After the original Star Wars trilogy concluded, the saga continued with two TV movies released
over the course of two years that, while often overlooked now, remain fascinating installments
in the overall franchise. Decades after they originally aired, it's time to talk about
The Ewok Adventures.
In 1983, Star Wars seemingly ended its story with Return of the Jedi, the third film in
the original trilogy, which saw the defeat of Darth Vader and the Emperor, and the triumph
of the Rebel Alliance. Though George Lucas' prequel films wouldn't actually come along
for more than a decade, he still wanted to continue telling Star Wars stories in some
form. This started with Ewoks, the furry creatures from Return of the Jedi, and what was initially
going to be an Ewok Holiday Special for TV. As discussions about the Ewok story went on,
the story expanded to feature length, and the name was changed from a holiday theme
to The Ewok Adventure, in order to avoid associations with the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special
from 1978. Eventually known as Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure, the first film
was shot in the California Redwood forests near Skywalker Ranch, and premiered on ABC
in November of 1984.
At the time the first Ewok Adventure was conceived, the creatures were only known for their appearance
in Return of the Jedi, and Lucas and company wanted to keep the story standalone. As a
result, the first film contains very few of the hallmarks we associate with Star Wars.
The Ewoks themselves, and their forest moon home on Endor, are just as we remember them.
Aside from that, there's not much to make the film look like Star Wars. The character
Mace Towani wears an orange flight suit and carries a blaster, and there's one starcruiser,
but that's about it.
This sense of separation from the main Star Wars saga begs the question of when exactly
the films are set, and there was initially a little bit of disagreement on that front.
In an interview with Empire, star Eric Walker recalled that the original plan was to set
the films decades after Return of the Jedi, completely separate from the main saga. Later,
though, Lucasfilm placed the two Ewok Adventures on the timeline between the events of The
Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, which means the Ewok Wicket and his friends
were dealing with humans well before Princess Leia showed up.
Caravan of Courage, the first Ewok Adventure, is the story of Cindel and Mace Towani. The
young siblings find themselves stranded on Endor after their family starship crashes
and their parents are abducted by a giant monster called the Gorax. We know the creature's
name, as well as the names of the Ewoks, because the entire affair is narrated by none other
than legendary singer and actor Burl Ives. Ives' cool, calm voice gives many of the Ewok-only
sequences the feel of a nature documentary.
"Deej will use his skin glider to search for his missing sons."
Though Mace is initially hostile toward the Ewoks in part because he can't understand
them, Cindel and Wicket become friends. The Ewoks then win Mace's trust by finding medicine
for Cindel when she gets sick. It's here that magic first enters the picture, as the Ewoks
take Cindel and Wicket to the mystical Ewok Logray, who shows them their parents in captivity
at the fortress of the Gorax. Mace and Cindel beg the Ewoks for help, and a select few are
chosen to travel to the Gorax's mountainous lair to stage a rescue with the help of some
magical artifacts.
The fantasy feel only deepens as Caravan of Courage heads into its third act. Our heroes
discover everything from a wayfinding arrowhead hidden in a rock to giant spiders patrolling
a massive web inside the Gorax's cave. When they eventually do reach the lair of the Gorax,
Mace finds his parents in a giant wooden cage, and with the help of the Ewoks manages to
free them. While fleeing The Gorax, the Ewok Chukha-Trok dies when rocks
fall on him. Together with the humans, the Ewoks manage to kill the Gorax by causing
it to fall into a pit, and Mace uses Chukha-Trok's axe to take revenge for his fallen friend.
Though there are hints of Star Wars here, the whole thing plays out much more like a
fantasy adventure. If you'd never seen a Star Wars film before this one, you might not think
the franchise has much to do with stars at all.
Caravan of Courage proved to be a massive success, garnering 65 million viewers and
two Emmy nominations, and setting the stage for a sequel.
At the request of his daughter, who was saddened by Chukha-Trok's death, Lucas left out any
Ewok fatalities in the second film, but everything else was wide open. Together, the creative
team hashed out an even bigger fantasy saga that introduced a number of new threats and
characters into Ewok lore. The result was Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, which aired on
ABC almost a year to the day after the first film in November 1985.
The Battle for Endor opens just as the Towani family are preparing to depart Endor in their
newly repaired starship, but things soon get ugly. A group of Marauders led by the evil
Terak and his shapeshifting witch sidekick Charal storms the ship, murdering the entire
family save for Cindel. Wicket, who's learned to speak broken English at this point, decides
to keep Cindel safe no matter what.
While wandering in the forest, Cindel and Wicket meet a super-fast rabbit-like creature
named Teek. Teek shows them to the hut of Noa, a hermit who crash-landed on Endor years
earlier and had no choice but to stay when he couldn't repair his own ship. Noa is angry
at first to see strangers, even though one of them is a helpless child, but he agrees
to look after Cindel and Wicket when they insist they have no place to go.
Meanwhile, at the castle of the Marauders, Charal tries to unlock the "power" of the
fuel cell from the Towani family spaceship, because Terak is convinced that it's magic
and wants to exploit it for himself. When Charal can't do what he wants, Terak orders
her to find Cindel, believing she will know how to unlock it.
Charal uses her magic ring, which allows her to change shape, to turn into a beautiful
woman and lure Cindel into a trap. She takes the girl back to Terak, who demands Cindel
give him "the power." When Cindel reveals she doesn't know how to do anything with the
fuel cell, he throws Cindel in jail along with Charal, taking her ring. Meanwhile, Noa,
Wicket, and Teek begin to plan a rescue mission. They infiltrate the Marauders' castle, and
free Cindel.
Enraged, Terak frees Charal in bird form and launches a full-scale attack on the Ewok village.
The creatures defend themselves much as they do in Return of the Jedi, using things like
rolling logs as traps. As the Marauders keep coming, Noa powers up his ship, but Terak
recaptures Cindel. Noa demands a duel with Terak with Cindel's life on the line, and
as they fight, Wicket uses his sling to hit the magic ring around Terak's neck. With the
ring destroyed, Terak turns to ash, and Charal is left in bird form forever with no ring
to change her back.
With the Marauders defeated, Cindel says goodbye to Wicket and leaves Endor onboard Noa's starship.
As we've already discussed, the Ewok Adventures films are only loosely connected to the rest
of the Star Wars universe. The decision to set them between Star Wars Episode V and VI,
however, creates a number of interesting implications that the films never take the time to explore.
The most obvious of these is that, by the time of The Battle for Endor, Wicket speaks
English frequently with Cindel.
“Cindel, safe now."
In the film itself, this is simply to cut out the need for a narrator the second time
around. If you think about it in a larger context, though, it makes you wonder why he
never broke that skill out when he met Princess Leia a short while later.
Even more broadly, why are the Ewoks so friendly with Cindel and Mace, but so hostile to Luke,
Han, and Chewbacca when they meet them? Are they just spooked by the weapons? Did the
run-in with the Marauders make them nervous?
When they first appear in Return of the Jedi, the Ewoks are depicted as a relatively simple
tree-dwelling people who've clearly defined a somewhat primitive culture for themselves.
When it comes to their supernatural beliefs or religion, we know that they seem to worship
C-3PO as a god upon seeing him.
"I do believe they think I am some sort of god."
That suggests some kind of belief in a deity, but that's all the film really takes the time
to give us.
The Ewok movies presented a really interesting opportunity to expand on the creatures' supernatural
beliefs. Caravan of Courage in particular decided to take advantage of that opportunity,
and revealed new layers of the Ewok culture through the use of magic. The Ewok shaman
Logray in particular seemed to have a real command of the magical arts, and before the
Caravan set out on its quest, he offered the Ewoks and their friends a series of sacred
tokens tied to Ewok warrior legends. These tokens include a magic crystal with hypnotic
powers, a magic candle that seems to summon light fairy creatures, a walking stick that
can pass through magical barriers, and a rock which hides a magical arrowhead. The film
never has time to expand on where these artifacts came from or how they work, but they all suggest
a much deeper Ewok culture lurking beneath the surface of the films.
The Star Wars heroes of the original trilogy spend a lot of time on Endor in Return of
the Jedi, and over the course of that film we get the impression that it would be a relatively
peaceful planet if not for the Empire. The Ewoks clearly have weapons and know how to
fight, but most of their weapons look more like what you'd use for hunting than war.
Outside of all that Imperial interference, they seem to have a pretty quiet and happy
life in the trees. With the Empire out of the picture for the Ewok movies, Lucasfilm
had to come up with other threats for the characters to fight, and that's when it became
clear that Endor is actually a pretty terrifying place to live.
Even setting aside the main antagonists of each film like the Gorax and the Marauders,
there are a lot of terrifying, deadly creatures to contend with on the forest moon. In Caravan
of Courage alone, the Ewoks and their human friends must contend with a massive beast
called a boar-wolf, the tree-dwelling trapper known as a Temptor, and most memorably, gigantic
spiders that dwell in a massive web inside the Gorax's mountain fortress. No wonder the
Ewoks are so good with spears and slings.
We've covered the plot, setting, and interconnected mythology of the Ewok Adventures films, and
now we arrive at the question of their present relevance. Are the Ewok Adventures considered
canonical?
The short answer is no, which explains why we haven't seen a Blu-ray release yet
The longer answer is that for a long time the films were considered a canonical part of
the Expanded Universe along with countless other stories that formed a mammoth Star Wars
timeline. That all changed in 2014 when, after Disney purchased the company and launched
new plans for the franchise, Lucasfilm revealed that the Expanded Universe as we knew it would
draw to a close.
This announcement meant that all stories previously produced, other than the six core Star Wars
films and The Clone Wars animated series, were rendered non-canonical. However, the
rollback also created an opportunity for old EU characters to be reintroduced later. That
means that while the Ewok Adventures films aren't canon anymore, there's always a chance
someone could decide to throw something like the Gorax into a new tale.
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