Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure – Film Review
When a family’s spacecraft crashes on the forest moon of planet Endor, teenage son Mace (Eric Walker) and his little sister, Cindel (Aubree Miller), find themselves separated from their parents. Soon these lost children encounter the Ewoks, the small and furry warriors who call the moon home. With the help of these adorable yet fearless natives, brother and sister set out on a quest to rescue their parents from the grip of a vicious monster known as the Gorax.
To say that the original trilogy of Star Wars is beloved by hundreds of millions of people all around the world would be an incredible understatement, to say the least. Ever since the release of the first film back in 1977, audiences from across the globe have fallen in love with now-iconic characters such as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca just to name a few.
However, it is often said amongst the fans that Return of the Jedi is the weakest installment in the original trilogy, to which I agree. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a wonderfully fun film that definitely pays off and serves as a beautiful and emotional end to the trilogy, but it also suffers from a lot of problems that the two films before it just didn’t have.
The visuals were a bit dodgy, there were some sequences that were just plain old boring, and then, of course, there were the Ewoks. To this day, I have yet to meet a Star Wars fan besides my mom who genuinely likes the Ewoks. They just kind of hindered Return of the Jedi. It honestly felt like they were included in the film simply to pander to children and to make toys on it because I know that the studios knew they had merchandise money galore about to come in with those characters.
Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television
So, if the Ewoks are so hated, then why in the world would they decide to make a spin-off film in the Star Wars universe all about them? Honestly, it’s a question I’ve wondered ever since I found out about this film, and now that I’ve seen it, I am even more confused than before.
If you are a fan of the action of the originals, or the characters and storylines, well you’re in for bad luck because Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure is devoid of any of those things. Luckily it’s only an hour and thirty-seven minutes so you won’t have to suffer from watching it for too long. However, those ninety-seven minutes are certainly not fun to have to sit through.
Occasionally you will find yourself laughing at just how absurd this entire movie is. There really isn’t any fun or exciting scene to be found in the entire movie. A lot of the film just revolves around Mace Towani trying to get his sister Cindel some medicine so she can feel better. Of course, there are other things that happen in the film, but none of them are things you would expect to see in a regular Star Wars movie.
Even the Star Wars films that the majority of people hate (i.e. The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker) feel like grand space operas. They contain that larger-than-life scale that we all love. Caravan of Courage doesn’t have that grand scale. It feels so scaled back and tame compared to any Star Wars movie out there with the exception of the hilarious Holiday Special.
I can’t see any die-hard Star Wars fan putting this on and unironically enjoying it. You may have fun simply by laughing at how ridiculous the whole thing is and that’s about it. But hey, as long as you have fun, that’s what matters.
Overall Grade: F
MPAA Rating: TV-G
Cast: Eric Walker, Warwick Davis, Fionnula Flanagan, Guy Boyd, Aubree Miller, Daniel Frishman, Debbie Lee Carrington, Tony Cox, Kevin Thompson, Margarita Fernández, Pam Grizz
Directed by: John Korty
Written by: Bob Carrau
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Television
Release Date: November 25, 1984
Running Time: 97 minutes