The Radical Child

The basis for a Disney+ series over three decades later, Lucasfilm's Willow stars Warwick Davis, who had before played the Ewok Wicket in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, as the eponymous halfling sorcerer Willow Ufgood, who becomes steward to an infant, who had been smuggled out of the clutches of an evil queen, who in turn fears a prophecy of a newborn being her doom and thus gathered the pregnant women of her realm. The elders of the dwarven village where Willow lives decree the baby must be returned to a member of the Daikini, which is, to say, humans, to be raised, although her protection and taking down Queen Bavmorda naturally come first.

The special effects were advanced in their time but contained traces of the era such as the slight-robotic nature of stop-motion, which was similarly present in the original Star Wars trilogy before their digital remaster during the 1990s. The general fantasy atmosphere of the film is nice as well, and I imagine it's what film versions of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy would have looked like had they been made in that era, with actual halfling actors, no less. Granted, some scenes and dialogue come off as awkward, with the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones films being no strangers to this (despite what many critics and audiences popularly believe), but in general Ron Howard did a decent job with the film; I'll watch the sequel series on Disney+ when I get the chance.