Star Wars: Ewoks

Like Droids, Ewoks is very of the time, it's cheesy and always ends with a "Saturday morning cartoon lesson punchline".

For collectors the spin off toy range is amazing, and there are some great additional toys if you can afford them!

It's certainly not " holiday special " and there's plenty to enjoy in a Star Wars-lite way. The animation hasn't aged particularly well but is a bit better and certainly cuter than Droids, again, gives it that nostalgic kitch feeling, and whilst not canon, it's not 100% non canon either really... More "Lego" style side hustle, where it's all to be taken with a pinch of lols, and just enjoy it as a bit of fun.

Many star wars fans do not like the Ewoks, but I have yet to understand why. I think they are great and I wish I owned one of the stuffed animals. This TV series of the furry creatures was fun to watch. I work at a video store and I put in the episodes we have on tape. The kids just love it. It's a lot like the Smurfs. Hey, anything Star Wars is the best.

This and "Droids" are both good cartoons for kids. I enjoyed them growing up & while I am glad they released something of them on DVD, I am a little disappointed that Lucasfilm did not just release a box set of the complete series. I think trying to make them into "features" by editing 4 episodes together is a big mistake. It's a lot harder to pop 1 in for 30 minutes. Personally I miss that the original goofy opening is not available (even as a special feature) on the DVD.

However it is still nice to finally have something of them available to show the kids. The best thing about these cartoons is that they are targeted for the younger kids, and every episode centers around some character trait like responsibility, making new friends, etc. They concentrate on what character development would be for a 5 to 10 year old, and they keep violent confrontations to a minimum, even when the Ewoks are challenged by the witch or the Duloks.

While I remember the second season of Ewoks being far less enjoyable than the first, it is still 1000 times better than the drivel served up by the likes of today's after school mainstays: Pokemon & yu-gi-oh. It seems every kid show these days is trying to sell junky cards or is targeted for older teens. There are very few real kid shows (like this one) available.

I WISH Lucasfilm would release a real box set of this series while my kids are still young enough to enjoy them.

I loved the ewoks between the ages of 11 and 13. That's an embarrassing admission since my age rendered me a little too old to be part of the target Ewoks audience. Nevertheless, I lapped-up every ewok book, comic, toy, and movie. I especially loved the first season of the cartoon series. The DVD release of the Ewoks series reminds me that while I'm not entirely proud of my fondness for ewoks, a little perspective adds a lot of clarity.

I wasn't blind to the fact that the ewoks were kinda stupid in RotJ, and they were even lamer in the ewok TV movies. But as a child who'd grown up on a steady diet of Star Wars I remained unwilling to let go of my Star Wars youth. I was determined to like the ewoks, lest my life be deprived of new Star Wars.

Quite frankly, when stacked against the scant few "Expanded Universe" properties available at that time, the early ewoks projects didn't seem so bad. Granted, most of the ewoks books were too immature for my pre-adolescent tastes (it seemed like nine out of 10 ewoks story lines involved picking berries). But some ewok projects were fun.

For example, Joe Johnston wrote and illustrated a rather enjoyable ewok storybook titled "The Adventures of Teebo" that formed the basis of the Ewoks cartoon. Among other things the book introduced the Duloks (who were originally much nastier than the bumbling Duloks in the TV series).

Overall the Ewoks and the Droids cartoons were fairly well-crafted compared to other Saturday Morning cartoons of the period. The shows featured visual designs that were original at the time. Both shows presented continuing story lines, which were uncommon among mid-80s Saturday Morning shows.

The Ewoks episodes referenced just about every previously developed incarnation of the ewoks and pulled everything together into one plot. Characters from RotJ, the ewok TV movies, the Kenner toys, the coloring books (!) and the storybooks blended together nicely thanks to the show's writers.

The debut Ewoks episode introduced Morag, the primary villain. The segments which featured the Tulga Witch are compiled on the DVD as "The Haunted Village." The collected story represents the best of the Ewoks cartoons. The common story thread has Morag exploring various methods of ewok extermination and Logray thwarting her wicked plots.

A particularly thoughtful aspect of the first Ewoks series was the fact that the debut episode was set in the late Summer (coinciding with its September airdate). The cartoon seasons changed in harmony with North American seasonal changes that were occurring as the episodes aired.

The weaknesses of the show are all rooted in its kid-friendly nature, as well as Ewoks' reliance on vapid Saturday Morning cartoon formulas. For instance, the Duloks are the "silly villains," and not surprisingly they're as unfunny as every 80s "silly villain." The "Wicket saves the day" spiel is exhausted by the second episode. Wicket's brother is a drooling, obese, mentally-challenged disaster of a character embodying the most cringe-worthy elements of broad, uninspired children's comedy. The use of ewok words from Return of the Jedi starts out clever, but quickly becomes irritating as hell.

The most successful single Ewoks episode ("Asha") is thankfully included on the new DVD. "Asha" is the very best episode among all of the Droids and the Ewoks shows. "Asha" demonstrates that the writers could have easily adapted these Star Wars properties into something interesting given the chance.

Alas, the shows were not given the chance to grow after "Asha" aired. Droids was cancelled after its first season, and Ewoks was only renewed when it agreed to a full lobotomy. Even then, very few major ABC markets carried the second season of Ewoks.

Before the lobotomy, I begged my way to see the cartoon Ewoks perform at the Ice Capades. I was 13 ... and I was desperate to see something --- ANYTHING --- related to Star Wars. The Ewoks' Ice Capades performance was very sobering. The skating ewoks sang rap songs, duloks told even cornier jokes than seen on the TV show, and many berries were picked.

I was horrified that my childhood passion had led me to pay to see ... tacky space bears rapping on ice skates! I bid Star Wars a bitter farewell after the Ice Capades. I packed away the toys and books and decided to pursue new interests … like goofy 80s pop music and boys. The Ice Capades inspired such acute self-loathing that I didn't look back again at Star Wars until the Zahn novels … and really, only Clone Wars has come close to capturing the childhood magic of the original films.

I've since viewed the second series Ewoks episodes on video, and they're utter crap. All cool visual elements were eradicated. The likable secondary characters were turned into bad comic relief. The stories were wholly mindless. The show's second season is a collection of the worst formulas Saturday Morning shows had to offer at the time.

The latest DVD release truly presents the best of Ewoks. If you don't like what you see on the DVD -- know that the show didn't get any better.

As with all Lucas products, the cartoons on the DVD have been 'updated.' The wacky Taj Mahal opening song is now gone, as are many of the ambient flute sounds/music cues heard throughout the series (which were kinda annoying in the original show as a result of overuse). The changes were largely unnecessary, but they do no harm.

It's too bad that I didn't have a show like Clone Wars to embrace when I was 13. No … all I had was Ewoks. It was OK for the time, but it surely didn't break any ground. A brave few of us who'd grown-up on Star Wars tried our best to continue loving Lucas' (d)evolving creations, and now we must live with that shame.

It's honestly hard to defend this series, even from a nostalgic point of view. The first season, while far from good, at least tried to deliver small adventures on Endor's forest moon with a touch of charm. It didn't shine in terms of animation or writing, but it had some rhythm and introduced characters like Wicket, Kneesaa or Teebo in a friendly way. The real issue is the second season, which throws everything remotely decent out the window. The designs get worse, the settings feel overly simplified, and the tone becomes even more childish-borderline preschool level. It's hard to believe something so clumsy is officially part of the Star Wars universe.

Still, as weak as it is, there's some merit to its place in Star Wars' expanded history. For many, this was their first encounter with the saga as kids, which explains the affection some fans still hold. But watching it today, especially compared to any modern Star Wars content, Ewoks feels outdated, repetitive, and directionless. Only worth watching out of pure curiosity or galactic completism.