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The Ewok Adventure (1984) is an American made-for-TV film set in the Star Wars galaxy. It was released theatrically overseas as Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure, and is known by that title today. The film focuses on the struggles of a brother and sister, stranded on the forest moon of Endor, in locating their parents, who have been kidnapped by a monster known as the Gorax. The film is set sometime between the fifth and sixth episodes of the Star Wars saga. It is the first of two spin-off films of . It is the second film produced, however, in a total of three Star Wars spin-off films.
Setting The film is set sometime between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi (hence an interquel), and approximately six months before the film's sequel . As the film opens, the Towani family's starcruiser has crashed on the forest moon of Endor, and the Towani parents, Jeremitt and Catarine cannot locate their children, Mace and Cindel. Plot summary
Cast
Inspiration and creative control The original impetus for The Ewok Adventure was an idea George Lucas had for a one-hour television special dealing with the Ewoks, but this was eventually expanded into two hours. Lucas had ventured into TV six years earlier with The Star Wars Holiday Special, which although economically successful for the most part, had proved to be a disaster and embarrassment to Lucas. With The Ewok Adventure, Lucas assumed full control over the content and production of the film, to ensure a film of good quality. One such event during production which exemplifies this need for creative control was around the time when the film neared completion. The production crew had prepared a script and shot a TV advertisement for the upcoming release. The ad featured Mace, Cindel, and Wicket walking into a diner, which was set in the 50's, where they ordered milkshakes. Mace turns to the camera, and says something to the effect of "Don't forget to tune in to The Ewok Adventure, on November 25." When Lucas was shown the commercial for his personal approval, he disliked the idea, and prevented the commercial from airing, as he didn't like the idea of having his characters appearing on earth in the 50's. Crew Working from a story written by George Lucas, and a screenplay by Bob Carrau, director John Korty transformed the scenic northern California redwood forests into the forest moon of Endor. Joe Johnston, an art director at Industrial Light & Magic for years and one of the key concept artists of the classic Star Wars trilogy, acted as production designer. Prior to this movie, Johnston had written and illustrated a book about Ewoks, The Adventures of Teebo: A Tale of Magic and Suspense. This gave him a background to the arboreal aliens that was crucial in designing new Ewoks and their surroundings. Effects Both Ewok films were some of the last intensive stop-motion animation work ILM produced, as in the early 80s, the technique was being replaced by go-motion animation, a more advanced form with motorized articulated puppets that moved while the camera shutter was open, capturing motion blur in the otherwise static puppet, eliminating the harsh staccato movement often associated with stop-motion. However, the budgets of the Ewok films were such that go-motion was simply too expensive for the projects, so stop-motion was used to realize creatures such as the condor dragon, the blurrgs, and the boar-wolves. The Ewok movies proved an opportunity for Industrial Light & Magic to hone a technique from 2001: A Space Odyssey. This technique, used in photographing matte paintings, is called latent image matte painting. In this technique, during live action photography, a section of the camera's lens blocked off, remaining unexposed, and a painting would be crafted to occupy that space. The film would then be rewound, the blocked areas reversed, and the painting photographed. Since the painting now existed on the original film, there would be no generational quality loss. Selected plot elements While the original Star Wars trilogy only had the Force, magic and mysticism were quite prevalent in the Ewok films. Witches, wizards, giants and fairies filled the forests of Endor - Logray uses a magical spinning lantern to divine the location of the missing Towani parents; an enchanted lake momentarily traps Mace behind an unbreakable barrier; the Ewok priestess Kaink carries a magical staff capable of mesmerizing animals. In Ewoks: Battle for Endor, the evil witch Charal dons a magical ring that allows her to change shape into a raven. The Ewok films introduced a variety of lifeforms to Endor. The giant Gorax had packs of deadly boar-wolves that prowled the forest floor. Hunting the skies of the moon is the leathery condor dragon. The Maurauders ride atop dim-witted blurrgs, dinosaur-like beasts of burden. The scout Noa has a little rodent-like companion named Teek who could run at blindingly fast speeds. The films also had more mundane animals -- ferrets, llamas and horses -- indicating that humans are not the only life-forms that Earth shares with the Star Wars galaxy. Soundtrack
Documentaries and commentary During the production of The Ewok Adventure, the children in the cast had to balance their school work with acting in the film. During their time on the set, Lucasfilm decided that it might be an educational and rewarding experience for the older children, Eric Walker (Mace) and Warwick Davis (Wicket), were given their own camera to use between takes. So, calling themselves W&W Productions, Eric and Warwick shot a documentary of the making of the film, but the documentary was never publicly released, and exists now as private home movies to the two. When the film was released on DVD in 2004, some fans had hoped this documentary would be included on the disc as a bonus feature, but the disc contained nothing but the film itself. Eric Walker and Warwick Davis stated in interviews that they would be happy to record a cast commentary for another future DVD release, if Lucasfilm someday allowed a more detailed release of the films. Adaptations
Sequels A sequel to this movie released in 1985. While sequel's working title was simply Ewoks II, it was released as . According to an interview with Warwick Davis, a second sequel, known only as "Ewoks III," was in at least the planning stages around the late eighties, but the project has been shown to have never come through. The plot of the film, if one was ever developed, was never published. Later EU appearances
Errors Trivia George Lucas edited a portion of The Ewok Adventure. This fact is not well known, but Lucas directed the entire one week re-shoot. Director John Korty had another film to direct that was put on hold until after The Ewok Adventure principal photography was completed. I have a call sheet with George Lucas' name as director on it. It was later taken off, and was put on by mistake by one of the assistant directors. I also have a personal card from George thanking me for the work that I did on the re-shoot.* Release
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