of the queen disintegrating, making it not much of an adventure for sensitive children.
What’s worth noting is the real star of the film is the baby that offers the perfect facial expressions throughout and guaranteed to make viewers smile.
Considering its legacy, “Willow” does not bode well when compared to classics such as “Time Bandits,” “Legend,” “Labyrinth” and “The Princess Bride,” but some groundbreaking special effects and odd adventure sequences still makes it a nostalgic evening of entertainment for fans.
4K in action: The 2160p upgrade often shines when examining the forested outdoor locations and inner levels of the queen’s throne room.
As expected from the movie genre, period costuming also gets a new level of rich color and detail as witnessed by Willow’s stitched shirt, a military commander’s elaborate skull helmet and the queen’s mummified style underlay, robes and headdress.
Moments within the realm to appreciate include the “fellowship” walking past a blue-toned mountain range; a crevassed tree line near barren crossroads; a multistory waterfall; Willow and Madmartigan on a high-speed sled ride down a blinding white snow-covered mountain.
Unfortunately, the UHD enhancements also highlight some dated special effects especially when watching the miniature brownies that look like they were placed in scenes using 1950s optics technology. Their presence on screen is to the point of distracting when they try to interact within the other actors’ real environments.
What does hold up is the groundbreaking computer transformation of a goat into an elder female sorceress, an effect that would be used in many subsequent Industrial Light and Magic-fueled films.
Also worth noting is that the included Blu-ray version of the film offers a much more satisfactory visual presentation, maybe not as crisply detailed but more warm colors and just enough softer focus to forgive the special effects and capture the original theatrical release experience.
Best extras: The digital goodies are all found on the included Blu-ray version of the movie that mostly duplicates the high definition release from 2019.
The highlight by far is a vintage optional commentary track (traced back to a DVD release in 2001) with the personable and omniscient Mr. Davis who has tons of nostalgia nuggets to impart when discussing his first starring role (that did not require wearing a mask).
He often comments on the scene action and goes on tangents talking about the lengthy audition process for the 17-year-old at the behest of Mr. Howard, his first meeting with Mr. Kilmer, mastering his mid-Atlantic accent and working with legend Billy Barty.
Mr. Davis then tackles topics such as casting, learning tricks from a professional magician, the art of using matte paintings, the various locations, character effects and working with the director.
He shares a few of the many production nuggets about a film that boasted the largest gathering of “little people” in the history of cinema.
The Elwin dwarves were supposed to have extra-long earlobes but that would have required 200 to 300 actors needing new earlobes.
Also, food syrup was used to attach a wig to a baby’s head; 13 different languages were spoken on the set; actor Pat Roach, who played high commander Kael, started as a wrestler (and fought Indiana Jones near a spinning Nazi plane in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”); and the name of Fairy Queen Cherlindrea was composed of Cheryl (the name of Ron Howard’s wife), Linda (Linda Ronstadt) and Andrea (the first name of the wife of scriptwriter Don Dolman).
A collection of legacy featurettes follows, led by a nine-minute vintage segment focused on the groundbreaking computer effects used on Raziel’s transformation as introduced by George Lucas and explained by ILM visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren with sample footage examples.
Another vintage featurette reintroduced in 2019 by Mr. Muren goes into even greater detail with 17 minutes on the morphing process explained by many of the artists that mixed practical and computer effects with help from software that took four months to create.
Next, Mr. Davis offer a 11-minute overview of his personal diary of the film with footage captured with his new video camera at the time, bought from his pay playing the Ewok Wicket from “Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi.”
Finally, 12 minutes of deleted screens are explained by Mr. Howard who also introduces the premise of the film and provides context to the excised footage, including cutting a battle between a fishman and Willow.
An elegant SteelBook case rounds out the collectible edition featuring a muted-color collage illustration of the main characters running down the center of the front and back cover, set in front of a burnt brown and maroon backdrop.
Open the case of the two disc set to find a photo spread across the interior with the dwarves, including Willow, on the left side of the case walking down a plush green hillside set against a panoramic view of the mountainous and forested Nockmaar realm.
• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.
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