Lit The Ewok Adventures

Every Star Wars fan remembers the 1980s as the golden decade of the film saga. Two truly excellent SW movies were released during that decade, both of them stellar products of writing, directing, and acting. With George Lucas having passed the scriptwriting and directing duties on to his more talented compatriots, the SW universe was free to blossom under the oversight of brilliant filmmakers. Of all the SW movies ever released, these two undoubtedly hold the dearest places in the hearts of fans worldwide.

That's right, friends, I'm talking about Caravan of Courage and The Battle for Endor.



If you haven't seen either of these movies, stop what you're doing right now and get over to youtube. Watch them, and also watch every episode of the Droids cartoon and listen to the OT radio dramas (seriously, the eighties had a lot of EU gems).

For those that have seen them --- does anyone other than Lelal and me hold these movies in high regard? I love them. It's far more than just a nostalgia thing, as I was twelve or thirteen when I first saw them and was already too old to be a captivated little kid. And it's far more than the mere fact that two additional live-action Star Wars movies exist (three if you count the Holiday Special as a movie), although that fact itself is actually kind of crazy when you think about it.

Caravan of Courage is certainly the weaker and less interesting story of the two, although the narration of Burl fricking Ives lends some awesomeness to it. The Battle for Endor is the standout, with the decidedly dark turn it takes and its legitimately menacing villains. It also has memorable roles by accomplished actors Wilford Brimley and Sian Phillips, and even a small one by Paul Gleason (the principal from The Breakfast Club).

Cindel has always been one of my favourite EU characters --- her story becomes a heartbreaking one in The Battle for Endor, and you can't help but root quite hardily for her. Her situation allows Wicket to shine as a loyal and brave companion. Any namedrop of Cindel in a later SW product was instant gold to me. That random mention in Tyrant's Test? Incredible. The letter written to her by that stormtrooper in Warfare? Brilliant. I went crazy for any EU references to the two films, really, whether it was the Gorax in the Rogue Leader comics, the Teek in HoloNet News, or Charal's role in that Ewoks trade paperback that came out last year.

What are everyone else's thoughts on these two EU classics? When did you first learn of them/see them? Were they forgettable eighties flops that you'd rather forget, or charming tales that you recall fondly? Are you glad that they've been relegated to Legends, or would you rather see them brought back into canon?

I recently decided that my room needed more posters, and so I ordered the original Japanese chirashi mini-posters of both films from Tokyo on eBay. They were only ten bucks a pop, and the short shipping journey across the East Sea is also very cheap for me. These eBay images won't exist forever, so hopefully I'll be able to post pictures of the real things in a couple of weeks.



I think they had theatrical releases in Japan and a few other countries. Neato!

 

I asked for them as a birthday present - and am eagerly anticipating seeing them.

Sounds like they'll be a fun watch.

 

I picked up the double-sided DVD of the two films from a CD/movie shop back in 2006 for like ten bucks. Nowadays it's averaging around forty on eBay. Yikes.

 

I have always enjoyed the Ewok movies. Even though I had begun moving on from Star Wars when they released, I still wore out the recorded vhs tapes of both of them. Caravan of Courage is a bit more flawed in my opinion, but I have absolutely loved the Battle for Endor since I first saw it. The dvd's sit proudly on the shelf alongside the six theatrical films. I was so excited when Hasbro finally made a Teek action figure that I bought three of them. Would kill for a Noa figure (not literally, but I'd shell out a decent amount of cash...).

 

If one thing, The Battle for Endor made me discover Siân Phillips when I was a child. Without that movie, I probably would never have seen I, Claudius or even Dune. There's the reason why Charal was the first Featured Article I wrote on Wookieepedia. I won't dwell too much on why I love those two movies, since I share Jeff Ferguson's opinion--we've often discussed the movies together and written WP articles about them. I may just add that, by showing more locations on Endor, the Ewok movies gave it a bigger, better sense of scale. It also proved that a planet doesn't have to be covered in one single type of terrain...

I got the DVD too, but I demand a blu-ray edition with commentaries and bonus material!

 

Back when Hasbro was doing comic packs and started to do larger EU multipacks with mostly new figures, I suggested several times that they do multipacks of the Ewok Adventures as exclusives, perhaps online. They could even include a standalone DVD (just a copy of one of the double sided DVD's sides) to entice kids to want to get them.

My thought was something like this:

Caravan of Courage pack: Cindel, Wicket, Mace, Chuka-trok, Kaink (with better hood than Star Tours one), and maybe that version of Logray and one of those cave spiders.

Battle for Endor pack: Cindel (BfE outfit), Wicket, Teek (repack), Noa, Charal and Terak. (Less figures since more are full size with more articulation)

Sadly, those days have passed, and for some dumb reason these movies fall under EU/Legends even though Lucas made them himself, so we aren't likely to see official figures...

 

I've been so close to getting the Teek figure from eBay on multiple occasions. He's currently going for $25 USD... plus international shipping... bah, I could probably justify that. To myself, anyway.

I've always thought that one could accompany the other --- a blu-ray release with special features like deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes featurettes could bring with it a couple of action figure multipacks. Ditto with the Holiday Special --- I mean, who doesn't want a set of Chewie's family, or a mind evaporator complete with Mermeia?

This, I think, is a great point. And they weren't the hilariously ridiculous rainbow bridges and Mount Sorrows of the Ewoks comics, either --- they were grassland savannahs and snow-capped mountains. Actually believable stuff.

On another note, there are so many amazing behind-the-scenes tidbits from The Battle for Endor. The film came about because Cindel was Amanda Lucas's hero and she had just watched Heidi together with her father. ABC wanted Tom Selleck to play Noa. Wilford Brimley refused to work with the directors because "I can't act to a ******* puppet!"

 

I loved these movies.

The stop motion effects actually makes me nostalgic.

 

Well, I love these and the Ewok and Droid cartoon series. They were nostaglic along with the Marvel comics run from Ewok and Droids not too mention the regular comic run, and the 10 novels (Han Solo, Lando, Splinter of the Mind's Eye and the movie novelizations). Those were awesome and yet.....simple. I would have been satisfied if the trilogy had ended there and not have more star wars. That was a special time that tranceded box office, awards, and fan base fan boys with die hard dedication. Star Wars was simple and fun, now, it is so much more complcated and confusing and at times dissapointing and expansive to truly follow. In many ways, its become another star trek, and that is not what I enjoyed about star wars. I am one of teh few people that beleive that star wars should have ended at the end of 1988. It should have been left alone. But in the end, we all found out that GL can't do anything else that ain't star wars. I mean, American Graffiti was the only movie besides it along with the Indiana Jones trilogy that was good and Captain EO but everything else ....just sucks.

 

I'm basically in love with Endor EU, which ends up being segregated from more "serious" fare. The magic lake, the wisties, Charal's ring, etc. are all elements that seem to belong more to Willow than to Star Wars, but that's what makes them all the more fascinating. I absolutely loved it when the mainstream universe would come into contact with Endor. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_for_the_Sunstar]Battle[/url] for the Sunstar, http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ewoks_10:_The_Demons_of_Endor]The[/url] Demons of Endor, the Tulgah that showed up in Star Wars Galaxies, and http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Castaways_of_Endor]Castaways[/url] of Endor were just a couple points where Star Wars really tried to integrate the traditional fantasy elements of the Ewok films into the space fantasy of Star Wars.

I always wished that we could have gotten more "traditional" Star Wars explanations for some of the fantastical elements of the Ewoks stuff. The Clone Wars digests and other annual type books always seemed like perfect places for a Weather Warlock, or a Sanyassan Marauder, or even Noa to show up. Shadows of Endor really showed how much fun you can have when trying to tie together the seemingly disparate elements, and I wish we had gotten more of that. You'll definitely have to show us the higher quality scans of those posters, when they show up.

 

I remember being so excited about finding these in a local video rental place. We brought the first one home, loved the Ewoks, loved Cindel, loved Mace's journey from stick-in-the-mud to hero, loved the happy ending with the family. We almost fell asleep to Berl Ives's narration, but that was okay; it was that kind of movie. We made absolutely sure we went back to get the next one the very next day.

And oh my gosh. Everybody dies. Well, not everybody, but Cindel's whole family. You know, the parents they had spent an entire movie trying to find? The brother who was the protagonist of the whole first movie? All dead. Who does that in a kid's movie?! I kept waiting for some of them to come back, like in Once Upon a Forest or something. Nope. Dead for the whole movie. Jimminy.

The rest of Battle for Endor is an entertaining romp, but I was too traumatized at the time to notice most of it. Lucas doesn't get enough credit for that twist.

TC

 

The DVD's now go for pretty high prices brand new now. I got them used but mint condition for like $20 + last year.

Willow also shared the same atmosphere as these movies and the original SW films, not sure how to explain. Willow I think wouldve made a good prequel set in the ancient times of the SW universe,lol.

 

You're not kidding. It really is shocking, and I'm surprised at how infrequently this is commented on; Battle for Endor is incredibly dark, especially as a follow up to Caravan. I quite liked Mace, a character who is interesting and flawed and grows throughout Caravan. With that example and the fate of the characters from Willow as shown in it's novel trilogy's follow up, GL plays rough with his characters. I'm trying to keep that in mind and brace myself for what happens to the big three when Episode VII arrives.

Of course...the world of Willow is the planet Andowyne in the SW galaxy, the world that is the source of the midichlorians themselves, after all.

 

Now I've seen them - I can definitely say they were worth watching.

 

They are pretty good. I have not seen either one in years though.

 

A couple of things I noted.

The Towani family's blaster, used by Mace in Caravan of Courage, fires bright yellow bolts - same colour as those of the Mandos in TCW.

Noa's ship in The Battle for Endor fires bright blue bolts - similar to those of Republic ships in TCW.

It's interesting to see just how early those colours appeared.

 

Ask and ye shall receive.



Battle for Endor also came with the production booklet, which is filled with gorgeous photos, both black-and-white and in full colour.







The Japanese title, in English, is "Ewoks and the Marauders of Endor."



This little booklet is incredible. I don't do much collecting but I'm sure as hell going to treasure this.

 

I had both of these movies as a kid ... and I have them as an adult.
... And now my kids love to watch them! Classic Ewoks!

 

These movies were great, and were fun. It was a different time I tell you.

 

Another thread back from the dead.

 

Yeah... necro-threading is very poorly looked upon. But on the other hand, I just can't stress enough how I miss those films. And I really don't get why they can't be canon. After all, they showcase extremely contained events that do not contradict any of the other movies.

In fact, I'm working on a project related to those Ewok movies. I want to write some kind of junior novelization of them, trying to tie them with the current canon more explicitely.