Sci-Fi Fantasy Week: Willow

Welcome back travelers of yore and we shall enjoy Day 5 of Sci-Fi Fantasy Week and we will look deeply into the story arc that brought us excitement and adventure with a compelling tale of good vs. evil no matter your height and made anyone with the last name of Peck a living hell on Earth.  So saddle your horses, sharpen your blades and may your deities look upon in favor.  This is Willow.

Hmm wonder if there will be another Leprechaun flick at the ready.

High Aldwin: Magic is the bloodstream of the universe. Forget all you know, or think you know.  All that you require is your spoiler.

Star Wars creator George Lucas and writer Bob Dolman (Little Shots, Cowboy Joe, Willow, Far and Away, The Banger Sisters and How to Eat Fried Worms) create a ingenious drama about a reluctant hero, a mere dwarven farmer named Willow (Warwick Davis of Return of the Jedi, The Princess and the Dwarf,   Leprechaun, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, The Unbroken and Doctor Who) with the dreams to be a wizard from a tiny village must journey on a perilous adventure for the sake of a child.  Willow’s species are known as Nelwyns or as the humans call them, pecks.   Yes imagine the joy that could bring.  I guess if you snare four of them you have a bushel.   Moving right along; our young farmer, husband and father of two leaves with 4 warriors and the council magistrate to find a Dakini(Human) to claim the child that brought terrible danger to their village.

Jim Morrison of the Dark Ages.

The village wizard informs the lot the child is prophesied to bring down the tyranny of the heartless Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh of Frenzy, The Changeling and Return to Oz) and they must be wary.    Our party encounters a boastful warrior trapped in a crow’s cage (an ancient hanging gallows that allow prisoners to die of thirst or asphyxiate being high up) calling himself Madmartigan (Val Kilmer of Top Gun, Tombstone, Batman Forever, Heat Kiss Kiss Bang Bang andPlanes) and he states he will watch the baby if they let him out of his cage.  

I tell ya Earl, Helm's Deep looks festive this time of year.

Being passed over by about 300 armored warriors the party feels they have no choice but to trust this man and hands the baby to him.  Moments after such the baby has been snatched by brownies (fairy folk) and Willow chases after them to be led to the fairy queen of the forest who speaks of the child as she will be a force for good in the lands but she has chosen Willow as her protector.   

Just a few notes to make about this film offhand.   Shot with Panavision anamorphic lens and followed up with Vista Vision (a process similar to 20^th Century Fox but allows a better widescreen system to shoot onto a larger area giving a finer print) giving a better print for 35mm.  Industrial Light and Magic managed the transition shots, scale model and stop animation creatures.

Don't get short with me mister!

The director of this particular sword and sorcery saga is none other than Ron Howard (Skyward, Night Shift, Splash, Cocoon, Parenthood and Backdraft) and given his area seems to be mostly romantic drama, coming of age and edgy drama this was a real stretch out of his comfort zone to provide the world with a truly clever film with some amusing dialogue and spellbinding creatures.  The classic struggle of righteous vs. nefarious was captured rather well and I would insist that Sci-Fi Fantasy fans give it a viewing.

Pan's Labyrinth...wow

Hello all… we are at the climax, the cusp of Guillermo del Toro week and what better film to end on then a tailored fairy tale.  So get comfy in your seats, grab a beverage and imagine.  This is Pan’s Labyrinth.

Spoilers can be magical…

Guillermo del Toro’s creation describes a fascist Spain of the year 1944.  The story is once again told through the eyes of a young child.  Ofelia (Ivan Baquero ofRomasanta: The Werewolf Hunt, The Anarchist’s Wife, The New Daughter and The Red Virgin) and her pregnant mother Carmen (Arianda Gil of The Age of Beauty, Nuts for Love and Soldiers of Salmina) must journey to the North and Carmen is wed to Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez of An Affair of Love, With a Friend Like Harry and Dirty Pretty Things), a ruthless dictator that delights himself with torturing rebels.   And you thought your step-dad was kooky.   Ofelia, her head in the cloud realms of dreams and myth does not want to take this monster of a man as her new father, her part-time nanny Mercedes (Maribel Verdu ofCanguros, Y Tu Mama Tambien, The Blind Sunflowers and The Red Virgin) tells Ofelia of a magical garden that she may explore to her heart’s content.   Ofelia roams the garden only to discover a massive maze, a labyrinth if you will and encounters Pan (del Toro regular Doug Jones of Hellboy, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, The Wager and Fallout: Nuka Break), a faun guarding the labyrinth.   He identifies Ofelia as the long last Princess Moanna and tells her of three sacred tasks she must perform before the next full moon to reign for all eternity in the Underworld.  With these tasks complete she will escape the holy hell that is her life.

Now while this sounds like your typical Disney movie tripe, let us be clear on our director.  With a man that combines macabre, humor, fantasy and harsh reality for his films, so we are in for a bumpy ride.   Ofelia is operating on her limited logic and emotional plight.  With her country struggling to rebuild and the post-war angst, to her mother suffering from a complicated pregnancy and her tyrant of a stepfather, it is not difficult to see why she would want to escape this madness in this realm, but what of the other?     I was asked recently if this is a family film and I have to be honest, I really do not know.  The film is terrifying in parts of the sheer brutality of humans tormenting one another; to the emotional rollercoaster of the world but any many ways for me I had the same response to the Devil’s Backbone too.   If anything it shows the audience that not all tales of history and fantasy are mad dash excitement and good triumphs over evil every time.  It gives perspective but at the same time it may fall under more enjoyment for the horror fans.  This film offers a dark gothic tale of cruelty in either realm of dream or consciousness so it is really up to the parents to show this one to the kiddies.   The visuals alone will blow you out of your seat.  Del Toro’s patented panoramic cinematography and melodious pacing of storytelling is what truly makes this mystifying and ominous tale the very life it needed.    Be warned Parental Units, this film has a whole lot of bleak.