The Incomparable, number 545, December 2020.

Welcome back, everybody, to The Incomparable.

I'm your host, Jason Snell.

And yes, it's Kilmiss, Mary Kilmiss, everybody.

We're going to be discussing 1988's Willow, directed by Ron Howard, and starring a cast of dozens, most notably Warwick Davis, who it plays Willow, and of course, your friend, your pal, Val Kilmer.

Let me introduce my very special Willow panel. your friend, your pal, Val Kilmer.

Let me introduce my very special Willow panel.

They have all gathered in this village, but one of them, I'll let you decide which one,

is hanging in a cage.

Annette Wierstra is here. Hello.

Hello, I am at this moment morphing into a goat.

Okay, that's right. Well, you won't stay there long. You'll turn into something else. That is how it works.

Erica Ensign is also here. Hello.

Hello. You are great.

And John Syracusa, I take it back. He's the one in the cage. Hi, John. I'm the greatest swordsman that ever lived.

I had a feeling John would want that line.

I almost said it, but I left it.

Okay, so Willow, this is a famous movie, I feel like, and it's weird.

So I feel like in the 80s, anything George Lucas was involved in at all got this intense scrutiny.

And he wrote the story here, and this is a Lucas film production.

And yet I think people were just trying to find ways to run down George Lucas after his incredible success because I always thought,

Oh, Willow is one of those flops that George Lucas did in the 80s after Star Wars,

...