Film

Willow

Name: Willow
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Action
Released: 1988
Cast: Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Patricia Hayes, Gavan O'Herlihy

Other titles called Willow: the 2022 series (Disney+).

Willow is George Lucas's attempt to build a Tolkien-sized fairy tale on a Star Wars budget, and it mostly works. Warwick Davis's reluctant farmer-sorcerer and Val Kilmer's swaggering rogue drag a magical baby across a world of trolls, sorceresses and two-headed dragons. It's earnest, a little clunky, and utterly sincere — comfort-food fantasy for anyone who grew up loving practical effects and quests with a clear moral shape.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love old-fashioned quest fantasy with rough edges, practical creature effects, and a scruffy hero who grows into the job, the way the best 1980s adventures did.

Skip it if you want a sleek modern blockbuster; its effects, pacing and rhythms belong to an earlier era, and its humour leans broad at times.

What it asks of you: Roughly two hours of episodic travel and swordplay, with a steady rhythm and a lot of goodwill, asking you to accept its storybook tone rather than hunt for grit.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Princess Bride1987

Same sincere, swashbuckling fairy-tale energy but sharper and funnier — sword fights, true love, and dialogue that's been quoted for decades. If Willow's earnestness charmed you, this perfects it.

But It's more romance-and-banter than epic quest; if you wanted scale and sorcery, this stays small and talky by comparison.

The Dark Crystal1982

Jim Henson's puppet-built world is the same era of hand-made fantasy craft as Willow's creature effects, but pushed into something stranger and darker. Gorgeous, unsettling, entirely sincere.

But No wisecracking human hero to hang onto — it's all puppets, slower pacing, and a genuinely eerie tone that can feel cold rather than fun.

Stardust2007

A modern love letter to exactly this kind of old-school fantasy adventure — witches, swordsmen, a farm boy on a quest — done with wit and a terrific ensemble cast having a great time.

But It leans harder into romantic comedy and self-aware humour, which softens the earnestness that makes Willow's quest feel so straight-faced.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Willow

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Hidden Fortress1958

Lucas has said outright that Kurosawa's structure — low-status characters shepherding royalty through danger — shaped both Willow and his whole career; this is the film that taught him the trick.

Kurosawa's samurai epic about mismatched escorts smuggling a hidden princess across enemy territory is the actual blueprint Lucas used — for this and for Star Wars. Watching it after Willow feels like finding the source code.

But Black-and-white, subtitled, and told with the patient rhythm of 1950s Japanese cinema — no magic, no monsters, just tension, terrain, and two bickering peasants.