The Disney+ revamp of the 80s movie is a sassy, brisk coming-of-age caper. Then the lead actor appears, fantasy gubbins bogs the action down – and the comedy goes awry
Who remembers Willow, the magical quest-in-a-forest film with Warwick Davis in it? It was released in 1988 and hasn’t spawned a spin-off screen universe since – when it has been mentioned, it’s usually in brackets after Davis’s name when he’s doing something else. But in the vicious streaming wars, any viewer-curiosity foothold is deemed invaluable. So here we are: there’s now a sequel in the form of a TV series on Disney+.
We return to Tir Asleen, which in long shot is a castle CGI’d into the Welsh countryside and in closeup is a standard fantasy community: knights, four-poster beds, banquets to celebrate an arranged marriage to unite two ancient kingdoms, and so on. In the film it was a battleground of spells, curses and witchery, but we learn that now it has forbad magic – this is very much the sort of place where people say “forbad” – to secure a peaceful existence. The mystery hanging over it is the whereabouts of Elora Danan, the child of destiny whose rescue was the plot driver of the original movie. Is she dead, hidden or banished? The residents of Tir Asleen don’t know.
