Ewoks: The Battle for Endor

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Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
Promotional poster
Genre
Screenplay byKen and Jim Wheat
Story byGeorge Lucas
Directed byKen and Jim Wheat
Starring
Theme music composerPeter Bernstein
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producerGeorge Lucas
Producers
CinematographyIsidore Mankofsky
EditorEric Jenkins
Running time94 minutes
Production company
Original release
NetworkABC
ReleaseNovember 24, 1985 (1985-11-24)
Related
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure

Ewoks: The Battle for Endor is a 1985 American

Ewoks in protecting their village and defeating the marauders who have taken control of the Endor moon
.

Plot

Nearly six months have passed since the events of the first film;

Marauder
group led by Terak and his witch-like sorceress Charal. Many Ewoks are captured, while Jeremitt, Catarine, and Mace are killed helping to defend the Ewok village. The marauders steal a power cell from the Towani's star cruiser believing it to have some sort of magic power over the stars.

While running away from the marauders, Cindel and Wicket meet Teek, a small, fast native of Endor. Teek takes them to the home of Noa Briqualon, a human male who is angered by their uninvited presence and throws them out. Eventually he proves himself to be kindhearted, letting Teek steal food for Cindel and Wicket, and inviting the two in when they attempt to build a fire for warmth outside.

At the Marauders' castle, Terak orders Charal to find Cindel, assuming she knows how to use "the power" in the energy cell stolen from Jeremitt's star cruiser. Meanwhile, Noa, Cindel, Wicket, and Teek are becoming friends. It is revealed that Noa is rebuilding his own wrecked star cruiser, only missing the energy cell, originally landing with a friend of his named Salak who disappeared while searching for another cell. Cindel is awakened one morning by a song her mother used to sing. She follows the voice to find a woman singing, who transforms into Charal and takes her to Terak. He orders Cindel to activate "the power", but she cannot, and is imprisoned with the Ewoks where it is revealed Salak was killed after telling Terak about "the power". Outside, Noa, Wicket, and Teek sneak into the castle, free Cindel and the Ewoks, and escape with the energy cell.

Terak, Charal, and the Marauders pursue them back to the ship, where Wicket leads the Ewoks in defense of the cruiser as Noa installs the energy cell. The Ewoks put up a valiant effort, and are nearly beaten by the time Noa powers up the ship and uses its laser cannons to fend off the Marauders. Cindel goes to save Wicket and is captured by Terak, as the other Marauders retreat. Terak and Noa face off, with Wicket finally coming to the rescue, killing Terak and simultaneously leaving Charal trapped in bird form. Shortly thereafter, goodbyes are said, and Cindel leaves Endor with Noa on his starship.

Cast

Production

Creation and crew

The film, shot in the middle of 1985 in Marin County, California, was directed by Ken and Jim Wheat, executive produced by Lucas, and written by the Wheat brothers, based on a story written by Lucas. Co-director Ken Wheat explained the production and inspiration of the film:

Lucas guided the creation of the story over the course of two four-hour sessions we had with him. He'd just watched Heidi with his daughter the weekend before these took place, and the story idea he pushed was having the little girl from the first Ewok TV movie become an orphan who ends up living with a grumpy old hermit in the woods. We'd been thinking about the adventure films we'd liked as kids, like Swiss Family Robinson and The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, so we suggested having space marauders, which was fine with George — as long as they were 7 feet tall, of course! The rest of the brainstorming was done along those lines. Joe Johnston (the production designer and second unit director) and Phil Tippett (the creature supervisor) were involved in the second day's story session, and they contributed an assortment of bits and pieces.[3][4]

Lucas’ involvement during production was primarily in the design and editing stages, according to Wheat. The film's working title was Ewoks II.[5]

Effects

Both Ewok films were some of the last intensive

blurrgs
, and the boar-wolves.

The Ewok movies proved an opportunity for Industrial Light & Magic to hone a new technique in photographing

matte paintings
, called latent image matte painting. In this technique, during live action photography a section of the camera's lens is blocked off, remaining unexposed, and a painting is 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.

Music

The

LP by Varèse Sarabande in 1986.[6]
The release was known simply as Ewoks, and also contained cues from Bernstein's previous score to The Ewok Adventure.

Alternate versions

Adaptations

In 1986, Random House published a children's book adaptation of The Battle for Endor called The Ring, the Witch, and the Crystal: An Ewok Adventure. The book was written by Cathy East Dubowski, and utilized the film's storyline and imagery.

Release

Ewoks: The Battle for Endor initially premiered as an

Laserdisc in 1990 through MGM/UA Home Video
.

The film was released on DVD with its predecessor as a double-feature collection entitled Star Wars: Ewok Adventures on November 23, 2004, via

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
. One film was on each side of a single double-sided disc, with no bonus material.

In January 2019, Disney and Lucasfilm released The Battle for Endor on Amazon Prime Video, where it was available to rent or buy in standard definition. As of December 2019, the film was no longer available through that service.[7]

Prior to 2021, Disney announced no plans to add the Ewok films to its streaming service, Disney+. This prompted Eric Walker to start a petition for Disney to add them.[8] In March 2021, it was announced that both films would begin streaming on Disney+ on April 2, 2021.[9]

Reception

At the 38th Primetime Emmy Awards, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor and the CBS documentary Dinosaur! were both juried-awarded Emmys for Outstanding Special Visual Effects.[10] The film additionally received two nominations for Outstanding Children's Program and Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Special.[11][12]

In his review for The New York Times John Corry faulted the production's source of inspiration, saying "The problem with Ewoks: The Battle for Endor isn't that it's badly done; on the contrary, it's wonderfully well done. But when it's over it's over, and there is no residue. Mr. Lucas and his colleagues find their inspiration in their own technology, and there should be other places to look."[13]

Pointing to the main characters and plot elements, one pair of writers concluded that both Battle of Endor and its predecessor

Caravan of Courage are fairy tales despite occurring in a science fiction setting. They point to magical phenomena in both films, which is a fantasy element. They argue that in a science fiction story, the hero wants to disrupt or challenge the hierarchy of a supposed "utopian" society; whereas in both Ewok films, society is not challenged or disputed. Additionally, they argue, that while the Star Wars saga also has fairy tale tropes, it adhered more towards science fiction.[14] Another author agreed that the films are fairy tales, whereas "Science explains all magic."[15]

In contrast to his negative review of its predecessor, Aidan Mason of Pop Culture Beast stated the film, "manages to improve on the original" and felt much more like a Star Wars film, although he was still critical of the acting.[16]

Legacy

Several elements from the film have gone on to appear in other works of the

Star Wars Expanded Universe, which was declared non-canon and rebranded as Legends in 2014.[17]

Canon appearances of elements introduced in the film include:

  • Blurrgs appear in the animated TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) and the streaming series The Mandalorian,[20] the latter of which is the first live-action Star Wars television project since The Battle for Endor.

References

  1. ^ "Ewoks: The Battle for Endor is a Weirdly Dark Star Wars Movie". 20 March 2021.
  2. ^ Alter, Ethan (December 15, 2015). "Star Wars: How the Ewoks Came to TV 31 Years Ago". Yahoo!. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  3. .
  4. ^ "Battle for Endor Writer Interview". TheForce.Net. February 11, 2000. Retrieved September 3, 2018.
  5. .
  6. .
  7. ^ "Watch Star Wars Ewok Adventures the Battle for Endor | Prime Video". Amazon.
  8. ^ Walker, Eric (September 24, 2019). "Disney+ May Not Be The Home To All of Star Wars – All For SciFi". All For SciFi. Retrieved October 6, 2019.
  9. ^ Ridgely, Charlie (March 16, 2021). "Disney+: Every Movie and TV Show Arriving in April 2021". ComicBook.com. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  10. ^ Leverence, John. "Outstanding Special Visual Effects — 1986". 38th Primetime Emmy Awards, September 21, 1986. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  11. ^ "Outstanding Children's Program — 1986". 38th Primetime Emmy Awards, September 21, 1986. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
  12. ^ "Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Special — 1986". 38th Primetime Emmy Awards, September 21, 1986. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
  13. ^ Corry, John (November 24, 1985). "New Shows For Children: Should We Expect More?". The New York Times. No. Vol. 135, No. 46, 603. p. H29. Retrieved 6 December 2016. {{cite news}}: |issue= has extra text (help)
  14. .
  15. . Retrieved May 20, 2016.
  16. ^ "Star Wars: Every Movie Ranked". Pop Culture Beast. 4 May 2021.
  17. ^ "The Legendary Star Wars Expanded Universe Turns a New Page". StarWars.com. April 25, 2014. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
  18. ^ Veekhoven, Tim (September 3, 2015). "From Wicket to the Duloks: Revisiting the Star Wars: Ewoks Animated Series". StarWars.com. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  19. .
  20. ^ Lussier, Germain (August 29, 2019). "The Mandalorian Is Bringing a Deep Cut Star Wars Creature Back to Live-Action". io9. Retrieved August 31, 2019.

Further reading

External links

Official sites

Reviews