| The SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review |
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| Science-Fiction |
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| Horror |
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| Fantasy |
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THE EWOK ADVENTURE
aka
CARAVAN OF COURAGE; THE EWOK MOVIE
Rating: 
USA. 1984.
Director/Photography – John Korty, Screenplay – Bob Carrau, Story – George Lucas, Producer – Thomas G. Smith, Music – Peter Bernstein, Visual Effects – Industrial Light and Magic (Supervisor – John McLeod), Stop Motion Animation – Jon Berg & Phil Tippett, Production Design – Joe Johnston. Production Company – Lucasfilm/Korty Films.
Cast:
Eric Walker (Mace), Aubree Miller (Cindel), Warwick Davis (Wicket), Dan Fisherman (Deej), Debbie Carrington (Weechee), Tony Cox (Widdle), Guy Boyd (Jeremitt), Fionulla Flanagan (Catarine)
Plot: A family crash on Endor in their space shuttle. The parents are captured by a cannibalistic giant, but the two children, Mace and Cindel, escape and are taken in by the Ewoks. They persuade the Ewoks to aid them rescuing their parents. And so they all set out on a journey to the giant’s cave in a faraway valley, a journey filled by many perils and magical marvels.
Return of the Jedi (1983) was the most crassly commercial of all George Lucas’s sequels to Star Wars (1977). There were times the film felt like an extended commercial for the toy companies. Most annoying to audiences in the double digit age group was the introduction of the squirm-inducingly cute Ewok teddybears. Following his retirement of the series in 1983, Lucas then further expanded the adventures of the Ewoks in this made-for-tv movie, which received a cinema release outside of the United States under the title Caravan of Courage. It would be followed by a sequel and then an animated series, Ewoks (1986), which further attempted to milk all possible cuteness out of the characters.
The crassness of Lucas’s attempt to cash-in on his own bandwagon cannot help but dilute the impact of his original vision. On a juvenile level the film is undemandingly pleasant, albeit doused in heavy doses of sentimentality. The fantasy elements – cyclopean giants, magicians, fairies, magic pools – are played up even more so than they were in the Star Wars films – the film is far closer to being an epic fantasy film a la Lucas’s own Willow (1988) than it is to the sf of Star Wars. The scripting is jerky and episodic – far too much time is spent muddling around the Ewok village at the start. The special effects, intended for the small screen, are very grainy in cinematic blow-up, and far below the standards that ILM employed on the rest of the Star Wars films. While the midgets in the teddy bear suits are okay, male lead Eric Walker is far too awkward to carry the film, although the younger Aubree Miller is much better. The whole affair is really dreadfully insipid and cutsie.
This was followed by a slightly better tv movie sequel Ewoks and the Marauders of Endor/Ewoks II: The Battle for Endor (1986), which also starred Miller and was given a cinematic release outside the US.
Copyright Richard Scheib 1990
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