Ewoks: Battle For Endor (1985) - FilmReview

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Terak, the Sanyassan warlord who seeks all power

As reviewed previously, 1984 Star Wars spin-off Caravan Of Courage: An Ewok Adventure left a vastly positive impression on my childhood. I was in love with Ewoks, owned most of the Kenner action figures in the 1980s and do consider Return of The Jedi to be my favourite of the original trilogy. The funny thing is I recall seeing Ewoks: The Battle For Endor, the 1985 television movie sequel to Courage, on VHS cassette in a video rental store back in the day. For some reason it wasn't picked up and taken home for a viewing. Perhaps my father refused to rent it out - I never received any pocket money so always had to rely on parental generosity on occasions such as these. In some ways I am now grateful the events of The Battle For Endor were unseen by my younger eyes. How heartbreaking would it have been to witness Cindel Towani, recently reunited with the parents she helped rescue from the Gorax lair in Courage, become an orphan and lose her older brother Mace (Eric Walker) in a Marauder attack on the Ewok village? Cruel, and so unnecessary, clearly bruising the happy ever after nature of the previous installment's conclusion, in my opinion. Still, I promised myself a fresh look at this fantasy sci-fi classic and so DVD disc at the ready...

Escaping the Sanyassan Marauders (who have already captured many Ewoks and are transporting them to their castle), Cindel and Wicket meet up with Teek, a tiny furry rodent-like, simian creature with a faster than light drive installed in his rear - in other words, he can move with incredible speed thanks to an accelerated metabolism. The friendly but mischievous creature leads them back to the hut he shares with Noa Briqualon (Wilford Brimley), a shipwrecked space trader. At first the old man refuses to let his new guests stay, but eventually shows a softer side. Think Heidi (another orphaned little girl created by Swiss author Johanna Spyri) and you get the idea. Besides, who could resist Cindel's porridge and muffins?

One morning the young girl hears a song, the very song her mother used to sing to her, coming from somewhere close by. Investigating, she encounters a beautiful young woman with a white horse. It is, of course, a trap - the woman transforms into Charal, a Nightsister and witch who serves as second-in-command to the Sanyassan warlord who ordered the attack on the Ewoks. Cindel is taken to the castle also as a prisoner. Once there, she learns that Terak (the warlord) wants her to activate a crystal oscillator from a wreckage, believing it will bring him great "power". His lack of knowledge regarding general technology proves him to be an ignorant savage. One wishes a Jedi Knight would rise to show him what true power looks like. Neither Cindel or Charel are able to meet his demands, and are both imprisoned with the Ewoks. Noa, Wicket, and Teek make a daring rescue by scaling the walls and infiltrating the heart of the Marauders.

Heidi and her grandfather. Sorry, Cindel (Aubree Miller) with Noa (Wilford Brimley)

The rescue storyline is comparable to its predecessor though clearly lacking in similar scale and ambition. The Marauders make a poor army and the overall direction feels clumsy. Directors Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat fail to really bring anything new to the table - at least Caravan had the Gorax, evoking thoughts of those early monster features that displayed Ray Harryhausen's work. Hard to believe that the Wheat brothers would go on to write the screenplay for Pitch Black (2000), one of my favourite movies starring Radha Mitchell. I am also a little surprised by Wilford Brimley, who I adore in Cocoon (1985) but fail to enjoy in the role of Noa, he just doesn't feel right in the part. Perhaps it has more to do with the feeling that the character isn't particularly significant, the film instead needing a much stronger Obi-Wan Kenobi-esque hero to lead. Imagine Alp-Öhi (Heidi's grandfather) with a lightsaber. In an interview with Eon Magazine, Ken Wheat said of the movie, "Lucas guided the creation of the story over the course of two four-hour sessions we had with him. He'd just watched Heidi with his daughter the weekend before these took place, and the story idea he pushed was having the little girl from the first Ewok TV movie become an orphan who ends up living with a
grumpy old hermit in the woods. We'd been thinking about the adventure films we'd liked as kids, like Swiss Family Robinson and The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, so we suggested having space marauders, which was fine with George - as long as they were 7 feet tall, of course! The rest of the brainstorming was done along those lines. Joe Johnston (the production designer and second unit director) and Phil Tippett (the creature supervisor) were involved in the second day's story session, and they contributed an assortment of bits and pieces".

Undoing the good of the first instalment to fit Cindel into the Heidi role is very unfortunate, as they could have easily cast a new young actress for an altogether newer role. That said, Aubree Miller is a sweetheart and it is rather nice to see her again, especially as Cindel's friendship with Wicket the Ewok continues to grow. Wicket W. Warrick has been played (in costume) by Warwick Davis in all three Stars Wars movies to feature him, but did you know that it was Darryl Henriques who voiced Wicket in the two Ewok spin-off films? The actor is best known to sc-fi fans as the Romulan Ambassador Nanclus in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). Personally I'm still wondering why Lucas had Wicket talk at all, you don't have to understand a pet dog to be its friend and life companion.

There are many Star Wars fans who loathe Ewoks and their movies, who feel Return of The Jedi (1983) would have been a much better chapter without them. So perhaps I'm in a minority for liking the residents of the Moon of Endor? I just can't help embracing fond childhood memories. The fact that Battle For Endor was not part of that nostalgia might explain my dislike for the story, it's entirely possible.

Remember Daffy, the cross-eyed Gremlin from Gremlins 2? Well Teek quite reminds me of him. There's always one goofball who steals the show, though there isn't anything particularly stupid about him. He's clearly intelligent and loyal, playful and kind. Originally intended to be a puppet, the character was eventually portrayed by Niki Botelho. Actor Brimley had refused to work with a puppet and the quick decision was made to fit someone into costume - sixteen-year old Botelho was chosen from set.

Ewoks: The Battle for Endor premiered as a television special on 24th November 1985. It saw a limited UK theatrical release in the Spring of 1986. It was later released on home video in 1990, and on DVD in 2004 as a double feature paired with its predecessor Caravan of Courage. Neither film are considered canon since Disney's reorganisation of the franchise, I believe, which is a shame. Ewoks: A Star Wars Story would go so nicely with the company's current run of spin-off material. At the very least they should be given a re-release on bluray. I am sure many would rather see old copies burn alongside the body of Anakin Skywalker on his funeral pyre. That's the fun thing about fandom - we are all different...

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Alwyn Ash
Alwyn is a genius with the pen. Give him a keyboard and he's in heaven. He lives in Chester with his personal collection of books, movies and a pocket Universe.
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Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984) - FilmReview

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Cindel and Wicket - the cutest couple in Hollywood.

Originally published on the /G-f website to celebrate Ernest Cline's Ready Player One.

I am one of the lucky ones, I fell in love with Ewoks from their first appearance in Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi, and owned most of the action figures - my collection needing only the Ewok village to complete an otherwise fun set. "You'll live the adventure... You'll love its heroes." The tagline for George Lucas’ 1984 spin-off made-for-TV film promised excitement and adventure, and it certainly delivered. I was ten years old, and Star Wars crazy. Honestly, I was likely crazy about a great many things being so full of wonder with that twinkle in my eye, but the space opera in a “galaxy far, far away...” was unlike anything I’d seen before, or since.

The Caravan of Courage took me further into a world I had briefly experienced through the eyes of rebel soldiers as a last stand against the Galactic Empire took hold. Now, in An Ewok Adventure, we got to explore the forest moon of Endor with two children, Mace and Cindel Towani, who are separated from their parents following a crash landing; unbeknown to them, their mom and dad (played by Fionnula Flanagan and Guy Boyd) have been taken by the Gorax, a giant of a beast that keeps them caged in its mountain lair. It is these very kids that are found by Ewoks and taken back to their village. Mace, being the protective older brother, is temporarily regarded as a threat and bound after he tries to overcome the furry warriors. Thankfully trust is gained and medicine is given to his young sister, who quickly develops a friendship with Wicket, the lively Ewok from Return of the Jedi.

After consulting Logray, the wisest Ewok, Mace and Cindel go on the very adventure promised in the film’s title. They are joined by Wicket and other Ewoks who wish to help reunite the Towani family and defeat the monstrous Gorax. What follows reminds me of Dr Who & The Daleks, the feature length movie that had Peter Cushing’s Dr Who join a group of Thals to infiltrate the Dalek city; both even share a deadly lake. Then again, same could be said about Krull. No wonder I geek out on these films!

The Towani family and Ewoks. They're all furry (very) photogenic.

Caravan of Courage was filmed on a much smaller budget than that available to the original Star Wars trilogy, and it shows. It’s safe to say that the effects haven’t aged well. That aside, it remains a beautiful piece of television history that is just as warm and cuddly as the Ewok animated series that aired the following year. Director John Korty works well with a screenplay by George Lucas and Bob Carrau, and the inserted narrative featuring the voice of Burl Ives gives the film a nice storybook quality perfect for children. Without doubt the true stars of this feature are Eric Walker as Mace, Aubree Miller as Cindel, and Warwick Davis as Wicket. Though Walker and Miller aren’t perfect child actors they do get the job done and manage to deliver touching performances nonetheless.

It is nice to finally explore more of the world’s terrain than just forest, as we get to experience a desert of acid pools and dry lakes, and the treacherous mountainous regions.

Lucas understandably had full control over each step of production, not wishing this to become a second Star wars Holiday Special, which has never been positively received by critics, Star Wars fans, or Lucas himself. Even a TV ad featuring Walker in character to promote the movie was prevented from airing because Lucas disliked it so. There is also the question of the films continuity within the franchise, it has been said that An Ewok Adventure takes place between events depicted in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, but that plausibility doesn’t quite add up – as time progresses, Wicket learns to speak some English thanks to his blossoming friendship with Cindel (as we see in Ewok sequel The Battle For Endor), and yet his encounter with Princess Leia in Jedi clearly projects him as a creature without that ability. It is more than likely that the Ewok movies follow events in the original trilogy, it would also explain why there are so few Ewoks present in Caravan. No? Well, it’s always fun to speculate, and it doesn’t truly matter either way, I’m just glad to experience its light-hearted magic.

What I do find discouraging is the way in which the film has been treated in recent years regarding international release: though a double feature DVD was greenlit to include the sequel, there has been no attempt since at restoring either movie for blu-ray. Whether regarded as canon or not, it would be a shame to overlook the beauty and simplicity of Caravan of Courage – the Star Wars universe is full of wonder, and some of it can be found on the forest moon of Endor.

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Alwyn Ash
Alwyn is a genius with the pen. Give him a keyboard and he's in heaven. He lives in Chester with his personal collection of books, movies and a pocket Universe.
Follow @AlwynAsh

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