Recommended music: James Horner – Bavmorda’s Castle
From the archives today, we’re still celebrating the Magic of Willow with this Willow: The Storybook Based on the Movie!
Each printed version of Willow I review seems to be half the size of the previous edition, with the junior novelization being half the length of the novel. This hardcover book, written by Cathy East, is 64 pages long, around half the length of the junior novel. Fortunately, it is loaded with photos, mostly screenshots, and many promotional images.
Contrasting the larger volumes, this book sticks to the theatrical version, no deleted scenes. Unlike storybooks for the original Star Wars that included photos from the deleted scenes featuring Biggs, no child in 1988 would have known about these deleted scenes. They would not have known that scenes featuring a fish monster or a king frozen in crystal were actually filmed. This information was revealed in documentaries more than a decade later.
There is also Willow: The Picture Storybook by Cathy West. It continues the shrinking book pattern and clocks in at 32 pages. I couldn’t find any other books credited to that author for another decade, so it’s likely either a clever pseudonym in conjunction with this book for some reason, or purely a coincidence.
The Willow film turns 37 years old this week! I figure there’ll be a new Willow item from my collection to share here for the rest of the month. Happy 37 years to the Magic of Willow!
Dale's Toys 