Star Wars and the Ewok Double Feature

 

A long time ago, back when television networks were cool about the weekends, the ABC Network would hold double feature presentations Saturday mornings, oftentimes showing two (family-friendly) films back to back, and those films were typically sequels to one another more often than not.

As I mentioned in a previous entry, I grew up a huge Star Wars fan(and later had a huge falling out with it) but now I'm back to loving it again and the funny thing about that is, it was rewatching The Caravan of Courage on Disney+ several months back that helped to reignite my love of the franchise. Watching the movie in all its low-budget, direct-to-video glory lit something up in me like a lightsaber; Possibly the alien moon of Endor and its indigenous, beautifully stop-motion animated life, or the lore that surrounds the whole entire thing. 

Whatever it was, it lead me to pick up the Original and Prequel Trilogy blu-rays AND their novelizations, plus the Thrawn Trilogy from the early 90s, along with Jedi Fallen Order. I've watched all of Boba Fett, Andor, and Obi-Wan during my unemployment as well as having played through Jedi Fallen Order. I plan to pick up Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga if/when it goes on sale on May the Fourth next week

But EWOKS! 

Caravan of Courage (1984) and The Battle for Endor (1985)

I unironically love these movies! I watched them both this morning back to back, just like back in the good 'ol 90s and that one Saturday morning when I happen to come across them while sitting in the big recliner one Saturday morning. 

Though their presence in the new ongoing canon is no longer a thing, they'll always be dear to me. The heavy focus on the wide array of creatures that roam the moon of Endor before the Empire came along is something else. Creatures that were likely either sent into extinction or wiped out entirely upon the Emperor's colonization of the moon while they built the second Death Star in secret because there ain't no way a Gorax didn't come down from the hills to try and take a swipe at the troopers that had swarmed the land.

The combined use of puppetry and stop-motion effects for the boar-wolf will never not be a treat for the eyes. Not to mention the luxurious mane on the Gorax suit that would have had Michael Landon swooning.

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And then you got Wilford Brimley's introduction to the Star Wars galaxy as Noa Briqualon, an ex-scout in the Galactic Republic. He wound up crashing on Endor with an ill-fated co-pilot and had just managed to seemingly escape the planet shortly before or during the events of The Empire Strikes Back.

I really hope Disney tries something like this again with the series, be it in book form or otherwise because each planet in the Star Wars universe is so vast and all have a crazy amount of indigenous creatures and cultures to explore that I feel it'd be a crime NOT to try this again.