Willow is a fun, flimsy fantasy film with just enough heart, humor, and striking performances to disguise its otherwise generic narrative and meandering plotlines. In a faraway fantasy land of Nockmaar, the evil queen and sorceress Bavmorda (Jean Marsh) rules over all in her kingdom. She learns of a prophecy that foretells her death at the hands of a baby with a wrist-borne rune birthmark, and thus captures all her land’s pregnant women to stop the prophecy’s realization. Such a baby named Elora Danan is born, but she’s quickly ushered out of her pleading mother’s hands by an empathetic midwife and sent down a river to survive. Elora ends up in a nearby Newlyn (Dwarven race) farming village, where she is found by the children of the bumblingly kind but somewhat ill-skilled magician and farmer, Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis). Though initially reluctant, he grows attached to Elora just as Queen Bavmorda’s Nockmaar Hounds attack the village. To resolve this mess, the village leader instructs Willow to drop the baby onto the first Daikini (normal-sized human) he sees. On a journey through rolling Wales hills and brimming medievally veined set pieces, Willow makes friends—smug, crow-caged swordsman Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) and exiled sorceress-turned-possum Fin Raziel (Patricia Hayes), to name a few—and foes, such as Bavmorda’s warrior daughter Sorsha (Joanne Whalley), as he discovers both the prophecy’s untold details and his own strength. Foretold as being a great sorcerer himself one day, Willow must put faith in himself and his newfound friends to grow his powers and defeat the evil queen once and for all.

Willow is fun, but there isn’t anything significant about it. Simply put, Willow plays like a near-B-movie Lord of the Rings if none of that franchise’s IPs could be used. Warwick Davis is a lovely presence as the titular character—his boyish charm combined with his constant doe-eyed, almost naive expression as he stumbles through new settings and enemies makes for a cozy viewing experience. Kilmer as Madmartigan is also goofily entertaining; as Madmartigan tries to prove his worth, Kilmer ups the witty self-deprecation to keep himself from looking overly arrogant. The rest of the cast also do fine jobs at enlivening their roles, like Marsh as Queen Bavmorda, as she snickers and sneers at her enemies like the wicked witch of the west. Willow’s hero’s journey is also quite a wholesome experience: “You lack faith in yourself. More than anyone in the village, you have the potential to be a great sorcerer,” the village leader tells a down-trodden Willow before he sets off to save his world. If confidence isn’t a given, then such self-discovery is necessary for anyone to embark on anything they do with their lives. Without such confidence, scientists might get their experiments wrong, firemen wouldn’t feel safe enough to put out fires, and medics might feel too inexperienced to save their patients. Willow fully understands the need for such self-acknowledgment, as its titular character grows more trusting of himself with each new enemy to take down or magically disappear. These components slightly elevate Willow beyond what is otherwise a slow, racist—look at the brownies—and painfully generically scripted high-fantasy flick; without Davis’s heart, Kilmer’s silliness, and director Ron Howard and co.’s near-campy visual flair and flamboyant tone, Willow would wilt faster than Bavmorda could banish Elora’s soul from Earth.

Thus, for fantasy film fans, Ron Howard, George Lucas, Val Kilmer, and Warwick Davis fans, Willow has a lot of cheeky fun to pass the time. For everyone else, there’s enough backbone of self-respect and learning about your strengths and weaknesses to entertain, but for many, probably not enough to disguise an otherwise two-dimensionally slow narrative.

Screens in 35 mm Saturday, 5/17, 12:00 p.m. and Sunday, 5/18, 4:00 p.m. @ The Brattle Theatre
Part of the ongoing repertory series: Kilmer Forever: Remembering Val Kilmer