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Ewok movies

Started by Colin YNWA, 01 May, 2017, 10:11:30 PM

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Colin YNWA

So I figure you lot will be able to help me with something I've been pondering.

So the two Ewok movies, are they any good? Not for me, in my head I saw Caravan of Courage back in the day (I might be wrong I also thought it got a cinema release in the country and didn't realise it was a TV movie) and hated it. I've never seen Battle for Endor.

Now my kids are getting well and truly into Star Wars in all forms, christ they love um all, what Dad thinks be damned ... which is of course as it should be, after all as George kept saying he was making movies for kids, its not his fault if adults got carried away with it all. And they both love Ewoks (look they'll grow out of it okay) and so my mind wondered back to these films, they seem to be available and that being the case are they worth showing the kids?

Any thoughts?

Professor Bear

You got me all excited they might be making a new one, damn your eyes.

Stuff like Friendship Is Magic or Adventure Time have made younger viewers more accepting and/or knowing about the idiosyncrasies of the fantastic and camp, so it's possible that younger audiences would like the Ewoks films as long as they knew going in that they were more overtly fantasy than the main Star Wars series, but they are definitely kids' films in tone and intent.

As an adult, I found Caravan of Courage to be a passable mid-80s fantasy, but Battle For Endor never recovers from murdering main characters from Caravan offscreen in its first few minutes in a way that's somehow even more horrible than watching it happen (because it seems calculated to get kids asking each other/their parents what's happened), then the rest of the film goes on to be a bit over the place, including an ending that is basically a small girl getting into a space van with a complete stranger and then driving off, which I am sure is fine in context even if remembering it objectively right now makes it seem like a completely fucked up message for the ending of a kids' film.
Also, there is a fan theory that the girl from these Ewoks movies will turn out to be Captain Phasma.  To be honest: why not?

Krakajac

There you go, I didn't know Caravan of Courage was a made-for-TV flick (in the States).

Definitely remember seeing it on the big screen in 84/85 when I was growing up in New Zealand.  It was quite the event attending the cinema to see a 'new' SW movie.

Pete Wells

Colin, we're an accepting bunch around here as you well know. If you want to watch ewok films then go for it mate, it takes all kinds to make a world. There's no need to invent stories about your kids, just embrace it and we will accept you.

(Do you want to loan my copies?)


shaolin_monkey

While you're at it, you may as well show them the Xmas Special too.

Hawkmumbler

Colin...this is a slippery slope your kids are heading down. First it's a gateway drug like the Prequels. Before you know it, they're blowing Ewok movies off a hookers back and shooting themselves up with Holiday Specials like something out of Trainspotting.

Be smart kids. Don't do bad Star Wars movies.

Keef Monkey

I remember liking them as a kid, and not being aware that they were cheap or crappy, just really enjoyed seeing Wicket getting up to some shenanigans.

JamesC

I never watched them because the heroes in them were children (really annoying looking children). I never really liked films which had other kids as the heroes - so didn't care much for ET or The Goonies either.
(Grange Hill was good though - I could relate to those kids).

I quite liked the Ewoks cartoon though. I liked it better than Droids.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Hawkmumbler on 02 May, 2017, 08:45:40 AM
Colin...this is a slippery slope your kids are heading down. First it's a gateway drug like the Prequels. Before you know it, they're blowing Ewok movies off a hookers back and shooting themselves up with Holiday Specials like something out of Trainspotting.

Be smart kids. Don't do bad Star Wars movies.

Ha! But there's so much of it out there, its like ALL you can get these days. They're constantly cutting up the pure stuff with this nonsense.

Quote from: Pete Wells on 02 May, 2017, 07:02:19 AM
Colin, we're an accepting bunch around here as you well know. If you want to watch ewok films then go for it mate, it takes all kinds to make a world. There's no need to invent stories about your kids, just embrace it and we will accept you.

(Do you want to loan my copies?)


Pete shhhh will ya... can I take your Season DVD of Star Wars Rebels while I'm at it...

TordelBack

Quote from: shaolin_monkey on 02 May, 2017, 07:49:59 AM
While you're at it, you may as well show them the Xmas Special too.

Ah here.  They'll be onto Childline at this rate.

The Enigmatic Dr X

If you're going to show your kids under-rated 80s whimsy, show them Legend.

It's got Tom Cruise, the Devil and a hot-goth all under one Ridley Scott roof.
Lock up your spoons!

Professor Bear

Explorers must surely be a mandatory watch in any cross-generational sci-fi household?  After years of dark kids' fantasy, I recall the good-natured whimsy of the third act reveal catching me off guard.

Colin YNWA

Well in the end I bottled this and settled for Pete's copy of Season One of Rebels (actually it was going silly cheap in HMV - they still have them can you believe). Now I've not had the chance to watch much but my son appears to be binging it. Slowed only by my daughter first choice of Wolfblood season 1 and a parental refusal to accept that it is healthy to watch more than 5 episodes of a telly show in one weekend.

So while haven't actually watched an entire episode yet the bits I've seen in passing looked bloomin' amazin'! I might have to... eerrrr ... monitor the kids viewing a little more closely.