Ewoks: la batalla por Endor

This movie is a little painful to watch now days, but I remember really loving it as a kid. The important thing about this film is that is does nothing to tarnish my love for the original trilogy. You can make a bad Star Wars film and that's fine, but when you destroy the characters I grew up with and loved and change the story so that it no longer makes sense with the original, that's when we have a major problem Ryan Johnson.

If you don't count behind the scenes programs and internet films like Dark Redemption featuring Myra Jade, this is the best of the Star Wars television offerings. Yes it is rough in some places, but it is an improvement over The Ewok Adventure and I give this one extra points for having the balls to kill that annoying older brother Eric Walker right at the top. I wonder what happened to the little kid Cindel. I though she was quite promising. I personally think aiming at children in film writing can water down the dramatic impact. The ewoks were the Jar-Jars of Return of the Jedi, a dramatic buffer between incidents in which we already had an emotional investment. The Mos Eisely Cantina would be a more lucrative setting for a TV series or set of TV movies.

Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. The adventure continues. One level up and not so irritable story about little Ewoks. Loved the cutie Teek. But it still feels more like a movie about magic and the Middle Ages than Star Wars.

The Battle for Endor makes a number of improvements that luckily make it over-all a better film than the previous "Caravan of Courage". The film's mood is decisively darker and more serious, its cinematography is cleaner and for this it almost manages to capture the flavour of "The Return of the Jedi" and other bigger Star Wars films.

Moreover, the film does away with the dreadful narrator of the first film by allowing Wicket to speak and simultaneously giving him more character. In all, the characters of BFE are far more colourful and interesting than those of the previous film. Additionally the aliens, the Marauders, add a nice sinister element which makes the film all the more dramatic.

The only points of criticism for the film are undoubtedly its kid-friendly story and the character of Noa who delivers a number of unconvincing lines throughout the picture.

None the less, The Battle for Endor is just exciting enough so that it wont traumatize the kids and will make the film fun for the adults as well.

This sequel to 1984's The Ewok Adventure is as good as the original. If you love Star Wars, you need to see these Ewok movies. These are the movies from my '80's childhood that I'll never forget. If you can't find these films to rent, try to buy them on eBay; they're great!