Saturday, May 26, 2018

Willow - 30th Anniversary



On May 19, 1988, the movie Willow came out in theaters. Since this is one of my favorite movies, I wanted to do a post on this. My purpose here is not to talk about how the movie got made, but talk about my experiences with it, and also how it affected the industry as a whole. As well, I would like to talk about things that I would like to see from the 30th Anniversary.

The first time I discovered Willow was when I was 5 or 6 years old, I was living in Brampton Ontario, which is up in Canada. Me and my older sister were at home with a babysitter and he put that movie on, I did not watch it all at the time, but I remember coming in at certain parts throughout the movie and just being mesmerized at the parts I was seeing. Later on when I would go back and recheck it out, I was just blown away by this world that was presented, something about this world ignited my imagination to new territories. I discovered this movie before I discovered Star Wars. This movie throughout the early part of my childhood was not something I would watch every single night or anything like that, but it stood out to me on a consistent basis. Also, the movie featured the best demise for a villain ever.

When I learned about DVD, and that all my entire childhood that I was getting only half the picture when I was watching the movie on VHS, I began to wonder how much of the picture I was missing all the years I was watching it as a kid. Then in late 2001, Willow finally arrived on DVD and I got to experience Willow in a new way with the entire picture, I was so excited. I felt that I could experience Willow in the way it was meant to be seen, in 2.35 aspect ratio. Also with the DVD came a few extra features which allowed me to see some behind the scenes work. The biggest surprise was to learn that one of the visual effects was a groundbreaking achievement that helped pave the way for computer generation work. A simple way to put it, all the great visual effects that can be done on the computer today are partially thanks to this movie. The sequence in question is when Willow must transform Raziel back into a human, she is currently a goat near the last half an hour of the movie and so he must use the spell he was taught to transform her into a human, and as he does so, she is transformed into many different animals until she is finally back into her human form. This sequence used a technology that was not yet created at the time. The only idea they had was to fuse images together, it would scan the pictures into the computer and then would program various aspects of the picture to transform from one animal to another. If you look up the featurette “From Morf to Morphing”, you can learn how they developed the technology and how it affected things from that point on. This technology helped evolve digital effects and amazing effects like in Terminator 2: Judgement Day back in the day, and would continue to push the digital effects industry.

 
When the 25th Anniversary took place five years ago, the movie was re-released on Blu-Ray, which of course I bought, no questions asked. The movie was restored and the picture was great to look at, as they took time to make the picture look great for high definition, and even added a few new extra features on top of what they already added for the DVD. Unfortunately, it appears the movie was discontinued on Blu-Ray, so if you were trying to find it on Blu-Ray, you would not be able to as easily, and it would be expensive to get a copy. So for the 30th Anniversary, that would be my first big recommendation, to re-release it on Blu-Ray, or even 4K Ultra HD. If they restore the picture yet again for 4K, I will buy a new copy, especially if they add any new extra features. I think they could do a lot of cool for the 30th Anniversary, so I will take time to put my wish list on what I would like to see. It would make sense that not all of these would happen, but a few of these could and would be awesome. Anyway, here you go:


-A 30th Anniversary release of the movie on 4K Ultra HD or Blu-Ray with a 4K restoration of the film. Even include new bonus features including a documentary on the whole making of process of the movie, cover from how the movie started in pre-production, and how some more of the practical effects were made, how certain shots were completed, and how the scoring session for the movie was done by the late James Horner. Also talk about the legacy of the movie, especially after all these years and how it’s still remembered by many fans, and the impact it had.

-a new 2 disc CD of the original soundtrack of Willow, it will feature of the score done by James Horner. They could even do an isolated score on the Blu-Ray.

-A Visual History book of Willow. If you are familiar with the Visual History series of books like Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Labyrinth, or Dark Crystal, then you should know what I am talking about. This would be a great way to get a bunch of sketches or photos or anything from the production of the movie.

-Re-release the comics that were released at the time the movie came out and include them in a new graphic novel. If I am not mistaken, Marvel released a few issues in comic book form to promote the movie. They could even do a new limited comic book series that touches on other aspects of the world of Willow, like the backstory of Madmartigan, or even on the feud between Bavmorda and Raziel, or even the story of the brownies. It could be a 4 to 6 issue mini series that would be cool to get.

-a new board game to get our hands on, or even re-release the old video games, like Willow on the NES, or the arcade version of the game that could be ported to an SNES cartridge. The SNES cartridge sounds like a bizarre idea but I have seen companies reproduce old game cartridges for old systems, so this could be done. But of course the easiest way is to make it available to buy and download as a digital version for the Nintendo online store or something like that.


After 30 years, there are fans like me that have been affected by this movie. It still holds a special place in my heart, and I still enjoy visiting the world of Willow every time I put the movie on. I hope they try to do something special with the movie for it’s 30th Anniversary and don’t let this moment pass by.

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