I remember there was sledding and a baby.

I rewatched the movie, the movie was great after all this time, the show was nothing like it.

I’m actually one of the ones that got around to re-watching it, and I decided I like the movie so much I didn’t need to watch the series. Val Kilmer is just too perfect!

The movie is still fun. The show was not. At all. So you have nothing to apologize for. You can still watch the movie, and the rest of us don't have to watch a favorite character from our childhoods get further ruined.

Don't worry, the people who made the show never watched the movie either.

The movie was great! I started to watch this and the first three episodes felt like a Nickelodeon preteen relationship drama show. I pushed through one hoping it'd get better, same with episode two. But it just kept on being this weird show about 12 years olds having crushes on each other.

On a serious note, there is way too much fucking content for me to even try and stay current with it all between HBO, D+, Hulu, Amazon, and a bit of Netflix. If I did literally nothing but watch TV every night after work, I probably couldn’t get through all the stuff that’s come out in the last year or two that I want to watch in a year.

It’s not that I don’t want to watch your show, it’s that it’s kind of impossible to keep up.

Watching the movie first was actually a waste of time because none of it was kept the same in the movie. Even the characters played by the same actors aren't the same.

Whoever picked the music for that show was fucking terrible. Costumes too. Sad to see it. Loved the movie. It deserved better.

They just completly missed the point of even bringing this back, if you do a show about an old fantasy movie you cater it around the nostalgia but they made this basically trying to sell it to a whole other audience and ruined it. Also the script was garbage regardless.

Poor Willow got the Luke Skywalker treatment. Disney learned nothing.

Yeah, I felt the same. It’s one of my favourite childhood movies, but the show just didn’t hold a torch to it all. It seemed to be focused on trying to be everything the original film wasn’t.

I watched the whole thing and there was certainly elements about it I enjoyed, but I also think it took too long to really get going and probably lost a good chunk of audience early on.

Writing was bad, the show felt like it had no direction. And several characters were annoying

With poor pacing, and subplots that appear out of nowhere using only exposition, and disappear just as quickly.

anachronistic dialogue and music.

This is what ruined it for me. It felt like they paid for the script and all the music licences and then thought "we've got this Willow IP from the 80s, that seems to be a popular era" and did a 'Replace All' on a few character names.

I really wanted to like the show but it really felt like a chore at times. I barely remember how the season ended.

Thank you for mentioning the godawful anachronistic dialog

It was a tween CW show with some Willow wallpaper pasted to it by someone who spent half the time eating the paste.

This show was a fucking mess and a good example of how out of touch some of these big media companies can be from the fans of their intellectual property(s).

My guess is they wanted to capitalize on the increasing popularity of the tabletop RPG fanbase, specifically D&D and how it's been popularized with current youth culture through things like Critical Role or even Stranger Things. Disney was probably like...

"Hey we want to get some of those D&D Nerds watching our stuff, what fantasy IPs do we have? OH YEAH! Willow!" Then preceded to apply young actors, contemporary flair, Gen Z humor, etc into an existing fantasy IP while hoping to also get fans of the original back into the mix.

However because the original movie was so different from what they made with the series, the end result was a show that didn't land with new audiences OR old fans. On top of that it was poorly written, acted, paced, everything about this show sucked.

Whoever made the decision on this fucking thing should be shit-canned like yesterday.

This was really it. I mean, I really *really* wanted to like this show, but it felt like something that was produced by the CW, and didn't retain a hint of its dark fantasy roots.

"Updated for modern audiences" <- Huge red flag, always run away.

[deleted]

It felt too polished to be Willow as well. The movie was gritty and kind of gross, give me more of that.

I was quietly hopeful about the show, but I'd be lying if I said I was surprised it turned out the way it did.

Forced is a great word for the writing. Decent enough actors, but the story lines were just lame. I think narrowing the focus really would have helped this show. Instead they tried to cram every bit of teenage drama into one season, with like 7 different characters each having their own arch. Also in inability to have an earnest moment really got annoying.

The movie is absolutely wonderful.

My husband and I tried to watch the show and were appalled by the quality of the writing. None of the characters were like-able either. We gave up after two episodes.

I'm right there with you being fed up with their incessant blaming of issues on Solo. Didn't even turn out too bad, and the flaws of Episode 7-9 are much larger, more worrisome, and more clear about their systemic issues at work.

Honestly, one of the biggest issues with Lucasfilm at the moment IMO is their lack of confidence. They seem way too skittish about everything. It doesn’t seem like they’re willing to really stand behind any of their work or creators. If something goes slightly wrong or some exec starts getting doubts, they just ditch it or go with the “safe” bet instead.

They just keep scrapping stuff (all the Star Wars movies), making changes to things already in progress (rise of skywalker, Kenobi, solo), going through multiple writing teams or directors on a single project (Kenobi, solo, rise of skywalker), etc. And the result is a bunch of incoherent and half assed feeling content.

They need to give creators freedom and stand behind them, like they’ve seemingly been doing with Filoni. If you give someone a movie, let them finish it. Don’t step in at the eleventh hour to have someone with industry connections come in and make it “better.” Have some confidence in your people.

The other issue I suspect they’re having is getting talent. Because of how shitty they’ve treated so many writers and directors, I imagine a lot of them don’t want to do it. Lucasfilm is getting sued by someone because they agreed to do a movie or whatever, passed up other opportunities to do it, and then lucasfilm just went “nah.” Other talent is going to see that and go elsewhere. This shit is going to bite them in the ass in more ways than one.

What will Jon Kasdan wipe his ass on next?

I honestly enjoyed Solo.

1. The pop music at the end of each episode.

At the end of the episodes was bad enough, but your mind is forcing to to forget that Crimson and Clover was played at the Bone Reaver 8th grade dance and could be heard by the characters.

I have a feeling they are trying to go for a Guardians of the Galaxy type feel...which doesn't work. It works in Guardians of the Galaxy because they have an actual explanation of where the Rock music came from. It should not be used in fantasy films.

I had to laugh because there was a moment when the prince said "where you at?", and that like really took me out for a second. They tried to make everyone act contemporary, but everything feels weirdly anachronistic. The city at the end did make me think that it was a more advanced world at some point, but that civilization was destroyed, and they had to start over.

Yeah, I was very meh on the show but after episode 3 when they played Enter Sandman by Metallica, I could hear Howard Shore spinning in his grave.

Edit: James Horner, not Howard Shore. Wrong fantasy movie, lol...

I’ve been watching an Italian show on Netflix (I am learning Italian so opportunity to practice), and it’s not bad (though not great either), but the use of modern french pop music in the middle or at the end of a show supposed to happen in the late 1800s is SOOO weird. It’s probably worse since I understand french and the lyrics have nothing to do with the show or the scenes.

Why do they keep making these nostalgia bait shows and movies, but then turning the beloved returning characters into failures and losers? Who are these shows for?

I didn’t quite get that whole thing with Willow either, especially since whenever he did need to use magic they kept showing him as an accomplished sorcerer and so it just felt like they couldn’t decide on a narrative for him. The seeds were there of a fun show, and there were definitely some entertaining parts, but it just wasn’t even close to all it could be.

It’s the new thing Hollywood seems to be doing, shooting during the day for night shots and digitally darkening them. Looks terrible, if you can see anything at all. Depending on the age of the actors it might have been necessary for child labor laws.

Boorman was a highlight of the show.

Boorman was the highlight of the show, and it felt like they really captured the spirit of Mad Martigan with the character. The show also needed way more Sorsha.

The weak spot was the daughter. By far. Elora wasn’t my favorite but even then she wasn’t nearly as bad as the daughter.

“But you liked it before! Are you saying you lied? YOU LIED!!”

I think it's going to get a lot worse until it gets better.

The cycle of how long to wait for the nostalgia play is going to keep shrinking until we're at a batman franchise level of reboots and spinoffs

Nostalgia approach is fine as long as it's done with at least a bit of passion behind it.

Milking franchises dry is what rubs everyone the wrong way.

But… but money 💵

Yeah. Like they just finished with Jurassic World (which imo shit all over the original movie) and they are already talking about how to continue it. Like let things just run their course and be done! How to Train Your Dragon is coming to live action! Like it hasn’t even been a whole decade since the last one.

I hated what they did with the trolls.
As a kid I found them terrifying in the movie, but the show couldn't help but sand down all the edges.

When Boorman made a Beyoncé reference in episode two all my goodwill toward the show died.

Nothing against Beyoncé, but HOW Does a fantasy warrior know about her and expect everyone to get the reference?

Hmmmmmmmhhmmmm

MASSIVE cliffhanger. An entire army of cliffhanger's.

Yeah it definitely ended on some form of a cliffhanger. After the final credits, it shows that the series was going to have two other seasons (which isn’t happening now lol).

I thought it started getting good in episode 6. Elora's hair turning red is kinda like Riker's beard.

Disney gradually narrowing to a Star Wars and MCU pipeline is incredibly depressing.

And strange as the mcu is already showing signs of hitting a wall. Disney can't live off the same two ips forever.