Return of the Jedi came out in 1983. I’m pretty sure it’s the first movie I really remember seeing in the theaters when it first came out. What I don’t remember is the first Ewok movie that came out on TV shortly after in 1984. This is The Ewok Adventure, AKA Caravan of Courage. I remember seeing the beginning of the second TV movie, but it scared the crap out of an 9-year-old me (more on that later). What I do know is that I had an audio cassette version of story, so a lot of the beats were familiar to me. For people of a certain age, the Ewoks were their Star Wars, a defining moment. Fun fact: I owned this movie a few years ago, but sold it. I recently bought another copy because I missed having it in my collection.
Watching this movie I realized that it’s more Lord of the Rings than Star Wars. There’s a band of unlikely travelers going to a distant land to stop an evil monster from killing people and they all get gifts from a mysterious shaman. First off, the acting is pretty bad. But, let’s face it: there’s two young kids and a bunch of little people in restrictive costumes. An Academy Award-winning presentation, this is not. It’s distinctively 1980’s and very Star Wars. Did I mention it’s narrated by Burl Ives? At one point, I thought he would introduce a magical talking snowman.
The little girl, Cindel, has a wet face and coughing for the first part of the movie, then cries a lot. The boy, Mace (obviously named for the mysterious ******* Jedi who saved the family’s life years before) is an annoying, whiny little guy – then again, he’s partnering up with teddy bears who don’t speak English all the time. Mace looks like Luke Skywalker in his orange jumpsuit and Cindel is wearing a white uniform like Princess Leia. But with a stylin’ ‘80’s headband to round out the ensemble. On another note, the mother is played by Fionnula Flanagan, who would later go on to greater fame as Daniel Faraday’s awful mother on Lost. Looking down the Ewok cast list, Warwick Davis (no relation to me, as far as I know) and others are all pretty well-known names when it comes to Star Wars fame. The greatest/weirdest Ewok is the aptly named Chukha-Trok. He’s bigger than most Ewoks, laughs a lot and carries an axe. He’s a woodsman and hunter.
We meet Wicket and his family (most of whom were in Jedi) and find they have a lot of Earth pets – ferrets, alpacas, etc. ILM saves the day again with their awesome creatures. There’s a grey wolf-thingee that looked great, wisites (little Tinkerbell-type creatures that were roughly animated into the footage) and the Gorax. The Gorax is a giant monster that lives on the other side of Endor, played by an actor in makeup and costume. Giant spiders (another Rings influence) were the one creature that looked awful, like a papier-mâché creation. The background scenery and matte paintings look great, a uniquely Star Wars trait. Mace continues to yell at the Ewoks and be massively annoying. Along the way, we meet Ewok magicians and situations that border on the downright silly and too cutesy. Endor has a massive amount of different, dangerous environments. Not to mention an over packed horse that looked like it was ready to fall over. I doubt the ASPCA was on set for that one.
Our heroes finally make it to the Forbidden Fortress of the Gorax (hey that’s how it was billed as). We then proceed to what is the film’s most exciting sequence and ending. It’s Star Wars meets Lord of the Rings meets Jack and the Beanstalk. Along the way, Mace learns about friendship and not being annoying. Chukha-Trok dies heroically, giving his prized possession, his axe, to Mace. An axe that comes in handing for chopping down spider webs and throwing into Goraxes who made one too many “surprise—I’m not dead” jump cuts. Anyways, the families (Ewok and human) are all back together with no way off the planet and celebrate with music and awkward dancing. According to Burl Ives, we learned that courage, loyalty and love will save the day.
So when in the Star Wars timeline is this movie? Wicket and the Ewoks have a basic understanding of Basic (that’s English to you and me) like “starcruiser…crashed!” or “we will help you.” This could have come in handy when the Ewoks were trying to eat Han Solo and 3P0 was trying to stop them. Also, the Empire could have totally used a gigantic beast like the Gorax to take down rebel scum. Chukha-Trok could have been a great ally against the Empire if he survived.
So where are our actors now? Looking at IMDB.com, I realized that the two lead actors in the movie were both teenagers. Warwick Davis, obviously, went on to a long career as a Lucasfilm actor (Willow, Harry Potter, and Star Wars Celebration) as did most of the other Ewok actors in Jedi and Caravan. Even Bad Santa actor Tony Cox had a starring role. Eric Walker, who played the annoying Mace, went on to act in the ‘80’s classic Less than Zero, with Robert Downey Jr. I think he was supposed to be the next teen idol but doesn’t have very many movies or starring roles under his belt. He’s now a behind-the-scenes production guy and musician. The little girl, Cindel, is now grown up. She’s Aubree Miller and didn’t act after the two Ewok movies. She’s also a behind-the-scenes person.
It’s not really a great movie, kind belongs in Star Wars lore next to The Holiday Special. I supposed you could look at like a prototype Rogue One Star Wars Story-type TV movie. But hey, it’s still Star Wars and has a special place in my heart. Apparently this movie was popular enough to TV viewers that Lucasfilm made a second Ewok movie, which I’ll review next!
