Willow is a favorite movie from my youth. I remember the first time I heard of it. We were at my Uncle Dexter's house when a trailer for it came on. The trailer was little more than clouds with words across them saying something about knowing good and evil (or something like that) and ending with "Forget all you know ... or think you know" and then displaying the title, Willow. As it said it was from the creator of Star Wars, I was hooked with only that minimalistic advertisement. I'm even certain how many times that I've see the movie since then, but even with its often ridiculous and campy action, I enjoyed it every time.
Later, Lucas released a trilogy of books that was supposed to continue the story. In short, they were terrible, a nightmare which hardly resembled the world that the movie had created. Although I purchased all three, I never made it all of the way through the second book as it was also, simply, not good writing.
Thus, although interested in seeing the Disney+ series, I was also quite trepidatious about how it might turn out. After finally getting to watch all eight episodes, my overall review of the series is simple: meh.
The story is thankfully not as convoluted and terrible as the book series (whose storyline has apparently been completely dropped), but it also doesn't capture the magic (yes, I wrote that) of the original film. I've heard (or read) someone else say (or write) that this series felt like it was made by CW. While I've enjoyed CW shows such as Smallville, Arrow, and The Flash, I have to agree that the writing for this series follows some of their lesser trends. The characters are confident, then whiny, then confident, etc. with little impetus. The tone abruptly shifts from bizarrely comedic to horrifying with little reason (the woodswomen being the prime example). Even characters' skills continually flip from incompetent to brilliant, then back to incompetent (except for Erin Kellyman's character who is basically the worst knight protector ever--a real disservice to an actor whom I otherwise like). And what is up with the bad covers of severely misplaced rock songs at the end of each episode?
Still, Rowen really liked it (even those ending songs). Also, I was generally happy with Warrick Davis's contributions as the titular character (even if some of Willow's actions were giving me Last Jedi vibes). We will likely watch future seasons, but I'm not as excited about them as I would like to be.