Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure

Caravan of Courage is not a bad movie, and does not deserve to be forgotten. If you hold it up against the Star Wars saga, it obviously pales in comparison, but that's comparing apples and oranges. This movie, a made for TV-movie intended for children/family-viewing, serves a completely different purpose.

The story is simple and easy to follow, two lost children searches for their parents with help from the Ewoks. I must admit that the story did very little for me, and especially Walker's character were at times especially annoying (mostly to create smaller scenes of conflict).

The highlight of the movie is the stop motion, the costumes, the matte paintings and sets and the special effects. If you like practical effects, it's fun to see how the ILM-crew managed to get quite a lot of a small budget. It's obviously far from perfect, but very charming.

In keeping with the Star Wars Holiday special, it does not subtitle the alien characters, or dub them. It does, however, employ a narrator, explaining some of the things which is hard to understand by body language alone. The Ewok community is also similar to how it looks in episode VI. The human characters do at some points seem a bit unfamiliar with the fact that the Star Wars universe is filled of all sorts of unknown creatures - but it's hard to say exactly what their background is.

At its best, the movie is the like other 80s fantasy/adventure classics about children, like the Time Bandits, Labyrinth and the Goonies. It does not manage to reach the level of imaginative storytelling that any of these other movies display, but the heart is definitely in the same place.

Despite it not being a particularly fun movie, or that well made, it's still an interesting movie. If you are interested in Star Wars-lore, special effects, popular culture or film making, you might enjoy this movie quite a bit.

I used to watch this movie all the time when I was younger and especially loved the antics of those forest-dwelling Ewoks and their human counterparts. Most of the cast I didn't recognize though I do remember Burl Ives as the narrator, who also did the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Christmas special. And Warwick Davis returned to play the Ewok Wicket. There are some suspenseful moments, but nothing too scary, plus some stop-motion animated creatures.

This is about family, and courage and hope. I probably won't look at the movie the same way again now, but it was decent for its time. It was a welcome return to the Endor moon and its denizens.

A Star Wars spin-off for children. Well, Star Wars is for children as well. All right I know, Star Wars is very much enjoyable for adults. This movie isn't.

Everything is about the Ewoks here, those fuzzy little furballs from The Return of the Jedi. They are as cute as ever, even though the way their faces aren't moving is a bit creepy. On the positive side these Ewoks are the same ones we saw in The Return of the Jedi. They talk the same way they did there, by operating with such words as 'gunda' (good) or 'feech' (what seems to be an Ewokian cuss-word).

Of course there are also humans in the movie, 2 children, who are lost and are looking for their parents in the vast forests of the moon of Endor. The storyline covers the journey of a little girl and her brother to the hideout of a giant, who apparently holds their parents hostage, with the local Ewoks helping the children throughout their quest. No more, no less.

As I said, this movie is definitely for children. For adults it might be tedious to watch because of the lack of dialogues (everything is told by a narrator, for obvious reasons), and the overall silliness of the movie. And I mean tedious even to adults who are otherwise Star Wars fans/addicts. But for children it can be enjoyable. It's important to note that George Lucas wrote the story, so it's actually the creation of the father of the Star Wars universe and it's got a bit darker, grimmer sequel named The Battle for Endor.

It's unfortunate that sometimes nostalgia can turn out to be a deceiving pain. I used to watch "The Ewok Adventure" on VHS when I was younger and was a huge fan - I'd view it frequently (probably even before I saw all the original "Star Wars" films) and, although I recognized it was cheesy even as a child, I still enjoyed it.

Today, it simply doesn't hold up. It comes across as a desperate and silly cash-in on "Star Wars: Episode IV: Return of the Jedi." The "lovable" Ewoks of that film return here to wreak more havoc - they find a boy and his younger sister after they crash land on the planet. The boy and sister have lost their parents, whom were apparently grabbed out of the space ship by some scary alien creature.

The alien creature's special F/X are absolutely terrible which explains why his full frontal view is saved until the ending - which is ludicrous and way over-the-top.

If you're a "Star Wars" fan you'll need to own this simply because it's got the Lucas "stamp of approval" - but to any casual viewer it comes across as a desperate and pathetic franchise cash-in.

Caravan of Courage, the first of two Ewok films is a nice adventure film for kids, but too slow for adults to enjoy. The film captures the essential elements of what an Ewok film should be like but fails in certain other areas.

Firstly the film looks rather messy in comparison to other LucasFilm productions and particularly when compared to its immediate sequel. The narrator is also more distracting than anything and would sound more appropriate in a nature documentary rather than a children's fantasy adventure film.

On the other hand, the film sets itself apart from the bigger SW films quite nicely, feeling more like a fantasy than a science fiction film and having some fairly good special-effects and interesting creatures. But as said, adults are more likely to find the film numbing rather than enjoyable.