Willow
Director: Ron Howard
Cast: Kate Greenfield, Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Julie Peters, Jean Marsh, Kevin Pollack, Maria Holvoe, Patricia Hayes, Billy Barty, Pat Roach, Gavin O’Herlihy, Sallyanne Law, Rick Overton, Mark Northover, Phil Fondacaro, Jennifer Guy, Zulema Dene, Ron Tarr, David J. Steinberg,
Journey to the far corners of your imagination, to a land of myth and magic, where dream and reality live side by side ... to a place that never existed, a time that never was. It is a world where a young Nelwyn named Willow (Warwick Davis) lives out an adventure that explodes beyond the boundaries of his own hopes and fears when he is chosen to undertake a perilous journey in order to protect a special baby named Elora Dannan (Kate Greenfield) from the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh) and bring the young princess to her to a new home, where she can reign as the new Queen.
There is a powerful connection between Elora Dannan, the princess who was foretold to bring about the downfall of the evil Queen Bavmorda, and reign in her stead as the true and rightful Queen to the kingdom of Tir Asleen, and her protectors who each play their role in helping Elora to fulfill this prophecy.
Elora’s mother, and her nurse, Ethna, each gave their lives to protect the child. Elora’s mother pleaded with her nurse to protect her precious daughter before the Queen comes to kill her and Ethna bravely takes the baby and flees the castle, with the baby, right under Bavmorda’s nose, while the weeping mother pretends to hide the baby in her blanket. From how much we see the baby’s appearance change during the time she was with Nurse Ethna in the wilderness, the clever nursemaid had apparently eluded the hunters for quite a long time, before they finally caught up to her, and in the end, rather than surrendering the baby to them, brave Ethna used her last moments wisely, to secret the baby down the river in a raft and sacrifice her own life to protect the child and give her time to get away, while the dogs are attacking her guardian. She died a hero because her courage saved Elora’s life.
When Willow and Elora meet for the first time, when his children find Elora by the river, he wants absolutely nothing to do with this child. His first solution is to push the baby down the river, and forget they ever saw her. Even when his beautiful wife, Kiaya, brings the child into their home, ignoring Willow’s protests, Willow is still resisting the child’s adorable charm that has left his family entranced with her. He cannot even look at her, at first, when Kiaya asks Willow to hold the baby while she prepares a bottle. It is only when he is holding Elora himself, and she smiles at him, and they make their first true connection, that we see this attitude change. We see this again when the High Aldwin asks Willow if he has any love for this child, to want to help her, considering the other option for Elora is certain death. This time, Willow confesses his love for Elora and agrees to take her on this quest to protect her from the hunters. Although Willow tries to impress the High Aldwin with his magic, he fails to correctly guess the answer to the High Aldwin’s question…but when Willow later tells the wizened Nelwyn his first instinct, the High Aldwin tells him that his instinct was correct, and while Willow has the potential to become a great sorcerer, that he lacks faith in himself, and he is not ready yet to fulfill his ambition. That is why the wand never did the spell properly when he was trying to transform Raziel. The wand kept transforming her unto other animals before her human form was restored… he still lacked faith in himself. I think it is in this moment, when Willow used HIS OWN magic to save Elora during the ritual and save her soul from being banished...when he uses the disappearing pig trick...rather than any of the new magic he had learned with Raziel...and he trusted his own magic, and believed in himself, that he truly becomes the great sorcerer that the High Aldwin believed him to be.
Madmartigan's journey to truly becoming a great warrior is shown as the story unfolds. At first, he wanted absolutely nothing to do with Willow. He was not a great warrior when he was in the cage. When he asks Arik to set him free and give him a sword and let him win the war for them, Arik laughs scornfully and leaves his friend in the cage. This symbolically represents where he is as a character... he is not worthy of being called a great warrior yet. It is Elora Dannan, herself, who is the catalyst who helped a coward transform into a noble warrior. Initially, his motive for adopting Elora as his daughter was merely a pawn to free him from the cage. He was trading with the Nelwyns, who were desperate to get home, and he used their problem to his advantage to gain his freedom. I notice though, that when Elora is stolen from him, by the Brownies, and returned to his arms again, completely on accident, that he doesn’t just drop Elora on a table and abandon her, nor does he allow Sorcha to see the baby’s arm (because, having met Willow prior to this, he knows that Elora is the baby that they are searching for), and he doesn’t allow them to take her away. Instead, he takes the baby from Willow, knowing Willow will follow Elora, and escapes with them, and his desperate race on the wagon, was Madmartigan doing his best to escape from the soldiers who were hunting Elora. That is why he ignored Willow’s orders for them to stop… He knew they would be pursued by Sorcha and the soldiers, and he did not want Elora to be captured by them and taken for this sacrifice. He allowed Willow to follow him to the lake to find the Sorcerer Fyn Raziel. When he sees Elora again, she is in Sorcha’s tent, and both she and the warrior princess were asleep and Madmartigan goes in to retrieve the baby, under the influence of a love potion…but I notice, even under its influence, although he is initially drawn to Sorcha when he sees her asleep in her tent, and he even shared a moment of twitterpated love and a passionate kiss with her, when it came down to choosing between staying with Sorcha, or going with Willow, he chose to go with Willow and protect Princess Elora from their enemy, rather than staying with beautiful Princess Sorcha. The love potion only wore off after he rolled down the mountain in the snow. Which meant his love for Elora was stronger than his love for Sorcha because he chose her first, both times, under a love spell. In the end, when they have been defeated by Queen Bavmorda’s army and General Kale has taken Elora Dannon, Madmartigan and Sorcha find Willow, broken and defeated on the drawbridge, weeping because the enemy took Elora. This time…it is Madmartigan who asks Willow if he is able to ride, so they can go and rescue their entrusted daughter from her grim fate with the evil Queen Bavmorda. This gives Willow the courage he needs to keep fighting for Elora. They both truly see Elora as his daughter now, and he becomes a great warrior, and Willow becomes a great sorcerer to protect their daughter from the monster that would see her obliviated from all existence. This is acknowledged by Airk when he and Madmartigan reunite at the moment of his death and he says, with deep respect, “Go win this war for me.” Echoing back to Madmartigan, the very phrase that he had mockingly laughed at during their last encounter. In the end, Madmartigan marries the beautiful Princess Sorcha, and they fulfill Cherlindrea’s prophecy by becoming the good King and Queen who will be Elora’s guardians.
© 2025 Keriane Kellogg. All rights reserved.
Director: Ron Howard
Cast: Kate Greenfield, Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Julie Peters, Jean Marsh, Kevin Pollack, Maria Holvoe, Patricia Hayes, Billy Barty, Pat Roach, Gavin O’Herlihy, Sallyanne Law, Rick Overton, Mark Northover, Phil Fondacaro, Jennifer Guy, Zulema Dene, Ron Tarr, David J. Steinberg,
Journey to the far corners of your imagination, to a land of myth and magic, where dream and reality live side by side ... to a place that never existed, a time that never was. It is a world where a young Nelwyn named Willow (Warwick Davis) lives out an adventure that explodes beyond the boundaries of his own hopes and fears when he is chosen to undertake a perilous journey in order to protect a special baby named Elora Dannan (Kate Greenfield) from the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh) and bring the young princess to her to a new home, where she can reign as the new Queen.
There is a powerful connection between Elora Dannan, the princess who was foretold to bring about the downfall of the evil Queen Bavmorda, and reign in her stead as the true and rightful Queen to the kingdom of Tir Asleen, and her protectors who each play their role in helping Elora to fulfill this prophecy.
Elora’s mother, and her nurse, Ethna, each gave their lives to protect the child. Elora’s mother pleaded with her nurse to protect her precious daughter before the Queen comes to kill her and Ethna bravely takes the baby and flees the castle, with the baby, right under Bavmorda’s nose, while the weeping mother pretends to hide the baby in her blanket. From how much we see the baby’s appearance change during the time she was with Nurse Ethna in the wilderness, the clever nursemaid had apparently eluded the hunters for quite a long time, before they finally caught up to her, and in the end, rather than surrendering the baby to them, brave Ethna used her last moments wisely, to secret the baby down the river in a raft and sacrifice her own life to protect the child and give her time to get away, while the dogs are attacking her guardian. She died a hero because her courage saved Elora’s life.
When Willow and Elora meet for the first time, when his children find Elora by the river, he wants absolutely nothing to do with this child. His first solution is to push the baby down the river, and forget they ever saw her. Even when his beautiful wife, Kiaya, brings the child into their home, ignoring Willow’s protests, Willow is still resisting the child’s adorable charm that has left his family entranced with her. He cannot even look at her, at first, when Kiaya asks Willow to hold the baby while she prepares a bottle. It is only when he is holding Elora himself, and she smiles at him, and they make their first true connection, that we see this attitude change. We see this again when the High Aldwin asks Willow if he has any love for this child, to want to help her, considering the other option for Elora is certain death. This time, Willow confesses his love for Elora and agrees to take her on this quest to protect her from the hunters. Although Willow tries to impress the High Aldwin with his magic, he fails to correctly guess the answer to the High Aldwin’s question…but when Willow later tells the wizened Nelwyn his first instinct, the High Aldwin tells him that his instinct was correct, and while Willow has the potential to become a great sorcerer, that he lacks faith in himself, and he is not ready yet to fulfill his ambition. That is why the wand never did the spell properly when he was trying to transform Raziel. The wand kept transforming her unto other animals before her human form was restored… he still lacked faith in himself. I think it is in this moment, when Willow used HIS OWN magic to save Elora during the ritual and save her soul from being banished...when he uses the disappearing pig trick...rather than any of the new magic he had learned with Raziel...and he trusted his own magic, and believed in himself, that he truly becomes the great sorcerer that the High Aldwin believed him to be.
Madmartigan's journey to truly becoming a great warrior is shown as the story unfolds. At first, he wanted absolutely nothing to do with Willow. He was not a great warrior when he was in the cage. When he asks Arik to set him free and give him a sword and let him win the war for them, Arik laughs scornfully and leaves his friend in the cage. This symbolically represents where he is as a character... he is not worthy of being called a great warrior yet. It is Elora Dannan, herself, who is the catalyst who helped a coward transform into a noble warrior. Initially, his motive for adopting Elora as his daughter was merely a pawn to free him from the cage. He was trading with the Nelwyns, who were desperate to get home, and he used their problem to his advantage to gain his freedom. I notice though, that when Elora is stolen from him, by the Brownies, and returned to his arms again, completely on accident, that he doesn’t just drop Elora on a table and abandon her, nor does he allow Sorcha to see the baby’s arm (because, having met Willow prior to this, he knows that Elora is the baby that they are searching for), and he doesn’t allow them to take her away. Instead, he takes the baby from Willow, knowing Willow will follow Elora, and escapes with them, and his desperate race on the wagon, was Madmartigan doing his best to escape from the soldiers who were hunting Elora. That is why he ignored Willow’s orders for them to stop… He knew they would be pursued by Sorcha and the soldiers, and he did not want Elora to be captured by them and taken for this sacrifice. He allowed Willow to follow him to the lake to find the Sorcerer Fyn Raziel. When he sees Elora again, she is in Sorcha’s tent, and both she and the warrior princess were asleep and Madmartigan goes in to retrieve the baby, under the influence of a love potion…but I notice, even under its influence, although he is initially drawn to Sorcha when he sees her asleep in her tent, and he even shared a moment of twitterpated love and a passionate kiss with her, when it came down to choosing between staying with Sorcha, or going with Willow, he chose to go with Willow and protect Princess Elora from their enemy, rather than staying with beautiful Princess Sorcha. The love potion only wore off after he rolled down the mountain in the snow. Which meant his love for Elora was stronger than his love for Sorcha because he chose her first, both times, under a love spell. In the end, when they have been defeated by Queen Bavmorda’s army and General Kale has taken Elora Dannon, Madmartigan and Sorcha find Willow, broken and defeated on the drawbridge, weeping because the enemy took Elora. This time…it is Madmartigan who asks Willow if he is able to ride, so they can go and rescue their entrusted daughter from her grim fate with the evil Queen Bavmorda. This gives Willow the courage he needs to keep fighting for Elora. They both truly see Elora as his daughter now, and he becomes a great warrior, and Willow becomes a great sorcerer to protect their daughter from the monster that would see her obliviated from all existence. This is acknowledged by Airk when he and Madmartigan reunite at the moment of his death and he says, with deep respect, “Go win this war for me.” Echoing back to Madmartigan, the very phrase that he had mockingly laughed at during their last encounter. In the end, Madmartigan marries the beautiful Princess Sorcha, and they fulfill Cherlindrea’s prophecy by becoming the good King and Queen who will be Elora’s guardians.
© 2025 Keriane Kellogg. All rights reserved.