The Ewok movies - why a five year old girl as protagonist?

I was just wondering why the Ewok movies had a little girl as the protagonist?

At 4-5 wouldn't there be a lot of trouble remembering lines and even being aware of the complexities of a action-adventure film?

Because it was the will of the force my young jedi friend. Though young she was, a great child acting destiny she had.

For the same reason as this:

I see your point. Part of me feels bad for wishing i could have seen the little girl go up against Palpatine and get squashed.

Wow -- she really was only 4 in the first Ewok movie. I had to check that because I had always assumed she was one of those older children who look younger than they really are. That's insane.

She already has a backstory... and a forward story:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cindel_Towani

Why not a five year old girl as the protagonist?

Cindel was pretty likeable and I had no qualms with her being the main character. The Ewok movie duology was more or less aimed at a younger audience and this way with a young kid in the lead role worked pretty well; she also made a good counterpart to Wicket, much since they were both young.

And what does her gender matter?

Hollywood often goes for ultra-cutesy and ultra feminine little girls to pull at the audience's heart strings. Hopefully Cindel doesn't play with dolls or have a tea party with her, some stuffed animals and one real person.

What's wrong with girls being feminine?

I say we give these girls stubble and a smoking habit, and paint their Easy Bake Ovens blue and black! If even one boy is marginalized by the Pink Oppression, then we all fail as a society!

People won't have to worry about whether it's going to be a happy ending or a bad ending if the protagonist is a five-year-old.

By the way, Ewoks did butcher my men on the Forest Moon. They're little monsters! I want revenge...
Gonna bombard Endor with my Star Destroyer!

And then, I am going to Naboo! I have to settle a score with the Gungans too!

I think little girl heroes aren't that effective or credible. Creepy children in fiction are often little girls because the author wants to subvert the nurturer stereotype.

The BBC didn't allow Doctor Who to have a female villain in the Jon Pertwee era because the executives said "No, No, No, you can't have women as evil! Women are the mothers and nurturers!"

This was made for small kds, that's why.

Yeah, Ewoks was typical campy 80's. It's not part of my Star Wars canon, I can assure you.

One can't have a personal canon.

The protagonist is a little girl because a) they're movies aimed at young children, or b) it was chance/destiny/will of the force. Take your pick!

Oh, you don't get so annoyed at things when you have your personal canon. For starters, the Death Star plans aren't stolen 9 times. And then "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" is destroyed.

Besides, if you count everything as canon, that means the Holiday Special is too.

I couldn't give a pudu about canon related issues in fiction to be honest. If it's a good story I enjoy it, if it's not, never mind. Canon gets in the way of a lot of genre fiction, especially the EU.

all me have to say to that is borkus

Wow. You find it that unbelievable that a little girl can be a hero? Is she supposed to be playing with dollhouses, crying and singing "Someday My Prince Will Come"?

I really hope I'm misunderstanding you. If not--1958 called, it wants its mentality back.

I'll address the age aspect from a children's literature standpoint: there are always exceptions but generally speaking, a children's book is geared towards children a year younger than the protagonist. I haven't seen the Ewok Adventures so I don't know what the storyline is like, but is it possible that it's geared towards four-year-olds?

It was once thought that boys would not be drawn to a story with a female protagonist, but that's been proven wrong. Generally speaking it can be harder to convince boys to read a story with female protagonists who talk about hairstyles and manicures and whine for men to rescue them from tall towers, but action-oriented stories have been shown to draw in a male audience regardless of the gender of the protagonist. The exception, of course, would be male audience members who find strong women threatening.

I'm annoyed by cliche little girls. Arya Stark (8-year old) from "A Song of Ice and Fire" though - she's fantastic!

EDIT: Should mention cliche little boys annoy me too. It's not gender-dependent.

I don't like cliche'd characters either, but I addressing the PP's statement that little girl heroes aren't "effective" or "credible," which I read as "a little girl can't be a hero [but a little boy could]."

Oh, well then I completely agree with you.