Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure

Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984) is a made-for-TV film set in the Star Wars galaxy. The film focuses on the struggles of a brother and sister, stranded on the forest moon of Endor, in locating their parents, who have been kidnapped by a monster known as the Gorax. The film is set sometime between the fifth and sixth episodes of the Star Wars saga. It is the first of two spin-off films of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. It is the second film produced, however, in a total of three Star Wars spin-off films.

Setting
The film is set sometime between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and approximately six months before the film's sequel Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. As the film opens, the Towani family's starcruiser has crashed on the forest moon of Endor, and the Towani parents, Jeremitt and Catarine cannot locate their children, Mace and Cindel.

Plot summary
On the forest moon of Endor, the starcruiser of the Towani family lies wrecked. The Towani family (Catarine, Jeremitt, Mace, and Cindel) are stranded. When Catarine and Jeremitt vanish, the children are found by the Ewok Deej Warrick. After Mace tries to kill them, the Ewoks subdue him and take both children to the Ewoks’ home. There, Cindel and Wicket W. Warrick become friends. Shortly thereafter, the Ewoks kill a beast only to find a life-monitor from one of the Towani parents with the creature.

They seek out the Ewok Logray who informs them that the parents have been taken by the monstrous Gorax, who resides in a deserted, dangerous area. A caravan of Ewoks is formed to help the children find their parents. They meet up with a wistie named Izrina and a boisterous Ewok named Chukha before finally reaching the lair of the Gorax. They engage the Gorax in battle, freeing Jeremitt and Catarine, but Chukha is killed. The Gorax is thought destroyed when he is knocked into a chasm, but it takes a final blow from Mace (using Chukha’s axe) to kill the creature, who tries to climb back up after them. Thus reunited, the Towanis decide to stay with the Ewoks until they can repair the starcruiser, and Izrina leaves to go back to her family.

Towani family

 * Jeremitt Towani - Guy Boyd
 * Catarine Towani - Fionnula Flanagan
 * Mace Towani - Eric Walker
 * Cindel Towani - Aubree Miller

Ewoks

 * Wicket W. Warrick - Warwick Davis
 * Deej Warrick - Daniel Frishman
 * Weechee Warrick - Debbie Lee Carrington
 * Widdle Warrick - Tony Cox
 * Chukha-Trok - Kevin Thompson
 * Kaink - Margarita Fernández
 * Shodu Warrick - Pam Grizz
 * Logray - Bobby Bell

Other

 * Narrator - Burl Ives

Inspiration and creative control
The original impetus for Caravan of Courage was an idea George Lucas had for a "one-hour television special dealing with the ewoks." This "one hour" eventually was expanded into one and a half hours, however. Lucas had ventured into TV six years earlier, with The Star Wars Holiday Special. The special, though economically successful for the most part, had proved to be a disaster and embarrassment to Lucas. So, in Caravan of Courage, Lucas assumed full control over the content and production of the film, to ensure a film of good quality. One such event during production which exemplifies this need for creative control was around the time when the film neared completion. The production crew had prepared a script and shot a TV advertisement for the upcoming release. The ad featured Mace, Cindel, and Wicket walking into a diner, which was set in the 1950's, where they ordered milkshakes. Mace turns to the camera, and says something to the effect of "Don't forget to tune in to The Ewok Adventure, on November 25." When Lucas was shown the commercial for his personal approvement, he disliked the idea, and prevented the commercial from airing, as he didn't like the idea of having his characters appearing on earth in the 50's.

Crew
Working from a story written by George Lucas, and a screenplay by Bob Carrau, director John Korty transformed the scenic northern California redwood forests into the magical forest moon of Endor. Joe Johnston, an art director at Industrial Light & Magic for years and one of the key concept artists of the classic Star Wars trilogy, acted as production designer. Previous to this movie, Johnston had written and illustrated a book about Ewoks, The Adventures of Teebo: A Tale of Magic and Suspense. This gave him a background to the arboreal aliens that was crucial in designing new Ewoks and their surroundings.

Effects
Both Ewok films were some of the last intensive stop-motion animation work ILM produced. In the early 80s, the time-honored technique of hand-manipulating an articulated puppet one frame at a time was being replaced by go-motion animation. Go-motion was one step more advanced, and featured puppets with motorized articulation that moved while the camera shutter was open. This captured the all-important motion blur in the otherwise static puppet, eliminating the harsh staccato movement often associated with stop-motion.

The budgets of the Ewok films were such that go-motion was simply too expensive for the projects. Instead, the classic art of stop-motion was used to realize such creatures as the condor dragon, the blurrgs, and the boar-wolves.

The Ewok movies proved an opportunity for Industrial Light & Magic to hone a new technique in photographing matte paintings. Long before the use of digital technology to create and merge matte paintings with live action photography, the effects artists had to use projection techniques to blend together these elements. This involved aiming a projector in such a way so that a separate camera could photograph the projected live image with a painting done on glass. Such methods always incurred a loss in picture quality, since film would be exposed and re-exposed again during the compositing process. When movies are shown theatrically, the rich colors of film projection usually meant that such picture degradation wasn't too visible. Television, however, isn't as forgiving, resulting in noticeable variation in colors between the painting and the live action. Since the Ewok movies were destined for television, a different approach was used.

ILM refined a process called latent image matte painting. This technique requires shooting the live action with a section of the camera's lens blocked off. That blocked off area would remain unexposed, and a painting would be crafted to occupy that space. The film would then be rewound, the blocked area exposed, and the painting photographed. Since the painting now existed on the original film used to shoot the live action, there would be no generational quality loss. The picture quality was exceptional, resulting in some of ILM's most astounding matte paintings.

Title
When it was created, the film was given the official title, Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure by the creators of the film. This was also the name given to its theatrical release. However, on the more mainstream and widely seen 1984 TV broadcast, as well as on the 1990 VHS and Laserdisc release, the film was released under the name of The Ewok Adventure. This is what the movie is commonly known as, despite its actual title. This can be looked at as similar to the fact that although the first released Star Wars film had the official title of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, it was released theatrically and on video many times as simply, Star Wars, thus engraining that title into the public consciousness.

Selected plot elements
While the original Star Wars trilogy only had the Force, magic and mysticism were quite prevalent in the Ewok films. Witches, wizards, giants and fairies filled the forests of Endor. Logray uses a magical spinning lantern to divine the location of the missing Towani parents. An enchanted lake momentarily traps Mace behind an unbreakable barrier. The Ewok wizard Kaink carries a scepter capable of mesmerizing animals. In Ewoks: Battle for Endor, the evil witch Charal dons a magical ring that allows her to change shape into a raven.

The Ewok films introduced a variety of lifeforms to Endor. The giant Gorax had packs of deadly boar-wolves that prowled the forest floor. Hunting the skies of the moon is the leathery condor dragon. The Maurauders ride atop dim-witted blurrgs, dinosaur-like beasts of burden. The scout Noa has a little rodent-like companion named Teek who could run at blindingly fast speeds. The films also had more mundane animals -- ferrets, llamas and horses -- indicating that humans are not the only life-forms that Earth shares with the galaxy far, far away.

Soundtrack
A soundtrack to the film was released as an LP in 1986 by Lucasfilm Ltd. The release was known simply as: Ewoks. The LP was made up of the original film music composed by Peter Bernstein and John Williams.

Adaptations
In 1985, Random House released a children's book adaptation of Caravan of Courage by Amy Ehrlich. The book was titled The Ewoks and the Lost Children, and utilized the story presented in the film, along with still images from the film, in order to tell its story.

Documentaries and commentary
During the production of Caravan of Courage, the children of the cast had to balance their school work with acting in the film. During their time on the set, Lucasfilm decided that it might be an educational and rewarding experience for the older children, Eric Walker (Mace) and Warwick Davis (Wicket), if they gave them their own camera to use between takes. So, Eric and Warwick, calling themselves W&W Productions, came up with the idea for, and shot a documentary of the making of the film, all on their own. This was the only known documentary made about the film. After they had shot it, the two boys learned to edit film, and cut together the final documentary using Lucasfilm equipment. The documentary was never publically released, and exists now as private "home movies" to the two.

When the DVD was released of the film in 2004, fans were expecting this documentary to be included on the disc as a bonus feature, however the disc contained nothing but the film itself. This was mostly due to the small amount of time Lucasfilm had to release all of the DVD's they did that year, including the original Star Wars trilogy. Eric Walker and Warwick Davis have stated in interviews, that they would be happy to record a cast commentary for a DVD release, if Lucasfilm allowed another, more detailed release of the films.

Sequels
A sequel to this movie was filmed and released in 1985. The sequel's working title was "Ewoks II." In the end, though, it was given the title, "Ewoks: The Battle for Endor." According to an interview with Warwick Davis, one of the main stars of the movie who played Wicket, a second sequel, known only as "Ewoks III," was in at least the planning stages at one point, around the late eighties, but the project has been shown to have never come through. The plot of the film, if one was ever developed, was never publically given, either during the time the film was planned, or in the interview with Davis. Whether it is to ever be made still is unlikely, but possible, according to Davis.

Later EU appearances
Since the release of Caravan of Courage in 1984, several of the elements from the film have went on to appear in other works from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Many times, the characters, locations, or other elements are elaborated on in greater detail.


 * Return of the Ewok (1982) is an as of yet unreleased film, dealing with actor Warwick Davis' transformation into Wicket, as he decides to become an actor.
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983) featured the introduction of Wicket and the other Ewoks, in which they help defeat the Imperial Stormtroopers and the Empire, who are guarding a shield generator on the Endor moon. The generator is important in that it protects the second Death Star, which was currently being built above the Endor moon.
 * Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985) was the second of the two made-for-TV Ewok films. It dealt with the the orphanage of Cindel, after her family was killed by Sanyassan Marauders. The marauders also kidnap many of the ewoks. After meeting and being taken in by Noa Briqualon, she, along with the ewoks, must team up to defeat the marauders and free the others from their grasp.
 * Star Wars: Ewoks (1985-1987) was a two-season animated series, featuring the ewoks. A follow-up to the two films, it incorporated several elements introduced in the two Ewok films, such as the appearance of Queen Izarina of the fairies.
 * Tyrant's Test (1996). According to the official continuity of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, the character of Cindel Towani went on to appear in Michael P. Kube-McDowell's Star Wars book series, The Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy, specifically, in the third novel of the series, Tyrant's Test. In the novel, which is set over ten years after The Battle for Endor, Cindel is shown to have grown to be an intelligent and idealistic woman, who has become a reporter on Coruscant. During the Yevethan crisis, Cindel received the so-called Plat Mallar tapes from Admiral Drayson, and leaked the story of the only survivor of the Yevethan attack of Polneye. The report was meant to garner sympathy among the people of the New Republic and the Senate. It worked. Although the Expanded Universe claims Cindel decided to join the New Republic and go into journalism after witnessing the Battle of Endor, some fans speculate the Battle of Endor must've been over before she and her family crashed (see Alleged Continuity Issues above).
 * Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided (2003) is an MMORPG. In the game, the player has the opportunity to encounter the Gorax and the Gorax species, as seen in Caravan of Courage.

Errors

 * Continuity: Mace's right arm is swallowed by the tree creature, but in the next scene, his left hand is shown with the injury.
 * Continuity: At the beginning when we first see Wicket, his mother has a baby Ewok held in her left arm with nothing wrapped around it. In the next shot, she has the baby in her right arm, wrapped in a leather blanket.
 * Revealing mistakes: The spider that attacks the Ewok on the web bridge has visible strings.
 * Continuity: When Cindel is sick and coughing, a flower that Wicket gives her can be seen at her side before she has received it from him.

Trivia

 * One of the matte paintings includes Winnie-the-Pooh sitting in a tree.
 * First of two made for TV spin-offs from the original Star Wars saga. Star Wars fans remain split as to whether they should be considered part of the official Star Wars canon. Inspired the later "Ewoks" cartoon series.
 * Bob Carrou, who wrote the script for this film, went on to write a few episodes of the Ewoks animated series.
 * One of the characters who appeared in the film, Queen Izarina of the fairies, went on to appear in an episode of the follow-up Ewoks animated seies entitled The Cries of the Trees. This occurrence was most likely due to Bob Carrou's involvement in both this film and the animated series.
 * According to Eric Walker, the man (but then boy) who played Mace, Lucas himself directed the film's re-shoots and edited some of the film's scenes himslef. Here is an excerpt from his interview on lucasfan.com:
 * George Lucas edited a portion of the Ewok Adventure. This fact is not well known, but Lucas directed the entire one week re-shoot. Director John Korty had another film to direct that was put on hold until after the Ewok Adventure principal photography was completed. I have a call sheet with George Lucas' name as director on it. It was later taken off, and was put on by mistake by one of the assistant directors. I also have a personal card from George thanking me for the work that I did on the re-shoot.

Release
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure was released as a TV special in the holiday season of 1984, on November 25. It was given the name, "The Ewok Adventure" for its TV airing. However, also in 1984, it was given a theatrical release in several locations with the title of "Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure." The film was then released on VHS and Laserdisc in 1990 through MGM with the name given to the TV airing.

It was finally given a DVD release as a double feature collection, along with its sequel, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, on November 23, 2004, by Lucasfilm Ltd. The disc was double-sided, with one film on each side. In this release, the film bore the title used in its theatrical release, Caravan of Courage. In the DVD release, the film was advertised as Star Wars Ewok Adventures: Caravan of Courage.

DVD features

 * Presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio
 * Available Subtitles: English
 * Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
 * DVD includes both Caravan of Courage (aka The Ewok Adventure) and The Battle for Endor