After the release of Return of the Jedi in 1983, there wasn’t much new Star Wars on the horizon. Budgetary concerns and a bit of Star Wars burnout prevented George Lucas from making more feature films immediately. But Lucas had other ideas for keeping the Star Wars brand in the public consciousness.
It was George Lucas’ daughter Amanda that fell in love with the Ewoks and prompted Lucas to write a script for a half-hour Ewoks television special. After the massive success of the original trilogy, you would think networks would be lining up to produce such a project, but the only one that said yes was ABC. And they would only do it if Lucas could fill a two-hour time slot. So, Lucas and his co-writer, Bob Currau, rewrote the script that would become The Ewok Adventure, a made-for-TV movie that aired on November 25, 1984.
The film was directed by John Korty, a filmmaker who dabbled in both live-action and animation, working on short films for Sesame Street and The Electric Company, as well as an animated feature film, Twice Upon a Time, that George Lucas produced, in 1983. Korty was an old hand at TV movies, releasing 10 films before Lucas hired him for The Ewok Adventure.
The Ewok Adventure tells the story of the Towani family, who have crash landed onto the forest moon of Endor. The kids get separated from their parents and the Ewoks help reunite the family.
The film starred then-14-year old Warwick Davis, who reprised his role as the Ewok, Wicket W. Warrick.
He was joined by fellow youngsters, Eric Walker as older brother Mace and Aubree Miller as the little sister, Cindel.
Walker had a few roles under his belt at the time, but has really only dabbled in acting since then.
As an adult, he’s mostly been focusing on podcasting at All For Sci-Fi.com, as well as producing music. You can see what he’s been up to over on YouTube.
As for Aubree Miller, who was only four when filming The Ewok Adventure, she left acting shortly after. Unlike a lot of people connected to the Star Wars franchise, she doesn’t travel the convention circuit and has only rarely given interviews about her experience.
While The Ewok Adventure received mixed reviews from critics, it was a pretty big hit for ABC. Its ratings were among the best for the network’s made-for-TV movies that year and ABC wanted to make it a pilot for a spin-off TV series. Lucas wasn’t interested in a series, but they were able to talk him into a sequel made-for-TV movie, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. A third film was in the early planning stages, but never came to fruition due to budgetary concerns. However, the films did inspire the Ewoks spin-off cartoon that aired between 1985 and 1987 for a total of 26 episodes.
For the overseas market, The Ewok Adventure was released theatrically and the title was changed to Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure. Various media at the time, like today’s read-along record book, still used the original title, but since the DVD release in 2004, Lucasfilm has officially adopted Caravan of Courage, sometimes even dropping the subtitle entirely. If you’re looking to watch the film today, you’ll find it under Caravan of Courage on Disney Plus as part of the Star Wars Vintage collection.
While the Ewok films haven’t had much of an impact on the Star Wars universe, some of the characters and creatures have been seen elsewhere in Star Wars Legends and in the official canon.
Cindel would later be featured in the novel Tyrant’s Test, part of the Black Fleet Crisis series, written by Michael Kube-McDowell. Cindel grows up and becomes a journalist on Coruscant, where she reports on an attack by the aggressive Yevetha race.
The Gorax, a giant creature the Ewoks and the kids encounter during the movie, has since become canon after being featured in the Forces of Destiny online animated micro-series on the Disney YouTube channel. In the episode Traps and Tribulations, Luke and Leia help the Ewoks reset a trap to help defend themselves from a rampaging Gorax.
Along with today’s read-along record book, there was one more piece of tie-in merchandise for the film, a storybook produced by Random House titled, The Ewoks and the Lost Children.
The Ewok Adventure read-along record book was released in 1984 by Buena Vista Records. If you’d like to listen to the record and read the book, follow this link to my podcast, When You Hear This Sound!
