(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor)
Doug (vo): It's the Ewok movies that got me into Star Wars. Nah, nah, just kidding, it was the cartoon. Yeah, as I've mentioned before, I actually got into Star Wars kind of backwards. I grew up with the Ewoks cartoon, and then I saw these Ewok movies, and that eventually led me to discovering about Star Wars. I suppose there's worse ways to find out about it. (The poster for The Phantom Menace is shown) These aren't movies either where I can really just do a Disneycember for each one, because when you see what they do about halfway in-between the films, you kind of realize you can't talk about one without the other.
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure[]
Doug (vo): So let's start with the first one, Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure. The story is about as simple as you can imagine, and, yeah, for an Ewoks flick, I guess that's good. A family crash lands on Endor, the parents are taken away by this giant monster, and their two kids, a boy and a girl, are left stranded in the woods where the Ewoks discover them. Not being able to speak the same language, they try to communicate with each other and let them know what's going on. Eventually, the Ewoks figure out that the parents have been taken away by this giant, and a bunch of them band together to travel up this dangerous mountain to defeat the dangerous giant, and, of course, overcome all sorts of dangerous obstacles.
Review[]
Doug (vo): All right, so hearing that, you're probably not expecting much out of this movie, and, yeah, that's kind of the right mindset to go in with. There's a lot of things in this film that are okay, but for the most part, it's...passable at best. The acting can be awkward from time to time, the effects as well can sometimes be good, and other times... (scoffs) Okay, that's got to be, like, Top 3 fakest spiders I've ever seen. And you could tell they must have been proud of this effect, because they throw in another scene where another spider attacks, and you could just cut it out and miss nothing, but then you'd miss this phenomenal technology.
(Footage focusing on the Ewoks is shown)
Doug (vo): The Ewoks, just about every time I've seen them, I know are little people in costumes, but I never really saw them as that. I mean, okay, I never really thought, "Wow, these things are real creatures that exist", but they weren't distracting, either. I bought them okay for what the stories required. And here, sometimes, that's the case, particularly when the people are on screen. But when there aren't other things to distract you from them, you realize more and more just how much they just look like costumes. The mouths don't even move. And again, when you're distracted by the other characters, that works okay, I don't always need to see their mouths move. But for the first, like, maybe 10-15 minutes, there are no other characters, and the costumes just look so lazy with them saying all these words and just never seeing the mouths move at all.
(Various footage is shown, some of it focusing on Catarine and Jeremitt Towani)
Doug (vo): As you'd imagine, there's a lot of little things like that that don't really make a whole lot of sense. Like, you see the parents looking for their kids in the opening and they can't find them, but then later, you see one of them was hiding in the ship, and they looked throughout the ship, they keep calling the kids' names. Why didn't this kid answer? But, okay, like I said, this movie isn't godawful by any means. There are a lot of sections that work okay. It can be very imaginative, a lot of these creatures and weird magical entities they have to get past can be kind of cool, and there is a believable sincerity in this. The actors aren't all great, but you do still kind of buy them as a family. And I don't know, for a very basic story like this, just trying to find your loved ones and save them from evil, I mean, I feel like everybody can identify with that enough. And as long as the characters aren't annoying, which, honestly, given this is an Ewoks movie based on the characters that most people found annoying in Return of the Jedi, I think that's pretty impressive. So in my opinion, it's an okay film to put on if you just kind of want to see everything Star Wars or if your kids are kind of bored and you just want to put on a little bit of a laidback adventure. It's hard to say it's good, but if you're a Star Wars fan, it's an okay time waster.
Ewoks: The Battle for Endor[]
Doug (vo): But then we get to the sequel, Ewoks: Battle for Endor. And like I said, there's a reason you have to talk about these movies back-to-back. So, okay, you know how in the last film, the whole point, the whole adventure, the whole journey is for these two kids to save their parents so they can be reunited as a family again? Literally in the first 10 minutes of this one, the family's killed off. I am not even joking. The Ewok village is invaded, and these hideous monsters are coming in just shooting up everybody, and while the little girl makes it out, she witnesses her family get blown to bits. Holy shit! Where the hell did that come from?! And trust me when I say, it doesn't stop there. Just as the kid and the Ewoks are all captured, she manages to get away with Wicket. Okay, well, that's a little nice. But, oh, no! The monsters spot them and they're shooting them, they're trying to kill them! But it's okay, they hide out in this cave. But, oh, no! There's a dragon in there, and the dragon took the girl and flew off with her! Oh, no! But it's okay, Wicket saves her and they find this cute little cuddly animal. Oh, isn't he sweet? Oh, no! An evil old man owns him and he's, like, yelling and screaming and throws them out, so he's awful, he's the worst! But it's okay, his heart softens and he learns to love them. But, oh, no! The girl has PTSD about her family dying and all these monsters coming in, and she can't shake them and they're all going to eat her and kill her! But it's okay, it was all a dream and...ah, geez. The old man came to this planet with a friend, and the friend disappeared years ago? Well, okay, I mean, come on, you know these stories, these kids' stories, he's going to show up later, he might even save the day...no, he's dead! There he is! You're, like, a foot away from this skeleton! He's a skeleton now! He probably starved or was tortured to death! This is terrible! This is terrible! Oh, my God, everything's bad!
Review[]
Doug (vo): This movie is dark! I mean, like, 1980s kids' film dark, the films that tried to scare the shit out of you and usually worked. So as you can imagine, I like this one a lot more. It's better because while it does have a lot of dark moments, it does balance out with a lot of sweeter moments.
(Various footage is shown, mostly focusing on Noa Briqualon, Charal and Teek)
Doug (vo): The old man in this, played by Wilford Brimley, is very, very likeable. The effects aren't perfect, but they do get a lot better compared to the last one. There's kind of these new creatures that are introduced that, yeah, okay, they're a little boring, they're kind of, like, a bunch of Mumm-ras from ThunderCats, they're just kind of the big baddies who growl and aren't particularly bright, but are just super mean. But then you also have characters like this witch, who uses this ring to transform into other animals, and it's kind of fun seeing if you can connect her to modern-day Star Wars lore. Like, I don't know, is she from here, by any chance? (An image of Dathomir is shown) This furry creature the old man owns does have a lot of personality, he's kind of, like, a Gizmo-Road Runner or something. Again, it's not a bad effect.
(Footage focusing on the heartfelt moments is shown, mostly focusing on Noa and Cindel)
Doug (vo): So when the film needs to be nice and compassionate, it does work, particularly the scenes between Wilford Brimley and the little girl. You just really do feel this connection between them. You really do get the idea this guy's just come across all sorts of dangers in his lifetime and he's had to be really, really defensive. And then, just when this little kid and this furry creature come along, he would be really closed off to them, but it doesn't take long for him to open up, either. You kind of realize if they did this too long, it would get really boring, but he does it in just the right amount of time, it's believable. But again, I'm not going to act like it's anything great. There's still plenty of awkward moments or weird edits or just things that don't always add up. But it's just such a ballsy sequel after the last one. To have the whole film about saving the people you love, and then just kill them all off, and have, like, 50% of your movie just be pure misery, I don't know, I got to give this franchise credit for that.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): I feel like if it was just the first movie or just the first movie and then just a very generic follow-up, these films would probably be forgotten very easily, at least, they would be by me. But because the second film did take so many chances and did display some interesting ingenuity, it does make me glad I checked them out. So is that a recommendation? I don't know. Like I said, if you're curious about them, I think you can watch them and not really hate them or dislike them that much. I think you just might find them a touch boring, at least. The first film I considered a little dull, but the second one does change gears enough that I did legit kind of enjoy it, warts and all. Oh, and by the way, if you're watching this on Disney+ and you ask yourself, "Hey, who's that guy in the thumbnail?", I have no idea. They put him like he is the star of the movie, and he never makes an appearance in this. Maybe he just looks more heroic than the oatmeal guy, I don't know. So, yeah, I guess you can probably put together whether or not these movies are going to be your thing or not. Like I said, just for the aggressive story changes they make halfway through, I find them kind of interesting, but I don't think it's going to win everyone over. Hell, I don't even think it's going to win the majority over. It's just a neat little time when Star Wars had spin-offs that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't...completely different from now. Take a look when you get a chance and see for yourself.
(The final scene of Battle of Endor, showing a ship taking off into space, is shown)