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1 Topic by TheFizza 2022-12-01 04:46:49 (edited by TheFizza 2022-12-01 05:29:25)
- TheFizza
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Topic: Willow [Disney+]
https://next-episode.net/willow
"The Next Great Adventure Has Arrived." Willow is based on and serving as a sequel to an the 1988 fantasy adventure film of the same name. 20 years after vanquishing the wicked Queen Bavmorda, the sorcerer Willow Ufgood leads an unlikely group of heroes on a dangerous quest to places far beyond their home, where they must face their inner demons and come together to save their world. Willow Ufgood, a Nelwyn [dwarf] Sorcerer who leads a party. Dove, a kitchen maid who is in love with Prince Airk and joins the quest to save him Princess Kit, who sets in motion a quest to rescue her brother Airk. Jade, a knight-in-training and Kit's person who joins in the quest. Prince Graydon, a young scholar and betrothed of Princess Kit. Boorman, a thief and swordsman who is offered freedom from prison if he joins the quest. Prince Airk, Kit's twin brother who is kidnapped by dark forces on the rise.
Okay, I won't say that, from my point of view, this series doesn't already have major faults from the weirdly modern/anachronistic aspects, something the original film did not affect [is this Willow or Rosaline?!?] to the sparse magical elements which seemed to give this series more of a Shannara Chronicles vibe to it than the dark fantasy the original film was playing in. After all the movie [PG mind you] started off with the murder of both mother and midwife to the future Empress of Tir Asleen. Whereas this starts with flirt-fighting and making out... not that there's anything wrong with any of this, it just doesn't seem to fit into what my hopes were for this series. Just to take a step back I would like to say that Willow was one of those movies from my childhood which I rewatched often, perhaps not always to my parents delight, but always to mine. I even read [though barely recall] those novels George Lucas had made as a sequel to the movie back in the 1990's (incidentally they seem to be no longer cannon). So I was hoping for something special from this series... yet I also felt as though Disney+ could never recapturer that lightening. After all they couldn't even recapture their own lightening with the rather disappointing recent performance of Disenchanted. Still after a rather iffy first Ep the second [which was released in tandem] went down a little easier and as someone who has been waiting to spend some time playing in this world again, I find myself ready for more even if it's only on par with what we have already seen but I'm still hoping for it to get better.
- graybags
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
Watched the first ep. I like the movie, but this definitely has a different vibe about it. And if I said Warwick's "acting" was wooden that would be a massive insult to wood.
2020. Meh.
- g371
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
Dropped this one in the middle of first ep.
- mrverene
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
It was ok at my speed, but certainly not stellar. The big fight scene in the first episode felt like a Spinal Tap fog machine bit. I had more trouble with that than I've ever had with a dark scene from GoT or HoD. It certainly doesn't seem like the kind of thing that could carry D+ subs without an accompanying Marvel or Star Wars, but we'll see.
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
mrverene wrote:It was ok [...], but certainly not stellar.
Yeah, I fully agree. 1x1 felt a bit weird, like the show wasn't sure which genre to explore fully. I hope 1x2 will be better. mrverene wrote:It certainly doesn't seem like the kind of thing that could carry D+ subs without an accompanying Marvel or Star Wars, but we'll see.
What the hell are D+ subs?
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
The best sandwich ever served at a Subway?
- lighton
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
mrverene wrote:The best sandwich ever served at a Subway?
Ah! I've only visited Subway once in the last 10 years or so, and since I was a little bit disappointed, I probably had a different one.
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
No if you were only a little bit disappointed you got the best one ever. Also was it just me or does Warwick's acting get worse the more facial hair he sports?
9 Reply by TheFizza 2022-12-03 15:45:01 (edited by TheFizza 2022-12-04 20:28:03)
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
mrverene wrote:Also was it just me or does Warwick's acting get worse the more facial hair he sports?
I don't know if his acting got worse but gosh those whiskers were very distracting
10 Reply by TheFizza 2022-12-08 04:06:16 (edited by TheFizza 2022-12-11 13:03:07)
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
Ooof... This one was rough... With regards to the broad storytelling strokes, it's fine. But it was not very good at all.
11 Reply by paisley1 2022-12-11 03:57:57 (edited by paisley1 2022-12-11 03:58:47)
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
mrverene wrote:No if you were only a little bit disappointed you got the best one ever. Also was it just me or does Warwick's acting get worse the more facial hair he sports?
Subway is only terrible in America (...so is American A&W, & Burger King, & McDonalds, and....). Canadian Subway is great, it actually has house sub sauce and fresh produce. But ya, this series is definitely American Subway. Very hard pass. Loved the movie though. Subway's Great Canadian Club
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
paisley1 wrote:mrverene wrote:No if you were only a little bit disappointed you got the best one ever. Also was it just me or does Warwick's acting get worse the more facial hair he sports?
Subway is only terrible in America (...so is American A&W, & Burger King, & McDonalds, and....). Canadian Subway is great, it actually has house sub sauce and fresh produce. But ya, this series is definitely American Subway. Very hard pass. Loved the movie though. Subway's Great Canadian Club
This is true, it's great here in Aus too.
13 Reply by TheFizza 2023-01-07 11:46:57 (edited by TheFizza 2023-01-07 21:48:18)
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
So, I think I figured out the vibe of the show... it's as if someone wrote a series for The CW but it then got a movie level budget, so all the hard and inventive work that would normally be put into the production... all the organic moves and adjustment that a small-budget production would go through in order to make something of substance was not even glanced at because Disney has money. This was sort of their problem in the 70's when they would make movies like Black Hole... a movie I love but objectively it was really just an exercise at making a Disney Star Wars [if only they knew all they had to do was buy it] and it was beautiful and weird but it was just some lazy writer cribbing 20,000 Leagues and setting it in space. From my perspective, money is the problem... "Art thrives with restrictions," as Nicholas Myers once said. If all you need to do is throw money at it then you'll get the Disney Star Wars movies or the Willow series. But when you have to work harder to build a better story, to get to the place where viewers get carried away into the story, then they will have achieved something. Sadly though Disney may never understand this... and sadly the money they make from all they've been doing will keep them from looking inward, probably for ever or until those methods stop rewarding them with blockbuster paydays! And to be clear it's not just that money is the problem, it's that (for Disney) money is the solution. It's something that just about every entry in the MCU and Disney's Star Wars is an example of that. I don't argue with the success of many production under those banners, however I will say that almost none of those productions provides a logical story, they for the most part just smoke & mirrors dazzling the viewer into not realizing all they watched was a Jan deBont wet dream... but those tactics are failing here, even the zeppoing Boorman doesn't seem to be working for the series. Sorry I went off a bit there but it does frustrate me that I have waited my whole life for this series and it's basically Hercules the Legendary Journeys without the fun
- lighton
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
TheFizza wrote:From my perspective, money is the problem... "Art thrives with restrictions," as Nicholas Myers once said.
While I totally agree that money can be a problem, I'm not sure that's the case here. Disney has shown many times that they know how to tell a story, I guess they wanted to try something different here... - and then the mixture didn't work out as expected. I'm still watching, but I'm pretty sure I'll have forgotten most of it quickly. At least, for some reason, I've really enjoyed the extensive use of mud flats in the last episode. (Maybe because it hasn't been done before.)
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
Did I miss something in the plot that explains Elora suddenly being a redhead or did they take a break in their dire magical quest for a spa day?
- lighton
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
mrverene wrote:Did I miss something in the plot that explains Elora suddenly being a redhead or did they take a break in their dire magical quest for a spa day?
I took it as an artsy visual hint towards character development that'll be explained either in a following episode or never.
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
Finished season 1. It was "okay" - but could have been better! ‘Willow’ Is An Abomination https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2 … omination/ I read only parts of this, but the original movie must have been much better.
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
It was watchable but much of that criticism is correct, the writing (dialogue) was mostly quite horribly shitty and much too "try-hard" and "modern." Not even real people in our world talks like that, and definitively not fantasy people in fantasy worlds very long ago. It also had some other flaws. But sure, watchable.
19 Reply by TheFizza 2023-01-18 08:46:31 (edited by TheFizza 2023-01-18 08:47:50)
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
The original movie is a TREASURE ... it's got everything! For years it was one of the only Sword & Sorcery Fantasies which I really liked. I was so into it I even read a few of the 90's novels, they were not good [though in different ways than this new series]. But it's kind of sad they don't exist now because, supposedly, they were plotted out by Lucas himself and billed as a story he wanted to have told.
- xxFelixDCatxx
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I just discovered this series and had never seen the Willow 1988 movie. So I went ahead and watched the movie (which was great!) and jumped right into the show. Is this really bad? I mean yes, some of the 2023 sensibilities bleeding through didn't feel wonderful in the story. But overall I thought Willow himself kinda brought the same lighthearted sort of comedic element to what is a decent Fable setting and story. I'm at episode 5 and I'm liking it so far. I've certainly watched significantly worse than this.
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
xxFelixDCatxx wrote:I've certainly watched significantly worse than this.
Yes:
lighton wrote:Finished season 1. It was "okay" - but could have been better!
Respect for watching the 1988 movie.
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
lighton wrote:xxFelixDCatxx wrote:I've certainly watched significantly worse than this.
Yes:
lighton wrote:Finished season 1. It was "okay" - but could have been better!
Respect for watching the 1988 movie.
Well I mean you had to to know who the characters were! Kinda cool seeing them aged up so fast. The film really holds up over all this time. Those were incredible effects for that old a film
23 Reply by TheFizza 2023-11-10 10:06:47 (edited by TheFizza 2023-11-10 10:18:35)
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
xxFelixDCatxx wrote:Well I mean you had to to know who the characters were! Kinda cool seeing them aged up so fast. The film really holds up over all this time. Those were incredible effects for that old a film
The way Hollywood judges these things the film was not a success, that being as it is the film's also an often overlooked treasure! It was pretty amazing that they even made a sequel series, that being said, and I agree I've seen much-much worse... The thing is, that those worse series I've seen tend not to have the type of money in their production which this series had. If Willow the series had been done by say NETFLIX, sure the bad writing and the inability to grasp what was great about the movie to translate it to a series might be overlooked. But seriously Willow wasn't even the main character of his own show. I was extremely disappointed, having watched the movie since childhood, that we barely spent any time with Wil and that the Brownies only show up for like one scene was as frustrating as it was dumb. As for the cast, Amar Chadha-Patel is a fantastic actor who basically had nothing to do and was given terrible dialogue. Tony Revolori really tried but he still felt like he was in a Spider-Man movie and Ruby Cruz just can't act [we all know this] all she does is play herself. Which is fine in some situations. And many a successful actor can spend years making money doing that. Heck, I was fine when she did her thing in Bottoms but here, in a Sword & Sorcery world, it completely breaks the verisimilitude of every scene she appears in. Meanwhile Ellie Bamber is giving it her all, however, she's also acting in an entirely different series altogether. Mostly everyone else worked and personally I was really impressed at Joanne Whalley, whom I can't help wondering why she was never as big as her romantic lead in the movie, Val Kilmer, because she leaves an impression. But yeah, IMO that's why it didn't succeed. Since, if you do explain the story of the streaming series it sounds pretty decent. It's a shame they couldn't translate it to the small screen in a more enjoyable form for all the production value they invested. But that's just my take!
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Re: Willow [Disney+]
TheFizza wrote:xxFelixDCatxx wrote:Well I mean you had to to know who the characters were! Kinda cool seeing them aged up so fast. The film really holds up over all this time. Those were incredible effects for that old a film
The way Hollywood judges these things the film was not a success, that being as it is the film's also an often overlooked treasure! It was pretty amazing that they even made a sequel series, that being said, and I agree I've seen much-much worse... The thing is, that those worse series I've seen tend not to have the type of money in their production which this series had. If Willow the series had been done by say NETFLIX, sure the bad writing and the inability to grasp what was great about the movie to translate it to a series might be overlooked. But seriously Willow wasn't even the main character of his own show. I was extremely disappointed, having watched the movie since childhood, that we barely spent any time with Wil and that the Brownies only show up for like one scene was as frustrating as it was dumb. As for the cast, Amar Chadha-Patel is a fantastic actor who basically had nothing to do and was given terrible dialogue. Tony Revolori really tried but he still felt like he was in a Spider-Man movie and Ruby Cruz just can't act [we all know this] all she does is play herself. Which is fine in some situations. And many a successful actor can spend years making money doing that. Heck, I was fine when she did her thing in Bottoms but here, in a Sword & Sorcery world, it completely breaks the verisimilitude of every scene she appears in. Meanwhile Ellie Bamber is giving it her all, however, she's also acting in an entirely different series altogether. Mostly everyone else worked and personally I was really impressed at Joanne Whalley, whom I can't help wondering why she was never as big as her romantic lead in the movie, Val Kilmer, because she leaves an impression. But yeah, IMO that's why it didn't succeed. Since, if you do explain the story of the streaming series it sounds pretty decent. It's a shame they couldn't translate it to the small screen in a more enjoyable form for all the production value they invested. But that's just my take!
...This is like me on the wheel of time post. I just cared about the source material too much. Pretty spot on assessment of all the actors, I very much so agree with Ruby being the lead anchor weighing down the main cast. And I had to look up Joanne Whalley too after watching the first movie because, yeah, she was gorgeous and a good actress. I hadn't finished the series yet, and I have to agree, we were robbed on the Brownies. I was just watching a VFX interview with Seth Rogan here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKt18K_Sy0I He talks about how studios tend not to want to use 'older' vfx due to concerns over a show looking dated, and since they're very obviously using rotoscope still to acheive the brownies shots I wonder if that's why we didn't see them. I also wonder if the second brownie was alive IRL. Tony Revolori really only plays the role of clueless idiot well. I will also agree that Willow is NOT the main character of the show. That's a dual role with him and the Apprentice, story wise. The entire story to me is a 'passing of the torch' sort of story, and repeatedly with the updated dialogue and story direction it feels like they're trying to emphasize the role of the younger crowd in the story. Still haven't finished it, I'm not giving it top marks either, but I would call it 'good'.
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