R0BTRAIN's Bad Ass Cinema: The Ewok Adventures……Or \"How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Ewoks!"

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In 1983, Return of the Jedi brought to a supposed close George Lucas’ vaunted Star Wars Trilogy. Audiences were delighted by the epic battles of the small band of heroes they had learned to love in 1977’s Star Wars and 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back. For the most part Jedi kept the ball rolling with amazing new characters such as Jabba the Hut and the now fully revealed Emperor Palpatine. Return of the Jedi also featured the greatest space battle ever filmed and included the climactic duel between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. But many fans thought that the Trilogy’s final installment was a bit of a letdown due to the inclusion of one word: Ewoks.

In Return of the Jedi, George Lucas wanted the Galactic Empire to be defeated by a technologically inferior race. Early drafts had a race of giant Lizards, but that would have proven too costly. Lucas’ next idea was to use Wookies as the race to come back and help Luke and Han defeat the dark side. Ultimately Lucas thought that the character of Chewbacca had already been such as integral part of the series that it was better to leave him as the only Wookie to be seen. Lucas finally decided that instead of the towering Wookies fighting the forces of evil, he would cut the size of his alien race in half and call them Ewoks.

Ewoks were also a tremendous marketing ploy. Although spurned by older Star Wars fans, children took to the teddy bear looking creatures feverishly. The Ewok dolls and toys raced off the shelves and the furry little creatures helped Return of the Jedi conjure up $309 million dollars domestically at the box office and over $475 million world wide. The Ewok celebration at the end of the movie brought to a close the most popular franchise in cinematic history, but the Ewoks were surprisingly not about to ride of into the sunset with Skywalker and Solo.

George Lucas had an idea to bring the little residents of the forest moon of Endor back to audiences, but this time on the small screen. The Ewoks would return in a spin-off TV movie of Return of the Jedi entitled, ironically enough, The Ewok Adventure. Written and Executive Produced by Lucas, the movie would be directed by John Korty, the director of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Twice Upon a Time.


The Ewok Adventure: Caravan of Courage Starring Warwick Davis and Aubree Miller. Directed by John Korty.

The film begins with a crash landing on the sanctuary moon of Endor. Two parents, Jeremitt (Guy Boyd) and Catarine (Fionnula Flanagan) are desperate to find their two lost children, but ominous footsteps lead the couple to be captured. From there, the film switches to the family of Warwick Davis’ Wicket the Ewok.


Wicket, last seen in Return of the Jedi, along with his father and siblings find the crash site where little Cindel (Aubree Miller) and her brother Mace (Eric Walker and no this in not the super cool Mace we already know and love) are anxiously awaiting their parents return. The two are taken in by the furry clan and nursed back to health. Once back to normal, Mace and Cindel abandon their new friends and trek off to find their parents.


Along the way the two are ambushed by huge monster and saved once again by their new companions. The two decide this time to stay with the Ewoks. After the small band regroups, Wicket talks his family into helping the duo find their parents. The final confrontation between good and evil takes place as the Ewoks and friends find the lair of the Giant Monster that has captured Jeremitt and Catarine.


The Ewok adventure was a huge production by television standards in 1984. Special effects may look “quaint” at best by today’s standards, but featured at the time cutting edge stop motion and other effects from Industrial Light and Magic. Local radio stations actually played the audio for the film simultaneously with the TV broadcast to create the effect of “stereo” sound. By TV standards of the day, the film was a pretty big success, with the public hungry for anything related to Star Wars. The film even got a small theatrical run internationally.


In retrospect, The Ewok Adventure is really only passable entertainment. While ten miles ahead of dreadful The Star Wars Holiday Special, the Ewoks don’t exactly bring high drama to the screen. While they are cute and cuddly, without any change in facial expression the furry creatures just come off as big teddy bears, which I suppose was their purpose. On the other hand, they are better actors than Aubree Miller and Eric Walker. Miller, who tries hard to pull off the sweetness that Drew Barrymore showed in E.T., is simply another showbiz kid in a TV movie acting next to vertically challenged people in furry costumes. Eric Walker, who slightly resembles Mark Hamill, fairs no better as Mace.


Still the movie was a big success, especially with children, which I suppose warranted a sequel. The following year, those who wanted to see the further adventures of Cindel and Wicket (I guess they had to be out there) got their shot at another adventure. Lucas wrote another script and the directing team of Jim and Ken Wheat, who would later go on to write Pitch Black and parts of The Chronicles of Riddick, were brought in to helm the film.


Ewoks: The Battle for Endor Starring Warwick Davis and Aubree Miller Directed by Jim and Ken Wheat.

The second Ewok adventure begins with Cindel and her family about to leave the forest moon. Just as they are about to take off, the Ewok village is attacked by an army of lizard men, led by a sorceress named Charal (Sian Phillips) and their Supreme Ruler, King Terak. In a surprising turn of events, most of the characters from the first film, including Cindel’s brother Mace, are massacred in the first ten minutes of screen time. Charal and Terak attacked the village to procure a power cell from the ship, believing it to contain energy they can harness.


As the Ewoks are rounded up by the lizard men, Wicket (who now speaks English) and Cindel manage to escape their fortress. They make a run for it in the forests of Endor, but are soon lost and starving. Fortunately they are found by a rabbit looking creature named Teek. Teek attempts to steal from the duo and inadvertently brings them to a cabin inhabited by another marooned traveler name Noa (Wilford Brimley).


Noa hates the child at first but eventually warms to her, proving a surrogate father. He tells Cindel of his own ship that crashed and how all it needs to get off the ground again is a power cell similar to the one taken from Cindel’s ship. This revelation motivates this new little band (Wicket, Cindel, Noa, and Teek) to sneak in the enemy’s castle, steal the power cell, and then make a dash for the downed ship. The group does just that, but to get off the Forest Moon, they must have one last fateful standoff against the forces of darkness.


If you didn’t like the first film, there is little chance Ewoks: The Battle for Endor will change your mind about the furry indigenous tribes of Endor. The second Ewoks film is mild family entertainment, just like the first. It proves moderately better, as the lizard-like villains are a slight improvement over the ogre of the first TV movie. The film actually has a similar tone to another Lucas pet project Willow.


The film does “look” considerably better as it was actually filmed in widescreen and once again released into theaters internationally. The sets are quite a bit better. The lair of the villains is a nice medieval style castle with a dungeon and such. The final battle may even illicit a little nostalgia for Return of the Jedi fans, with the Ewoks and Noa in their Star Cruiser fighting off the lizard in a very child friendly Alamo-style battle.

Performances may even be little better in this as the main cast has improved from two children and a bunch of Ewoks to veteran actor Wilford Brimley doing his usual “crusty-ole coot” performance. I’m not sure whose idea it was to make Brimley the main action star of this film, but defying all preconceived ideas about him he does just fine for the material. Sian Phillips is also quite serviceable as the film’s main villain.


So in the end, if you’re a diehard Star Wars completist, the Ewok films are mild, inoffensive entertainment that is clearly aimed at kids. The furballs are really no worse than Gungans as far as being too cutesy, and Aubree Miller is adequately adorable as little Cindel. Kids should find the movies entertaining enough and at least no one sings, which is more than can be said for the holiday special.

Robert Sutton feels the most at home when he's watching some movie scumbag getting blown up, punched in the face, or kung fu'd to death, especially in that order. He's a founding writer for the movies section of Insidepulse.com, featured in his weekly column R0BTRAIN's Badass Cinema as well as a frequent reviewer of DVDs and Blu-rays. Also, he's a proud Sony fanboy, loves everything Star Wars and Superman related and hopes to someday be taken seriously by his friends and family.