Warwick Davis: 'Who's the Peck Now!'

An interview for the new blu-ray of the always-interesting title-actor (and agent for British short actors) of the children's 1980s Ron Howard live-action fantasy classic 'Willow:' Warwick Davis-

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/this-week-dvd-blu-ray/warwick-davis-talks-willow-film-legacy-belly-tattoo-200435187.html

Fair warning: 'Willow' was definitively not a 'grimdark' film (which genre the last few posts have been concerned with), though it knew how to use death as an emotional weapon, and had a memorable section where a dying (and losing) war-leader literally spits into the face of his skull-helmed opponent in defiance, before the sword is twisted further. The same character told an old friend of his (who had evidently shown himself disloyal in the past), found in a compromised situation betraying impending death, to 'sit in your coffin and rot.' So keep in mind that 'grimdark' elements are not a completely new innovation, even in the relatively tame literature and film of human children. After all, were it not for the existence of 'The Princess Bride,' 'Willow' would probably be remembered as the great children's fantasy film of the 1980s (though I think it's failure to build on Phil Tippet's 'go-motion' (for the earlier 'Dragonslayer') for its own dragon-beast is an unfortunate missed opportunity in the fantasy special effects history--1988 was the perfect moment to develop such a technology, before computers were being stretched to do (fairly poor) jobs on such effects, but an era in which physical effects had developed, in films like the Star Wars and Indian Jones trilogies far beyond their previous capacaties. In fairness, though, this film does feature the first example of CG morphing anywhere, it's just a little sad that they didn't spend the time to make an effective model-and-motion-based giant fantasy beast that would've been impressive to audiences and a beautiful success to compare with the dinosaurs of five years' later's 'Jurassic Park' (which, today, look a bit dated).

In any case, my respect for the irrepressible Warwick Davis knows know bounds--or at least only the same bounds as those that contain the brilliant and much-underused Dutch actor Rutger Hauer, who after a few iconic speculative fiction roles in the mid 80s, strangely got relegated to b-movie status. Humans. In any case, it looks like there'll be more use of Mr. Davis as Jawas, Yoda flash-backs, and ewoks and what-not in the new 'Star Wars' films, however they turn out, quality-wise. So that'll be something I'll be happy to see again.
-CB the undying