Willow News-EU, Sequels, everything

This is really their next best bet after Star Wars. Hope it happens. The book trilogy is quite incredible. I hope they use them as background material (the map, the histories, the mythology etc.) and create something new!

 

Blu-ray vs DVD comparison

 

I'm really excited. I love this filim. It's very Underrated.

 

Saw Willow when it first hit the theatre in Spring '88 - hard to believe it's been 25 years - amazing. Good, solid small fantasy film, and I especially enjoyed the scenery (IIRC, it was filmed at least partially in New Zealand?!) & the then-impressive effects. I've also seen it on DVD, and may check out the Blu-ray. However, I didn't think it was nearly as good as any of the LOTR films or even the first Hobbit film that came out late last year.

Re: the other Lflm. productions mentioned, More American Graffiti is alright - the triple?! screen format is interesting & was ahead of it's time in the late '70's, but can be disorienting. Still, it's worth seeing if you're a fan of the first film, as the movie explores what happened to the main (and even some minor) characters from AG; Harrison F. even has a cameo. Also, the film is an interesting portrait of the mid-late 1960's.

Liked RM & Tucker: A man and his dream. Didn't see either on their first release, but much later on DVD. Good movies, and highly underrated.

Never saw Howard the Duck when it first came out, due to the terrible reviews & reputation it got over the years. However, I did see it on DVD several years back, and actually enjoyed this! Very '80's, very cheesy & silly, but at the same time endearing. The attention paid to the details in Howard's room (in the beginning) & the look/design of the monster near the end were great, and the story was entertaining. IMHO the film got a bad rap when it was first released, which has never worn off....

 

The Howard the Duck special edition DVD is worth a buy, it's only $6.99 and has a lot of special features (well, "a lot" for a movie of Howard's caliber). Even if you pass on watching the movie, the features are more than entertaining.

Anyway, Willow arrived yesterday. Haven't watched it yet, but blu-ray.com gave it a good review. Picture quality looks fantastic! I'm glad it has a slip cover, just a shame that THX and American Graffiti blu-rays never got slip covers.

 

The picture quality is superb. The only thing I would do would be to adjust the brightness/contrast of the brownies when not in close ups. They stand out a bit.

 

I still need to see this.

 

^^Yes, yes you do. Willow is second only to The Princess Bride on my list of quotable movie lines. (See below). As an aside, I had the BIGGEST crush on Sorsha when this came out on the big screen.

 

Watched half the movie last night, forgot how great it was. Last time (and first time) I saw it was in 2003 when the DVD came out. The pacing is pretty solid, and I like the strange team-up of characters. Actually reminds me of a Miyazaki movie in that sense. Spirited Away had a strange group of heroes: a little girl, a lonely spirit, a giant baby who turned into a mouse, an old witch, a boy who can turn into a dragon.

 

More American Graffiti is available on Blu-ray.

Yancy

 

Got the new blu-ray today along with Labrinth on blu-ray. The new transfer is amazing! My LFL blu-ray library just got much better.

The extra features and overall layout of the menus and extra features on the blu-ray are outstanding as well.

Highly recommended.

 

Not in America, unfortunately. I'm sure I could import though, if its region free.

 

It's a classic.

 

One thing I really love about that movie is how well the effects hold up. This movie is comprised of practical effects that look great today. The best thing about practical versus CGI is practical ages better every time.

 

Eh, I wouldn't say that...the dogs with stuff strapped to them chasing small people around are very clearly dogs

 

They still hold up better than their CGI equivilant would.

 

How do we know how their CGI equivalent would look like? Who decides what holds better and what doesn't?

 

CGI rarely ages well even at its best. Good physical effects almost never age.

The battle of Endor still looks amazing while the battle of Coruscant already looks fake.

 

Willow and Warwick Davis fans should definitely check out the Life's Too Short special that aired a few days ago in the UK: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/201...davis-val-kilmer-ricky-gervais_n_2964715.html



The special, which follows a series of the same name (which IMO wasn't that great) surprisingly fixes just about every issue the series had and is a great hour long episode filled with Willow references. I won't spoil much, but Val Kilmer comes to Warwick with plans to make a Willow 2 with Ron and George. Willow 2 is pretty much the framing device, and there are a lot of funny scenes between Val and Warwick. The biggest visual laugh I got was from a presentation where Warwick shows off this awful Willow 2 poster made by Val Kilmer in photoshop.

 

There is lots of talk about Disney wanting and/or pushing for a female lead in the new Star Wars trilogy.

If Disney wants to pull in young girls and women with an action/adventure franchise, I think they might be best served reviving Willow. Its beloved movie that easily be remade or reimagined (Peter Dinklage as Willow?), have sequels that follow the original, be turned into a tv show etc... And the main character is/can/would be Elora Danan.

I can't believe a fantasy franchise staring a girl/young woman (They could even give her a bow) is something Disney wouldn't be interested in.

 

Willow has an EU too, like Star Wars.

In this case, a trilogy of novels, in which a teenaged Elora is the main character.

They're kind of grim - but I could see them, maybe with some modifications, making good movies- not ones aimed at kids though.

 

Three Into One: Now we have one Willow thread, instead of three.

 

Those novels were based on outlines by Lucas himself, curiously.

 

I don't know where you'd go with a sequel. The appeal of the original is the journey of this small, unlikely hero (a story that might not seem so fresh should they try to repeat it after 3 Lord of the Rings and 3 Hobbit films in the span of the last decade). If you focus on the Elora character as an adult, you might be able to fashion an interesting fantasy film around her story, but it's unlikely to feel anything like Willow. Probably closer to something like Snow White and the Huntsman.

 

Frankly, I would only be interested if they got James Horner back to do a follow-up music score. His score for Willow was all sorts of amazing.

And they can't do it without Burglekutt! The actor who played him has passed...
"Ufgood, you still haven't paid your debt to me! (Shakes fist) Where did you get these seeds?!"

And Billy Barty is sadly no more. :-(