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Essentially a ploy to snag the littlies (an indication of
things to come perhaps?), and in turn, sell a titanic’s
worth of plush toys, the Ewok’s fell somewhere between
Yoda and Jar Jar Binks – charming to an extent but ultimately
superfluous and out of place.
In Australia, among other territories, both Caravan of
Courage and The Battle for Endor received theatrical
releases – and for the most part, did reasonably well.
It wasn’t an indication of how solid the films were,
but more a sense of how huge the Star Wars fanbase was down
under.
Both about as good as each other and both pretty much aimed
squarely at a primary school-aged audience, Caravan
centres on a couple of kids who crash-land on Endor and have
to seek the assistance of the Ewoks to find their parents,
whilst Endor has an army of Marauders, led by King
Terak and the witch Charal, attacking the Ewoks village and
leaving Wicket and Cindel (the pint-sized blondie from the
first film) left to save the day.
Light years from the atrocious “Star Wars Holiday Special”
but still several laps behind the fantastic Star Wars trilogy,
the Ewok films are a welcome addition to DVD - but one can’t
envision them being watched too recurrently – they’re
a once-a-decade revisit.
DVD Extras
More disappointing than the scratchy, dark, artefact-heavy
transfers are the lack of extras. Surely all of the Ewoks
haven’t been flooded in work since? Not one of them could
provide commentary or be plonked in front of a lens for a
doco? What about an interview with the Fox executive who actually
signed off on these telemovies?
Never the less, this “Ewok” double feature is something
all fans of the Force will no doubt still want to add to their
DVD collection anyway.
Conclusion: Movie 65% Extras 0%
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