(To be fair, a lot of this is fleshed out in deleted scenes from the film, unfortunately not included on the DVD. Still, if we look just at the story as presented, Sorsha and the Sorsha/Madmartigan romance is pretty damned weak.)
(And also to be fair, there are some great lines between the two of them. If this had been a screwball romantic fantasy, it might have worked even better.)
The brownies (comedy duo Kevin Pollak and Rick Overton) are intermittently annoying and amusing. Most importantly, they don't add a single thing to the film or plot, for good and for ill.
Sorceress Fin Raziel (Patricia Hayes) spends most of the movie passing out tidbits of information and nattering at Willow about what a bad magician he is (since he keeps messing up her retransformation). Once in human form, she's much better, and her battle with Bavmorda is quite entertaining (even if she does fall for the Oldest Trick in the Book).
Bavmorda is nasty, evil, and was probably a delight to play.
The DVD, despite being a "Special Edition," doesn't offer that much extra, though what it has is good. A period mini-feature about the making of the movie is fine, a retrospective on the morphing sfx is interesting, and the audio commentary track by Warwick Davis is informative, chatty, and interesting. I'd have very much enjoyed hearing from either Ron Howard or George Lucas (or even Val Kilmer), but I suppose they both have much bigger fish to fry. And no deleted scenes (though a couple of glimpses of what was snipped can be caught in the featurette).
Nevertheless, Willow remains a charming, enjoyable, even lovable film, certainly suitable for the family (though little'uns might get more than a bit scared at Bavmorda's treatment of Elora Danan). Despite its flaws, it's still eminently watchable. Especially when you're stuck on the couch, sick, looking for something heartwarming and not too difficult to follow.
Article comments
1 - Robin Goodfellow
I like Willow. It's a rare specimen of legitimate Fantasy flick in the midst of hack and slash imitators. Most "Fantasy" films are little more than Action/Adventure boilerplate dressed up in ancient clothes and weapons with a patina of magic. Until recently, with Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings, there were few examples on screen of the sense of wonder, awe, and epic adventure available in Fantasy literature. Willow isn't for everybody, and it isn't very deep (very few films are though), but it fills its niche with a remarkable, and rare, skill. It is well recomended for anyone who enjoys Fantasy.