Star Wars: Ewok Adventures - Caravan of Courage

• USA • 1984 • 96m •

• Directed by: John Korty. • Starring: Eric Walker, Warwick Davis, Fionnula Flanagan, Guy Boyd, Aubree Miller, Burl Ives, Daniel Frishman, Debbie Lee Carrington, Tony Cox, Kevin Thompson, Margarita Farrell, Pam Grizz, Bobby Bell. • Music by: Peter Bernstein.

The Towani family civilian shuttlecraft crashes on the forest moon of Endor. The four Towani's are separated. Jermitt and Catarine, the mother and father are captured by the giant Gorax, and Mace and Cindel, the son and daughter, are missing when they are captured. The next day, the Ewok Deej is looking for his two sons when they find Cindel all alone in the shuttle (Mace and Cindel were looking for the transmitter to send a distress call), when Mace appears with his emergency blaster. Eventually, the four-year old Cindel is able to convince the teenage Mace that the Ewoks are nice. Then, the Ewoks and the Towani's go on an adventure to find the elder Towanis.

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Trailer #1

1:36

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Review:

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George Lucas made a shrewd marketing move in the early eighties; changing the creatures to feature in 1983's Return of the Jedi from forest-dwelling Wookies, to small, cute and furry Ewoks. Lucas knew where the majority of his money was coming from: Merchandise. Ewoks were the cross-gender Star Wars 'commodity'. Figurines could be manufactured for the boys, so that they may interact with their existing toys; and a cuddly version could also be produced. However, after the release of Return of the Jedi, they no longer had a vehicle of promotion. So, Lucas pens "An Ewok Adventure" (story only), and cheaply produces a TV-movie.

Mace (Eric Walker), a mini-Skywalker, and his little sister Cindel (Aubree Miller), a sickening Curly-fg-Sue, are stranded on the forest moon of Endor after their space cruiser crashed. Their parents Jeremitt (Guy Boyd) and Caterine (Fionnula Flanagan) have been kidnapped by the giant Gorax. The Ewoks discover the ship and take the kids back to their village. Eventually they join forces and form a quest to save the parents. This is aimed directly at kids of course. In 1985, both the "sequel" TV movie Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, and Ewoks: The Animated Series were produced, further exacerbating the kids "nag factor" element of toy marketing.

Oh, how times have changed! Well, I can certainly see this crass cash-in for what it is now that I'm a pseudo-adult. But at the age of 8, this was related to Star Wars. It could well have just been Chewbacca shitting in a basket (or even The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)), but I would have loved it anyway. In hindsight, yes the Ewoks were rubbish anyway. But I admit this was not the case at the time (the shame!). What's even more shameful, is now that I've just watched it for the second time, I have now wasted three hours of my life on it. There are a few, good-for-the-time special effects. But this does not redeem a product of greedy capitalism.

Review by tomgillespie2002 from the Internet Movie Database.

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