Director Ron Howard delivers an admittedly appealing opening stretch that effectively
establishes Willow's fantastical world and raft of quirky
characters, with, in terms of the latter, the movie certainly benefiting from Davis and Kilmer's thoroughly charming and affable work as the disparate protagonists (and it doesn't hurt, either, that the
chemistry between the two couldn't be more solid).
But Crowe cuts corners in
establishing their
chemistry: Instantly and inexplicably smitten with her charge, Allison emerges from the same fantasy factory that produced the Kirsten Dunst
character in Elizabethtown, for whom this very site coined the Manic Pixie Dream Girl title.