Willow (1988)

One of the great joys of building Reclaim Video beyond the chance to get back to doing some art has been the chance to reflect on some of the films that defined my childhood. I was born in 1982 and grew up surrounded by VHS as the dominant format. Visiting a rental store to pick out a movie for the weekend was a ritual that my siblings and I cherished. It's interesting to me how even in the Netflix-era of on-demand there are so many films that can't be easily found and don't surface in any algorithms. So for me this is an opportunity to indulge a bit by pulling out some of the films that I can vividly remember watching multiple times and grabbing them on eBay for the store.

A few weeks ago I made it a point to get a copy of Willow. A Lucasfilm production directed by Ron Howard and staring Warwick Davis and Val Kilmer, Willow is a fantasy film with dwarves, sorcerers, dragons, and more. The effects are as excellent as you would expect with George Lucas at the helm. Check out this scene as Queen Bavmorda turns the army ready to storm the fortress into pigs.

Apparently there's even a video game for Commodore 64 https://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/willow. The film wasn't a huge box office success but did decent enough. In an era where I was entraced by the works of Jim Henson and George Lucas this movie was right up my alley. It's no Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter when it comes to fantasy films, but was a staple in the Owens household early on and it was a thrill to get a copy for Reclaim Video and watch it again.