Ewok

Ewoks are a fictional race of small, mammaloid bipeds that appear in the Star Wars universe. They are hunter-gatherers resembling teddy bears that inhabit the forest moon of Endor and live in various arboreal huts and other simple dwellings. They first appeared in the 1983 film episode VI Return of the Jedi and have since appeared in two made-for-television films, Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984) and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985), as well as a short-lived animated series and several books and games.

Concept and creation

George Lucas created the Ewoks because he wanted Return of the Jedi to feature a tribe of some primitive creatures that bring down the technological Empire. He had originally intended the scenes to be set on the Wookiee home planet, but as the film series evolved, the Wookiees became technologically skilled. Lucas designed a new species instead, and as Wookiees were tall, he made Ewoks short. In addition, he also based the Ewoks' defeat of the Galactic Empire on the actions of the Viet Cong guerrillas who menaced American soldiers during the Vietnam War. The Ewoks are named after the Miwok, a Native American tribe, indigenous to the Redwood forest in which the Endor scenes were filmed for Return of the Jedi, near the San Rafael location of Lucas' Skywalker Ranch. In the film, the word "Ewok" is never actually spoken, but it appears in both the script and the closing credits.

Star Wars: Ewoks

Star Wars: Ewoks is an American/Canadian animated television series featuring the Ewok characters introduced in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. It aired for two seasons between 1985 and 1986.

The series was produced by Nelvana on behalf of Lucasfilm and broadcast on ABC, both by itself and later, as part of The Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour. The first season was advertised as simply Ewoks, but the second season was advertised as The All New Ewoks. The series lasted 35 episodes.

Plot

The series focuses on the adventures of Wicket W. Warrick and his friends on the forest moon of Endor during the years before the events in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Unlike the films, the characters speak English (called Basic in the Star Wars universe) instead of their native language (though Ewokese phrases and songs are occasionally used). The primary recurring villains are Morag the Tulgah Witch, who had a personal grudge against the tribe's shaman, Master Logray, and the Duloks, a rival species that is related to the Ewoks.

Ewoks (soundtrack)

Ewoks – Original Soundtrack is the film score to the television films Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor composed by Peter Bernstein. The score also includes brief reprisals of John Williams' Ewok theme from Return of the Jedi. A soundtrack album containing Bernstein's music from both films was officially released as a 12-inch LP record by Varése Sarabande on December 8, 1986.

Overview

At the request of George Lucas, Dorothée recorded a theme song entitled "Les petits Ewoks" for the French release of Caravan of Courage.

The LP was later bootlegged onto CD in 1999 and retitled Star Wars: Ewoks. The bootleg has a number of discrepancies including an incorrect track arrangement, incorrect track names, and incorrect track times. Tracks labeled as "Additional Material" on the bootleg were never officially sanctioned by Lucasfilm and are in fact made up of music assembled from various releases of the Return of the Jedi soundtrack.

Reception

The musical score has received mixed reviews. In a review specifically regarding Caravan of Courage, John J. O'Connor of The New York Times praised Bernstein's score in "transforming rather ordinary scenes into settings of foreboding." In a retrospective review of the soundtrack album, Seth Cole of Film Divider said, "There are heroic fanfares and marches reminiscent of those heard in Return of the Jedi, and definite hints of Williams-like string ostinatos as heard in the saga episodes, but the music fails to lift off in the same way."