The last article I wrote was about The Ewok Adventure, AKA Caravan of Courage. The last made-for-TV-Star–Wars-movie so popular, Lucasfilm made another one. This one is called The Battle for Endor. Not sure if it’s a battle for all of Endor, just a Ewok tribe against some Marauders. But, whatever.
I remember when it came on TV in 1985. However, when I went to watch it live, the opening forest battle at night scared the crap out of me and I went to bed, not seeing any of the Ewoks I came to love from Return of the Jedi. I sat down to watch this movie (maybe for the first time ever, I don’t remember anything) and it turns out that NONE of what I remember is correct. The movie continues to follow the adventures of a stranded family, the Towanis. They crash-landed on Endor during the last movie and have made quick friends with the native Ewoks. Cindel and Wicket (the most popular Ewok ever) are close friends. Wicket and the rest of the Ewoks have picked up a remarkable amount of English and we don’t have to rely on Mace yelling at them and pantomiming what he wants. Suddenly, the cutesy moment is interrupted (don’t worry, there are plenty of cutesey moments ahead) and the Ewoks are brutally attacked by Marauders. Cindel literally watches her entire family killed, including the hero of the last movie, her brother Mace. The only other family member we see alive is her father, this time played by a different actor: THE PRINCIPAL FROM THE BREAKFAST CLUB! Anyways, all the family members are more or less killed off-screen, as not to traumatize younger viewers (too late for a young me, however). The Marauders are led by Terek, and accompanied by a witch named Charal. Charal can use a red ring of evil to transform herself into a crow. Terek is looking for “The Power!” Turns out the Power is coaxium. I did go a little meta on that one for you (thanks, Solo) but it looks like some kind of power core for a spaceship.
Yes, in typical Star Wars fashion, George Lucas decided to make Cindel an orphan. What about all that b.s. in Caravan about the importance of family and courage, George? Well, that got thrown out the door. Cindel and the remaining Ewoks are thrown into a carriage made of bones and wood, pulled by a beast. Coincidentally, these are the same beasts that were showcased in an article by The Hollywood Reporter about Jon Favreau and The Mandalorian TV show! Favreau really is taking components from different Star Wars properties! Animating the beasts is the best looking thing ILM did in this entire TV movie! They looked great and were consistently life-like! I don’t know how the Marauders or Charal came to Endor, but they don’t know anything about space travel. Or coaxium.
Cindel and Wicket escape and while stranded on a mountain, build a freakin’ Ewok hang-glider made of bone and cloth! The hang-glider works under pressure (Cindel is captured by a cross between a velociraptor and a dragon) and Wicket and Cindel are again safe.
Now we meet Wilfred Brimley, internationally known grandpa-type figure and lover of Quaker Oats. However, he goes all Old Man Luke Skywalker on us and is very gruff towards young orphaned and traumatized Cindel. He plays Noa, a scout who crash-landed on Endor sometime before with his buddy Salek. Noa probably has diabetes.
However, we all know that Noa’s gruffness is just a front. He soon becomes a loving grandpa-type and takes care of both Wicket and Cindel. Noa has a cutesy buddy, Teek. Teek can go super-fast, a great special effect. We also find out that Noa’s been repairing his star cruiser to get off Endor. Cindel is once again captured by the Witch Charal and brought to the Marauder’s castle.
Now, to the ending! The castle looks like a refurbished Jabba’s palace, complete with stairs and a dungeon (wonder if they used the same set). Terek wants Cindel to unlock The Power or else. Since Terek doesn’t trust Charal, she’s locked up too. Wicket, Noa and Teek come to rescue Cindel and sneak past all the Marauders. 2 of them are guards in the dungeon, playing Sabacc (hey, the cards look the same and it’s the only Star Wars poker game I know of). They are quickly taken out and the surviving Ewoks are freed along with Cindel. They don’t let Charal out of her cage.. Noa does find the skeleton of his buddy Salek, which is how the Marauders know about “The Power” in the first place. To help find the prisoners, Terek lets Charal out of her cage, but takes her ring as soon as she transforms. There’s a big battle near Noa’s ship and Ewoks have figured out how to fire a blaster and use a catapult. Finally, Terek and Noa fight, walking stick vs. giant sword/scimitar. Just as the good guys are about to lose, Wicket lets loose with his slingshot (which he had so much trouble with in Jedi) and destroys the magic ring tied around Terek’s neck. It looks like he’s being roasted alive and he’s apparently turned into stone. Charal is stuck being a crow and can’t turn back into human form. She leaves. The battle won and coaxium being used to “Power” the ship, Cindel and Noa give a teary goodbye to Teek, Wicket and the rest of the Ewoks. The end.
Once again, I have no idea the time frame of this movie in relation to Return of the Jedi. In this movie, the Ewoks speak pidgin English which would have come in handy for the Rebels. The Marauders and their beasts would have helped the Empire, I’m sure. On the opposite end, the Ewoks had no problem using blasters to kill Marauders. Teek, being all super-fast, would have been a great help to the Rebel Alliance when they were attacking the Death Star. Imagine how quick he could have taken out those Stormtroopers? I also think it would have been unbelievably cool to have our Rebel heroes come across this human-like statue in the middle of the Endor forest. Ivy and other flora and fauna growing all over it, a rusted scimitar on the ground next to it. There’s also an evil crow flying around Endor.
In the last article I discussed what happened to the actual actors in the movie some 30 years later. But what about their Star Wars characters? Cindel has kept a pretty low profile in the modern Disney-era Star Wars, but was mentioned briefly in the old-school Expanded Universe. She apparently became a rule-breaking journalist during the Black Fleet Crisis (also the name of the book trilogy by Michael Kube-McDowell in 1996). The only thing Wookieepedia says about Noa is that he retired to the Mid Rim. But, his Star Wars legacy lives on. Teek apparently spent the rest of his life on Endor with the Ewoks.
What I find most interesting is that as I was watching the Ewoks, a news story came in that actually had to do with my present Ewok interest. Syfy.com stated that Charal, our evil witch is actually a Nightsister from Dathomir, the same place Darth Maul and his kin came from. She was going to be used in a Clone Wars episode, but Dave Filoni decided against it. Once Disney took over Lucasfilm, Charal became just another stranded witch on Endor.
I hope you enjoyed this little sojourn down Ewok history, a vital part of past Star Wars magic and history. During the time I watched the movie and wrote this article, at least two news stories came out that showed I was going down the right path. Yub nub.