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Willow
Sign in to save1988 film directed by Ron Howard
OverviewAI-generated
Willow is a 1988 fantasy film directed by Ron Howard and written by Bob Dolman and George Lucas. The production was produced by George Lucas and Joe Johnston, with James Horner serving as composer. The cast includes Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, and Jean Marsh. Adrian Biddle was the director of photography, and Daniel P. Hanley edited the film. It was produced by Lucasfilm and Imagine Entertainment, originating from the United Kingdom and the United States.
The film has a runtime of 126 minutes and was released on May 20, 1988. It was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is available on platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, and Disney+. The movie received a PG rating. Financially, it had a budget of 35,000,000 and generated revenue of 57,300,000.
Critical reception included a Metascore of 47 and a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 52%. On IMDb, it holds a rating of 7.2 based on 138,369 votes. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects, as well as Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Supporting Actor and Worst Screenplay. It has been noted in connection with the Bechdel test.
Synthesized by Vinony from 51 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, OMDb, Firecrawl, IMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.0The evil Queen Bavmorda hunts the newborn princess Elora Danan, a child prophesied to bring about her downfall. When the royal infant is found by Willow, a timid farmer and aspiring sorcerer, he's entrusted with delivering her from evil.
Cast
- Warwick Davis as Willow
- Val Kilmer as Madmartigan
- Joanne Whalley as Sorsha
- Patricia Hayes as Raziel
- Gavan O'Herlihy as Airk
- Phil Fondacaro as Vohnkar
Themes
- mission
- hero
- baby
- monster
- magic
- prophecy
- falsely accused
- traitor
- queen
- castle
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Ratings
IMDb
7.2/10
137,248 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
52%
Metacritic
47/100
- Year
- 1988
- Runtime
- 126 min
- Genres
- Action, Adventure, Drama
- Rated
- PG
- Awards
- Nominated for 2 Oscars. 1 win & 13 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Ron Howard
- Screenplay by
- Bob Dolman
- Story by
- George Lucas
- Produced by
- Nigel Wooll
- Starring
- Val Kilmer Joanne Whalley Warwick Davis Billy Barty Jean Marsh
- Cinematography
- Adrian Biddle
- Edited by
- Daniel P. Hanley Mike Hill Richard Hiscott
- Music by
- James Horner
- Production companies
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Lucasfilm Ltd. Imagine Entertainment
- Distributed by
- MGM/UA Distribution Co.
- Release date
- May 20, 1988 ( 1988-05-20 ) (United States)
- Running time
- 126 minutes
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $35 million
- Box office
- $137.6 million
via Wikipedia infobox
Official website
Willow | Lucasfilm.com
Willow was a story created and produced by George Lucas and directed by the celebrated filmmaker Ron Howard. With actor Warwick Davis in his first leading role, the film featured pioneering use of digital technology by Industrial Light & Magic and remains a classic of fantasy cinema to this day. Available on Disney+.
lucasfilm.com →Link to the official site · 5,970 chars · not written by Vinony
~27 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Willow is a 1988 American high fantasy adventure film directed by Ron Howard and produced by Nigel Wooll. The film was executive produced by George Lucas and written by Bob Dolman from a story by Lucas. The film stars Warwick Davis as the title character, Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Billy Barty and Jean Marsh. Davis portrays aspiring magician Willow Ufgood who teams up with disaffected warrior Madmartigan (Kilmer) to protect young baby princess Elora Danan from evil queen Bavmorda (Marsh).
Lucas conceived the idea for the film in 1972, approaching Howard to direct during the post-production phase of Cocoon in 1985. Bob Dolman was brought in to write the screenplay, coming up with seven drafts that Lucas was actively involved in developing. It was finished in late 1986. It was then set up at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and principal photography began in April 1987, finishing the following October. The majority of filming took place in Dinorwic quarry in Wales with some at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, as well as a small section in New Zealand. Industrial Light & Magic created the visual effects and animation sequences, which led to a revolutionary breakthrough with digital morphing technology.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Willow” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.