‘Star Wars’ Month: Come Take A Wild Ride With The Ewoks TV Movies

Remember when the Galactic Empire was felled because of furry, cute, (potentially) people-eating teddy-bear-looking creatures called Ewoks? Anyone who watched the original trilogy will recall how it all came to that precise end with Return of the Jedi.

They were little furry murderers that beat back one of the most brutal armies around and were never seen again. Wait, what’s that? They were?

Next, you’re going to tell me that they had their own movies. Oh gosh, guess what? They did! Just not on the big screen. Long before watching Star Wars on your television became a normal thing, there were two TV movies that brought those Ewoks into a deeper, kind of fever-dream-esque, focus.

So, strap in folks as we take a brief, but impactful look, at Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.

While I wasn’t there to see either film when they first debuted, these were some of the earliest Star Wars media that I watched as a child. Pretty sure I saw them before I even saw the original trilogy films which just feels wrong and wild on every level. I’ve realized in recent times that I watched a lot of films (both those aimed at kids and those not) that had some screwed-up elements that rocked child me and some of them still haunt me today.

Fresh off the mess that was The Star War Holiday Special, George Lucas decided to take firmer control over what was originally set to be a half-hour television project about the Ewoks. Gasp, shock, I know, Lucas taking firm control over something and the output being a bit odd and seemingly hard to fit into established canon. Good thing this was the one and only time he would do something like that.

Anyway, back to the Ewoks.

Long story short, no networks would touch a half-hour special, maybe they were still seeing images of Lumpy (Patty Maloney) in their heads. In the end, ABC offered up a desire for a full two-hour movie of the week. Lucas and his cohorts shifted to fill the order.

The Ewok Adventure, as Caravan of Courage was known when it first aired in 1984, is a more straightforward kind of kid’s fantasy affair. Essentially, the Towani family is stranded on the forest moon of Endor, and their children, Mace (Eric Walker) and Cindel (Aubree Miller), are left on their own when parents Catarine (Fionnula Flanagan) and Jermitt (Guy Boyd) go missing. Enter the cuddly and still dangerous Ewoks, who take the kids in before the familiar Wicket (Warwick Davis, Darryl Henriques) ends up befriending Cindel.

Turns out their parents have been captured by a ferocious (and somehow even more dangerous than the Ewoks) beast known as the Gorax. With some Lord of the Rings style energy, a caravan of Ewoks is formed to help reunite parents and children. We get to see the boisterous woodsman Chukha-Trok (Kevin Thompson), the Ewok priestess Kaink (Margarita Fernandez), and Izrina the glowing queen of the fairy-folk Wisties.

Oh, before I forget, turns out that for some reason the Ewoks now can speak English — aka galactic Basic — and have magic abilities. Because … reasons! I mean, we all know those reasons are about assuming what kids want and what works best for them from grown adults who are not around a lot of kids regularly.

Some typical mishaps go down before the party can reach the Gorax for their final battle. These include tree eels or something and creepy spider creatures, because of course, and a really wild looking boar creature born of the era’s stop motion techniques. Get a load of that Gorax right there below, real charmer that one.

In the final battle, poor Chukha-Trok is fatally wounded, a familiar trope of many kid-related features, but the caravan succeeds in recusing the Towani parents. In typical fashion, the bad guy seems defeated only to leap out of a chasm for a final attack. Mace gets his murder-on Ewok style by using the fallen Chukha-Trok’s axe to get it square in the back. Show that giant uglier-than-a-Wookiee, troll-looking beast who’s boss Mace!

All’s well that ends well when the family decides to kick it with the Ewoks until they can repair their ship. Happily, ever after then, I’m sure.

Silly readers! Of course that wouldn’t be the case. There is a sequel to go over after all. And oh, does this one get weird.

Six months after the first adventure, the Towani family has repaired their ship and is ready to leave the moon of Endor. Too bad for them, Lucas decided that a happy family isn’t good for stories, and orphans are all the rage.

That’s right, in Battle for Endor, all of the Towani family (save the young girl Cindel) are killed while protecting the Ewoks from a group of marauders. According to Ben Wheat, one of the film’s co-directors, the creative direction of the film came from Lucas himself. Wheat, in an interview with the former EON Magazine, stated that the story was created in two four-hour sessions with Lucas. The franchise creator had been watching Heidi with his daughter recently and decided the story would be better with the little girl become and orphan who ends up teamed up with a grumpy old hermit in the woods.

That grumpy old man was the eternally old-looking and definitely grumpy Wilford Brimley, who played the hermit Noa Briqualon — a human being who, for some reason, is living on Endor and acting like another human would dare show up here. Some typical white man stuff right there.

Many Ewoks were captured during the battle, led by the Marauder leader Terak (Carel Struycken) and his witch-sorceress, Charal (Siân Phillips). They believe a piece from the Towani’s ship is magic and want to capture Cindel in the hopes she will explain the power cells secrets. Again, some pretty typical kid-focused movie trappings. There’s a whole creepy sequence in which Cindel is lured to the woods because she hears a song her mother used to sing, only for it to turn out to be Charal doing some witch shape-shifting stuff.

There are rescue sequences and more battles as the group takes back the power cell to use in the conveniently power-cell-missing crashed ship Noa owns. Ewoks are beaten around, Cindel gets captured again, Noa puts on a brave, grumpy man face to take on Tarek himself, and Wicket comes in with the clutch save via another murder.

Oh, and the witch gets trapped in a bird form, because that’s a just punishment for someone who tricks children with their mother’s song and voice.

Are these good movies? Oh, goodness no! Even when put into the scope of the era they came from, they are so cheesy, they would top multiple pizzas easily. When looked at from that ’80s scope, though, they aren’t that far off in tone from other, better-known films.

I mean, they’re TV movies, and we all know that those are either really memorable because they are great or so bad. There’s not a real middle ground with the format.

If you’re looking for some silly, wild films full of furry-teddy-bear-committed murders and children being orphaned to hang out with old men, well here’s your next double feature night. Just grab some pizza, maybe some drinks, and turn your brain off for a bit.