The EWOK ADVENTURE

(vt Caravan of Courage)

   Made-for-tv film (1984). Lucasfilm/Korty Films for ABC TV. Executive prod George LUCAS. Dir John Korty, starring Eric Walker, Aubree Miller. Screenplay Lucas. 120 mins, cut to 97 mins. Colour.

   When the family spaceship crashes on an alien moon, the parents are captured by a monster and their two children cared for by Ewoks, the teddy-bear aliens first seen in RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983). After a long trek, the children and Ewoks save the parents. TEA is disappointing by adult standards, but children like it - and it is a children's film. The special effects are surprisingly poor considering Lucasfilm's STAR WARS experience. Lucas's story is vestigial and the Ewoks, though clearly intended to be cute, are charmless; Philip STRICK described their faces as "a fixed, unblinking mask set in a rictus of amiability". TEA was released theatrically overseas as Caravan of Courage. A second tv movie, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985), though slightly better, had no theatrical release.

   PN