May 14, 2025

Star Wars: Caravan of Courage, An Ewok Adventure (1984) - Ewoks, War Crimes, and Growing Up Star Wars

Star Wars: Caravan of Courage, An Ewok Adventure (1984) - Ewoks, War Crimes, and Growing Up Star Wars
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Episode Summary:
Aaron and Brash celebrate Star Wars Day by diving deep into one of the galaxy’s most bizarre and beloved offshoots— The Ewok Adventure: Caravan of Courage and its sequel, The Battle for Endor . From childhood nostalgia and surprise massacres to Emmy-winning effects and the brutal realities of teddy bear warfare, this episode explores the emotional impact, cinematic legacy, and surprisingly dark themes of these TV movies. Along the way, the duo discusses how Ewoks shaped early fandoms, their personal Star Wars origin stories, and the ways these films echo deeper truths about childhood and loss.

Topics:

  • Star Wars Day, nostalgia, and Ewok yearbook superlatives
  • Plot breakdowns of Caravan of Courage and Battle for Endor
  • George Lucas’ original vision, fantasy shift, and testing ideas for Willow
  • Canon vs. Legends: What still counts and what Disney erased
  • Groundbreaking VFX on a TV budget (and Emmy wins)
  • Community takes from Reddit and Threads
  • Behind-the-scenes stories, including ILM’s resourcefulness
  • Deeper character journeys: Mace and Cindel as coming-of-age archetypes

Key Takeaways:

  • The Ewok movies were George Lucas’ testbed for life beyond Jedi and Skywalkers—and even Willow .
  • These films aren’t canon, but they influenced Star Wars visuals and fandom deeply.
  • Battle for Endor shocked audiences with its dark tone and family tragedy—despite being marketed to kids.
  • ILM pioneered VFX on a $2M budget, using force perspective and matte paintings that would influence Lord of the Rings .
  • Mace and Cindel represent loss of innocence and growing independence in ways rare for children’s fantasy.
  • Fans still remember these movies as their first Star Wars experience—proving their cultural staying power.

Quotes:

“I didn’t know these movies existed until you said let’s do Ewok Caravan of Courage for the podcast.”
“They used the best stop-motion 1984 had to offer—and it still kind of holds up.”
“Mace was all gas, no brakes.”
“I just wish I was the best kid ever and never made any mistakes at all.”
“Ewok Hunt in Battlefront II was more terrifying than any horror game I've ever played.”


Apple Podcast Tags:
Star Wars, Ewok Adventure, Caravan of Courage, Battle for Endor, Warwick Davis, George Lucas, Disney Plus, Star Wars Legends, ILM, Sci-Fi Fantasy, Movie Podcast, Fandom Analysis, Childhood Nostalgia, Geek Freaks Network, Fandom Portals Podcast


Contact Us:
Website: https://www.fandomportalspodcast.com/


Instagram: instagram.com/fandomportals/?locale=en
Threads: threads.net/@fandomportals
Email: fandomportals@gmail.com
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/fandomportals




00:00 - Welcome to Fandom Portals

02:14 - Star Wars Day and Ewok Movies

05:28 - George Lucas and Testing Star Wars

10:08 - Award-Winning Visual Effects

22:51 - Brash's Introduction to Star Wars

35:42 - Innovative Filmmaking Techniques

44:16 - Sindel's Post-Ewok Adventure Career

53:42 - Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover

01:06:51 - Journey from Childhood to Adolescence

01:21:35 - Rating the Ewok Adventure

WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.465
You should do a yearbook thing for the Ewoks.

00:00:01.465 --> 00:00:06.546
It's just like most likely to steal your car, that's Paploo, most likely to steal your girl, that's Wicket.

00:00:06.546 --> 00:00:27.170
Welcome to the Fandom Portals podcast, the podcast that explores how fandoms can help us learn and grow.

00:00:27.170 --> 00:00:31.631
Hello everybody, this week I'm joined with Brash, as usual.

00:00:31.631 --> 00:00:32.171
How are you going, brash?

00:00:32.171 --> 00:00:34.223
Chub dub, chub dub.

00:00:34.223 --> 00:00:37.872
That is Ewokies for good thanks and you.

00:00:40.860 --> 00:00:52.329
Actually I could say I did actually try and learn a little bit of Ewokies, mm-hmm, but there isn't really one for.

00:00:52.600 --> 00:00:53.725
Look at us a major in college.

00:00:53.725 --> 00:00:55.667
Does Google Translate do it into Ewokies?

00:00:55.948 --> 00:01:00.225
I don't know, maybe, but I will say Yumnub, that's a good one.

00:01:00.225 --> 00:01:02.186
Yumnub which means hooray.

00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:04.364
Yes, that's a good one.

00:01:04.444 --> 00:01:05.346
Thank you, hooray for being here.

00:01:06.909 --> 00:01:09.828
Yub nub, yub nub, hooray in Ewok.

00:01:09.828 --> 00:01:20.540
The reason we're talking about Ewok language everybody is because this week well, last week, week of recording it has been Star Wars Day, may the 4th and May the 5th and May the 6th.

00:01:20.540 --> 00:01:24.390
I'm not sure what order they go in or how they're said, but I know May the 4th is, may the 4th be with you.

00:01:24.390 --> 00:01:28.864
And as a result of that, all of the podcasts are doing all of the different kind of Star Wars reviews.

00:01:28.864 --> 00:01:42.509
So we thought that we would jump on the bandwagon or the caravan if you will Jump on the caravan with a bunch of teddy bears, or Ewoks as they're colloquially known amongst the galaxies far, far away.

00:01:42.509 --> 00:01:46.141
And this week's movie is the Ewok Adventure Caravan of Courage.

00:01:46.141 --> 00:01:50.171
And we might also spice in a little bit of the Battle of Endor in there as well.

00:01:50.171 --> 00:01:53.007
These movies were made in 1984 and 1985.

00:01:53.808 --> 00:02:02.302
But before we get into that a little bit more, we're going to do our ratitudes and I'm going to go first this week because I am grateful for my mum this week.

00:02:02.302 --> 00:02:07.612
A shout out to Denise, if you're listening, which I know that you are, because you're a very awesome mum.

00:02:07.612 --> 00:02:12.661
I had a very personal crisis this week, I won't go into it, but who do you call when you're in deep, deep trouble?

00:02:12.661 --> 00:02:20.211
You call your mum and yeah, she was able to really help me through some tough stuff.

00:02:20.211 --> 00:02:23.788
So thank you, mum, I appreciate you, and thank you to all the mums out there.

00:02:23.788 --> 00:02:29.768
This is being recorded on Mother's Day, so mums do a lot and we appreciate you, Brash.

00:02:30.109 --> 00:02:32.760
Gratitude, gratitude Also.

00:02:32.760 --> 00:02:38.353
My mum also helped me out with an issue this past week as well, so shout out to my mum.

00:02:38.353 --> 00:02:41.128
I know she's probably not listening, even though she knows about the podcast.

00:02:41.169 --> 00:02:41.490
That's all right.

00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:54.962
We'll send her the link and say thank you, mrs brasha.

00:02:54.962 --> 00:02:57.986
But, uh, my gratitude, uh, for my friends, like you, but specifically this gratitude I'm going to highlight one of my friends, mel.

00:02:57.986 --> 00:02:58.497
Known her for a very, very long time.

00:02:58.497 --> 00:02:59.694
She's also a mother, so also happy birthday to mel.

00:02:59.694 --> 00:03:04.981
But uh, not that we really ever hang out with each other, but we'll see each other every now and then around town.

00:03:04.981 --> 00:03:13.862
But the one thing that we constantly do is every day send each other about 50 000 reels or tiktoks me and mel.

00:03:13.862 --> 00:03:26.832
We share a lot of reels between each other and, um, I know it really helps me get through my day always, um, grateful for her at least thinking of me when she sees any reels or stuff and sends them to me.

00:03:27.514 --> 00:03:29.848
Yeah, good little injection of dopamine in your day.

00:03:30.480 --> 00:03:33.050
It's just something nice and something that we do with each other.

00:03:33.050 --> 00:03:38.448
I'm like I want to see a cool metal reel or something like that and write something day every day.

00:03:39.308 --> 00:03:40.450
Very good, thank you, jamal.

00:03:40.450 --> 00:03:41.171
And thank you Jamal.

00:03:41.171 --> 00:03:42.935
We appreciate you All.

00:03:42.935 --> 00:03:48.206
Right, getting into our episode, guys, we're talking about the Ewok adventure, caravan of Courage and the Battle of Endor.

00:03:48.206 --> 00:03:50.741
As we said, made in 84 and 85.

00:03:50.782 --> 00:04:17.182
these movies are old, brash old, very old we've only ever done one movie that has been similarly old like this, and it was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and it was as old as us, made in 1990 these ones, these ones are even older, but these ones, especially Caravan of Courage that we're talking about today, is about Wicket, the Ewok, and his friends, who agreed to help two shipwrecked human children, mace and Sindel, on a quest to find their parents.

00:04:17.182 --> 00:04:35.970
And in the sequel to that, the battle for Endor is about the same Ewok village, but marauders raid and steal a power supply that they believe is magical, and Wicked once again comes to save the day and Sindel is also there and she escapes the evil witch Sharel, and they befriend a hermit who may help them save the Ewok village.

00:04:35.970 --> 00:04:37.211
In the end.

00:04:37.211 --> 00:04:44.526
Now, in this podcast, in this episode, you're obviously going to learn a little bit of the Ewok language, which I've already gone into, and that's probably the extent of it.

00:04:44.526 --> 00:04:47.173
But we're going to learn a little bit of the Ewok language, which we've already gone into, and that's probably the extent of it.

00:04:47.173 --> 00:04:49.199
But we're going to look at the lasting legacy that these movies have had on Star Wars, canon, if any.

00:04:49.199 --> 00:05:03.829
We're going to look at our audience's reactions to these movies because they are divisive, and we're also going to learn a little bit about the technology and the visuals in this movie that really made it sort of stand out for a TV movie during the 80s.

00:05:03.829 --> 00:05:18.130
And, lastly, we're going to go into our MVTs where we talk about not judging a book by its cover and we're also going to be talking about the journey from childhood to adolescence and the loss of childhood innocence through these movies that we think that they depict.

00:05:18.130 --> 00:05:19.540
So they strapped in, guys.

00:05:19.540 --> 00:05:22.427
We're going to be talking about all that in the podcast today.

00:05:22.987 --> 00:05:35.343
Brash, this movie was directed by John Cortey, but it surprised me to know that both of these movies were actually written by none other than the man himself George Lucas yeah, 100%.

00:05:35.343 --> 00:05:42.711
And Bob Carr yes, yes, he had some help, but the main story points were indeed made by George Lucas himself.

00:05:42.711 --> 00:05:53.052
They come off to me a lot like bedtime stories and I think that they definitely were something that he used to tell his children and that he put into a movie sort of format.

00:05:53.052 --> 00:06:11.932
I've also heard and read that this was almost like his testing ground, for two things, one being that this was his first test to see if Star Wars stood beyond its original core characters of Luke, leia and Han, and it also didn't have any lightsabers or mentionings of the Force or anything like that in it.

00:06:11.932 --> 00:06:18.165
So he was going to see if the Star Wars draw could go beyond what he had previously established, to see if he could build upon it.

00:06:18.165 --> 00:06:25.327
And the other thing was that it was almost like I've read that it was almost like his test run for Willow.

00:06:25.579 --> 00:06:26.663
Now I haven't seen Willow.

00:06:26.663 --> 00:06:27.786
Is that true, brash?

00:06:27.786 --> 00:06:28.228
I don't know.

00:06:28.228 --> 00:06:28.487
Good movie.

00:06:29.089 --> 00:06:29.632
Yes, we'll see.

00:06:29.632 --> 00:06:34.925
And a lot of the all, some of the stuff they use, like the fairy noise.

00:06:34.925 --> 00:06:38.862
They use that in Willow and, yeah, I think a lot of.

00:06:38.862 --> 00:06:40.586
They use Warwick Davis in Willow.

00:06:40.646 --> 00:06:42.870
Yes, yes, they do.

00:06:42.930 --> 00:06:45.814
In fact, I think he indeed plays Willow Well he does.

00:06:45.814 --> 00:06:50.572
I think this probably would have been a good test film for Willow.

00:06:50.572 --> 00:06:53.809
I think they had a bit more star power in Willow.

00:06:54.310 --> 00:07:08.011
Yes, yeah, val Kilmer being one of those, I do know that one of the biggest critiques of this movie was that it did, in fact, lean pretty heavily, or more so heavily into the fantasy genre than it did the sci-fi, as what Star Wars fans were expecting.

00:07:08.011 --> 00:07:13.767
This movie takes place in ABY3, which, in Star Wars language, is after the Battle of Yavin.

00:07:13.767 --> 00:07:19.281
Three years after the Battle of Yavin and for those of you that needed a little bit more explanation, the Battle of Yavin is when Luke blew up the Death Star.

00:07:19.281 --> 00:07:25.605
That's basically year zero in the canonical talk of Star Wars, between Empire and Jedi Returns.

00:07:26.007 --> 00:07:30.259
Yes, yes, so this one happens in between Empire Strikes Back and the return of the Jedi.

00:07:30.259 --> 00:07:38.988
So this is technically, the first time we see Wicket and his people, but, chronologically, in the real world we obviously saw him in Return of the Jedi first.

00:07:38.988 --> 00:07:47.569
But it's probably important to acknowledge, brash, that these movies canonically, technically, technically, don't really exist anymore.

00:07:47.569 --> 00:07:53.050
Disney uh redid the Canon for star Wars in 2014.

00:07:53.050 --> 00:08:07.007
And so far, none of these characters, except for, uh, obviously, the Ewoks and wicket uh, who appear in return to the Jedi, which is Canon and also a later cameo appearance in the last Jedi, I believe he returns with his son, pommet and um.

00:08:07.629 --> 00:08:20.507
Other than that, these Ewok movies, the Caravan of Courage and the Battle of Endor, not mentioned, not canon, but are part of the Legends uh collection, a lot of good stories in the Legends collection of Star Wars, brash, yeah, yeah.

00:08:20.507 --> 00:08:29.206
One thing to mention about this movie as well is that it was made on two million dollars, about $2 million, which is no $200,000 like our favorite Australian movie, gabriel.

00:08:29.206 --> 00:08:32.488
But this one was a limited cinema release.

00:08:32.488 --> 00:08:48.888
It released in some places in the cinema, but it was mostly a TV movie, and this was back in the days when they used to advertise a TV movie and it used to be a big event and affair and you could watch it on your little box with your family and have a really good time.

00:08:48.948 --> 00:09:23.404
So one thing that surprised me about this movie Brash, it was actually nominated for an award and it actually won an award Outstanding Visual Effects for Primetime Emmy in 1985 for the Caravan of Courage it actually won and its sequel, Battle for Endor, won the same outstanding special effects uh in 1986 I mean to be fair, though, that that time period, yeah, I can see it, because even even just watching it back again like some of the effects that they use, I was like damn with the shit they had back then.

00:09:23.404 --> 00:09:24.388
How'd'd they do that?

00:09:24.688 --> 00:09:35.187
Yeah, I agree, and I think that looking back at it at the humble year of 2025, at time of recording, I think some of it kind of holds up Like you can look at it and be like you know what.

00:09:35.187 --> 00:09:42.153
Some of the effects, like obviously some of the physical effects really really well done.

00:09:42.153 --> 00:09:56.342
But then they use some techniques which are going to a little bit later that have actually been adapted through other movies and perfected, but you can see the tiny little seed that sort of started it here in this little Ewok movie from George Lucas back in 1984.

00:09:56.342 --> 00:09:57.065
So, yeah, it was.

00:09:57.065 --> 00:10:00.292
It was really kind of revolutionary as well in that regard.

00:10:00.292 --> 00:10:08.700
But before we jump into all of that, let's get into our hot takes guard.

00:10:08.700 --> 00:10:10.025
But before we jump into all of that, let's get into our hot takes.

00:10:10.025 --> 00:10:14.322
Our hot takes is where we discuss our first thoughts of the media and unpack the boldest opinions from what surprised us but what split the room.

00:10:14.322 --> 00:10:17.572
We'll also highlight your hot takes from threads, instagram and Reddit.

00:10:17.572 --> 00:10:26.232
So if you want to get involved in that, make sure you check out the show notes below and you might have your little comment read out on our podcast, and we thank all of our people that get involved for the podcast.

00:10:26.232 --> 00:10:29.350
We love reading your stuff out and having a little chat about it as well.

00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:32.288
I'll go first for this one, brash, because my story about this is pretty boring.

00:10:32.288 --> 00:10:36.828
I didn't know these movies existed until you said let's do Ewok Caravan of Courage for the podcast.

00:10:36.828 --> 00:10:38.101
I was like what the heck is that?

00:10:38.101 --> 00:10:45.073
And then I looked at it and then somebody also said when I mentioned it there was like oh yeah, that's like the Star Wars Christmas special, a TV movie.

00:10:45.073 --> 00:10:51.769
I was like oh no, because that is notoriously bad and very critically bombed the Christmas special.

00:10:51.769 --> 00:11:00.392
But that being said, watching these movies I have said to a few people now that they obviously have their flaws, they have aged.

00:11:00.392 --> 00:11:02.707
But what an enjoyable, nice little cozy movie.

00:11:02.707 --> 00:11:06.649
To the point where I watched the first one and we're only going to do the caravan of courage.

00:11:06.668 --> 00:11:11.267
But I thought to myself I'm gonna whack on the second one because that was just such a fun little cozy ride in the forest of endor.

00:11:11.267 --> 00:11:15.144
And, um, I messaged you after I watched the first one.

00:11:15.144 --> 00:11:16.508
I was like what a cozy movie.

00:11:16.508 --> 00:11:24.091
Such a nice little little jaunt with the, with the ewoks, and so good to be back in the star wars, little little place and you know magic with all these kinds of things.

00:11:24.091 --> 00:11:27.466
And then you said, oh, we'll strap in because the next one's even more cozy.

00:11:27.466 --> 00:11:28.985
And I was like, well, I'll get my Oodi out.

00:11:28.985 --> 00:11:35.869
And literally the next message I sent you was 10 minutes in Sindel's entire family gets massacred and blown up.

00:11:35.869 --> 00:11:37.768
And I was like, holy shit, this is not cozy.

00:11:37.768 --> 00:11:44.035
But from there that obviously instigates her journey into her adventure for the movie in the battle of endor.

00:11:44.035 --> 00:11:46.001
But uh, nice little trick you played on me.

00:11:46.022 --> 00:11:55.390
Brash thanks for that yeah, yeah, yeah, I kind of forgot how rough it was and it was like it was pretty rough, because even like a carrying coach it's not really rough.

00:11:55.390 --> 00:11:58.609
There's a, there's some sadness in it, that's not too bad.

00:11:58.609 --> 00:12:08.307
But then, yeah, I forgot how um, how much the battle for endor was um a little bit more rougher I I'm not sure if actually I'm going to look this up because I'm pretty sure the Battle of Endor.

00:12:08.639 --> 00:12:16.326
Do you remember, brash, when we talked in our Indiana Jones episode about the Temple of Doom and what was happening with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg at the time when they made that movie?

00:12:16.607 --> 00:12:16.769
Yep.

00:12:17.480 --> 00:12:22.945
They were both going through horrible relationship crises and they took it out on their work.

00:12:22.945 --> 00:12:25.711
So in 1984, they made things like this.

00:12:25.711 --> 00:12:38.049
It was like a little bit kind of on the edge of your seat, and that was one of the biggest critical things that people said about this movie as well was that it was advertised and obviously represented to children being Ewok focused.

00:12:38.049 --> 00:12:48.525
But then the second movie, the Battle of Endor, was obviously full of themes like the death of this young girl's family and then even more so, uh, throughout there were some scary scenes through it as well.

00:12:48.525 --> 00:12:54.571
But there was apparently a message that went on before it aired in 1985 that said this is a movie that you need to watch with your kids.

00:12:54.571 --> 00:12:55.962
Do not let them watch it alone.

00:12:55.962 --> 00:13:04.611
Like it came on before the actual, like a pre-warning, just like the old ones in australia used to be you know, you wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't steal a handbag, don't pirate a movie.

00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:11.404
In this one it was sit with your parents to watch this movie.

00:13:11.404 --> 00:13:42.585
So that's interesting to note as well that even though it was targeted towards family and children and it was an adventure movie, there's obviously some darker themes through at least Battle of Endor and some throughout the Caravan of Courage as well, and when I watched these I was was like maybe this is my kids entry point into Star Wars, but I think that the janky look of the stop motion would also kind of freak my kids out too, because they're so used to pristine animation these days in 2025, that that kind of wouldn't wouldn't really sit right with them at that moment.

00:13:42.585 --> 00:13:45.652
But yeah, I had a decent time with these movies.

00:13:45.652 --> 00:13:46.312
What about you, brash?

00:13:46.312 --> 00:13:49.629
What's your first hot takes of these movies?

00:13:49.629 --> 00:13:50.552
The Ewok movies.

00:13:51.982 --> 00:13:52.966
So I love these movies.

00:13:52.966 --> 00:13:58.772
They are like these are like I'll watch it back.

00:13:58.772 --> 00:14:00.466
It is, I'll watch it back.

00:14:00.466 --> 00:14:09.988
And like I had goosebumps watching it again, because it has been a fair few years since I've watched it oh, a very, very long time Because it was hard to sort of get it.

00:14:09.988 --> 00:14:13.803
Yeah, like you couldn't just walk into a store and go oh, I want the Orc movie on DVD.

00:14:15.301 --> 00:14:17.287
I don't think they were VHS released.

00:14:17.287 --> 00:14:18.630
No, I don't know where.

00:14:18.630 --> 00:14:19.885
It's the same as the Christmas special.

00:14:19.885 --> 00:14:20.567
I've never seen it because I don't.

00:14:20.567 --> 00:14:22.489
I've never seen it because I don't know where to find it.

00:14:22.769 --> 00:14:27.072
It was released on DVD, but I mean, I'm not sure if it was released on video.

00:14:27.072 --> 00:14:30.476
It wasn't released on DVD in Australia until like 2018.

00:14:30.476 --> 00:14:35.873
And so, realistically, you couldn't watch it again unless it somehow appeared on TV again.

00:14:35.873 --> 00:14:46.472
Or someone has a copy of it and put it onto, like, say, youtube or something like that, or you got it from LimeWire or something like that, yeah, or yeah, you pirated it somehow, which?

00:14:46.493 --> 00:14:48.239
we don't condone here at the Fender Potter Spotlight.

00:14:48.239 --> 00:14:49.811
No, buying movies.

00:14:50.316 --> 00:14:54.985
Yeah, buying movies or subscribe, or subscribe, yeah, but no.

00:14:54.985 --> 00:15:03.373
So my first soiree into this was even before I watched any of the Star Wars was this your Virgin Star Wars experience?

00:15:03.393 --> 00:15:05.178
This was my intro into Star Wars, wow.

00:15:05.178 --> 00:15:07.027
So I watched this one.

00:15:07.027 --> 00:15:27.967
I was roughly four or five, I mean maybe, yeah, four or five, so that being it would have been ten years, ten or eleven years, but yes, my grandad actually, because they must have been on, because the good thing about going around my grandparents house was that they had Ozstar yep, my nan had Ozstar too.

00:15:28.019 --> 00:15:32.399
It must be a nan thing, I don't know I think it was back in the day, we just had normal TV and shit.

00:15:32.399 --> 00:15:35.485
We couldn't afford OzTV.

00:15:35.485 --> 00:15:38.860
But yeah, my grandparents did, but I think it was more so so my grandma could watch cricket.

00:15:38.860 --> 00:15:42.206
Oh wow, she was a big creative man.

00:15:42.206 --> 00:15:52.966
But yeah, my grandad, I don't know, he must have just had like this, this sense, because, whereas my brother and that wasn't so much like wasn't really into it, must have definitely wasn't into it.

00:15:52.966 --> 00:15:56.948
He just knew that I was going to be a big fucking nerd.

00:15:56.948 --> 00:16:01.249
He's like this is the one yeah, so he.

00:16:01.421 --> 00:16:08.711
So it was on Ozda and he taped them, recorded them on a tape for me, both movies.

00:16:08.711 --> 00:16:17.491
And yeah, every time I go around to my grandparents' place I'd watch Caravan of Courage and Battle of Lendor.

00:16:18.332 --> 00:16:19.975
That's so good, that's so awesome.

00:16:19.975 --> 00:16:28.740
See, I remember the old days of recording a movie off the TV and they'd still have the old school TV ads on the recording as well.

00:16:28.740 --> 00:16:30.293
It was almost like a little time capsule there.

00:16:30.293 --> 00:16:38.589
But that's so crazy to think that this is your entry point into Star Wars, and after watching it you thought to yourself I want some more of this well, that's it.

00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:43.028
And like I don't think, like I don't actually think I actually watched a Star Wars movie.

00:16:43.028 --> 00:16:46.052
I must have been like 8 or 9 think I actually watched a Star Wars movie.

00:16:46.052 --> 00:16:47.855
God, I must have been like eight or nine before I even watched a Star Wars movie.

00:16:47.855 --> 00:17:07.409
So from when I was about four to six, when I was still down south where my grandparents were, I watched Battle of Endor and Caravan of Courage all the time, and then there was a big gap where I didn't watch Star Wars, and then it must have been like eight or nine.

00:17:07.409 --> 00:17:13.229
And then I was like, and then I caught up and I watched all the Star Wars and then I just completely fell in love with Star Wars after that.

00:17:13.780 --> 00:17:23.154
My first journey into Star Wars, my grandma and my auntie, I believe, took me to the cinema, because they just re-released A New Hope in cinemas.

00:17:23.154 --> 00:17:43.848
I think it was digitally remastered or something like that, and I may have been six or seven when I saw it and it literally encompassed my entire life after that for the longest time, because I would like sit down at my nan's house afterwards and write down plays for Star Wars and just do all kinds of nerd shit like that.

00:17:43.848 --> 00:17:50.644
So yes, I was very, very similarly indoctrined into the world of Star Wars as well.

00:17:50.865 --> 00:17:52.912
Phantom Menace, oh 99.

00:17:52.912 --> 00:17:55.944
That must have been when, because that came out.

00:17:55.944 --> 00:17:56.647
I must have saw that.

00:17:56.647 --> 00:18:10.368
What the fuck is this and then realized it was attached to the Ewoks and then went back and watched it all at once because I'm pretty sure I'm not sure I might have watched the original Star Wars before for a minute, but I don't remember that.

00:18:10.368 --> 00:18:15.386
Also, I don't remember a lot of things when I was young, so it's also a bit of an issue.

00:18:15.781 --> 00:18:29.429
We're doing our best here at the random horror yeah, my memory from back when I was little is very shoddy, but I was little is very shoddy, but I do remember the important parts, like my granddad taping Carry On Courageful and sitting there watching that with him.

00:18:29.429 --> 00:18:34.326
But, yes, I'm not sure if Bear man has come out and I was like, fuck, yes, that was.

00:18:34.326 --> 00:18:35.566
I haven't watched this shit since Ewoks.

00:18:35.566 --> 00:18:39.625
And then, yeah, because you're like where the fuck are all the bears?

00:18:39.625 --> 00:18:41.692
Where the fuck are the Ewoks?

00:18:41.692 --> 00:18:43.915
Where's the Ewok with lightsaber?

00:18:43.915 --> 00:18:45.038
Where's the earwax?

00:18:45.038 --> 00:18:48.316
Where's the earwax with the lightsaber?

00:18:48.316 --> 00:18:49.726
Because I don't think.

00:18:49.726 --> 00:18:58.987
Yeah, because realistically, the only other person in my family that I could really say possibly would have watched Star Wars is maybe my older brother, because my older brother was born in 84.

00:18:58.987 --> 00:18:59.589
Yep.

00:19:01.442 --> 00:19:08.688
I had action figures, I had toys, I had the bloody lot, I was a Star Wars kid through and through and I'm a twin, so my twin brother.

00:19:08.688 --> 00:19:09.250
At the same time.

00:19:09.250 --> 00:19:19.063
It was really awesome when we'd get action figures, because I would get one and he would get one, but we'd just play with each other all the time, so it was almost like getting two action figures, but you had to, you know did you ever dress up as Star Wars characters?

00:19:19.063 --> 00:19:21.667
I don't think so I think we had like Darth Vader masks.

00:19:21.688 --> 00:19:23.391
Was one of you, luke, and one of you, leia.

00:19:23.790 --> 00:19:28.326
I always really liked Luke Skywalker as a kid and my brother really liked Han Solo.

00:19:28.326 --> 00:19:36.130
But the first action figures we got, mine was a Luke Skywalker and his was a Yoda, and that's funny because that's kind of the relationship we had growing up as well.

00:19:36.130 --> 00:19:41.833
He was always the one that kind of was educating me, pulling me through things.

00:19:41.833 --> 00:19:45.107
But we've digressed, we pulling me through things, but we've digressed.

00:19:45.127 --> 00:19:48.277
We have digressed, but yes, no, but yeah, so I've been.

00:19:48.277 --> 00:20:03.130
I was introduced to Star Wars when, through Ewoks, when I was three, four, five, roughly around that time period, when I was still down south and then, yeah, from now on I've got fucking tattoos and all kinds of stuff for Star Wars.

00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:04.865
It's set in from there.

00:20:04.865 --> 00:20:08.951
All right, let's go to our Reddit to see what our community has said.

00:20:08.951 --> 00:20:14.088
All right, we have Chen Geller who said this and its sequel are basically a dry run for Willows.

00:20:14.088 --> 00:20:15.747
It's almost beat for beat.

00:20:15.747 --> 00:20:17.586
It's essentially the Hobbit with Ewoks.

00:20:17.660 --> 00:20:22.689
George Lucas read at least a part of the books around August of 1975.

00:20:22.689 --> 00:20:25.314
So I can see that he's been inspired by a few things there.

00:20:25.314 --> 00:20:49.910
In the Hobbit especially, there's a scene in the Caravan of Courage where the large quadrupedal beast chases Mace and Sindel into a hole in a tree and then starts to scratch its way sort of into them using the best stop motion that 1984 has to offer, and that reminded me a lot of Bjorn the Bear chasing dwarves through the forest and eventually them hiding in his own house and doing something very, very similar.

00:20:49.910 --> 00:21:00.392
So there are some beats that I can see that perhaps were very, very similar, even to the point thematically of like breaking into a place and having a really big adversary in there where the gorax was.

00:21:00.392 --> 00:21:03.171
That can be synonymous with smell the dragon, you might say.

00:21:03.171 --> 00:21:05.380
So I I can agree with that, chengilla.

00:21:05.500 --> 00:21:11.086
I think that, uh, the hobbit was probably a bit of an inspiration and we've already talked about the fact that it was a dry run for willow.

00:21:11.086 --> 00:21:15.061
There's some shot for shots there and some, uh, some similar sound effects used.

00:21:15.061 --> 00:21:24.067
We have d caster that says I absolutely loved this is a kid and the sequel was okay, as in battle for endor was actually just okay.

00:21:24.067 --> 00:21:43.267
And then there is a ghost elder that says I'm fairly certain that wilford brimley says fuck at some point in the battle for endor and I watched it after reading that and I can see the time when he actually, when he's trying to get his ship working and he's finally got the uh, the power cell in and he actually says uh, oh, come on.

00:21:43.267 --> 00:21:46.702
But if I didn't have the subtitles on, it actually would have sounded like he said fuck.

00:21:46.702 --> 00:21:50.823
So as a kid watching this on TV and he seems like the character.

00:21:50.863 --> 00:21:52.849
I was going to say he probably does say it in the subtitle.

00:21:52.849 --> 00:21:55.047
He says it a little differently.

00:21:56.824 --> 00:22:02.221
Yeah, and then Fair Dance 7 informed us that it was on Disney Plus, which it is indeed on Disney Plus.

00:22:02.221 --> 00:22:04.461
It got there on 2001 due to fan petition.

00:22:04.461 --> 00:22:15.925
So if you want to go and watch these movies, the people have their piece in the Christmas, special Christmas special that needs to be erased.

00:22:15.925 --> 00:22:23.901
Yes, I just remember seeing Chewbacca wearing clothes in an image and I was like that needs to go, Isn't?

00:22:23.921 --> 00:22:25.525
he the only one that doesn't wear clothes.

00:22:25.525 --> 00:22:27.951
I don't know his whole family's wearing clothes, I see.

00:22:27.971 --> 00:22:32.584
Chewbacca in a red shirt or a red dress or something, or a Wookie like goodness me.

00:22:33.025 --> 00:22:42.509
I'm pretty sure I always finish wearing clothes and he's not oh man, alright, let's jump over to our threads.

00:22:42.548 --> 00:22:44.092
We are at phantom portals on threads.

00:22:44.092 --> 00:22:45.354
Come and say hello.

00:22:45.354 --> 00:22:48.540
M brawn says I know I haven't seen it.

00:22:48.540 --> 00:22:53.020
Oh sorry, I know I have seen it but I can't remember or tell you much about it.

00:22:53.020 --> 00:23:02.429
It was one with two crash landed kids and they had to fight off a giant monster with the help of ewoks, right and I said that's.

00:23:02.429 --> 00:23:05.153
I said there's a sequel and he goes there is.

00:23:05.153 --> 00:23:05.855
I didn't know that.

00:23:05.855 --> 00:23:07.085
And he said, no, I want to see those as well.

00:23:07.085 --> 00:23:08.164
So there we go.

00:23:08.164 --> 00:23:09.804
We have Alt-Brash Brackham.

00:23:10.306 --> 00:23:10.547
Hey, yes.

00:23:11.900 --> 00:23:27.701
You told us that this is your late grandfather who taped both the Ewok movies for you and you rewatched them lots and lots of times and it gives you goosebumps and a nostalgia.

00:23:27.701 --> 00:23:29.443
We have Christine from Outside of the Box Podcast who's guested on our show.

00:23:29.443 --> 00:23:30.003
Hello Christine, how are you?

00:23:30.003 --> 00:23:30.905
Thank you for contributing to our threads.

00:23:30.905 --> 00:23:32.929
She has said that I watched every Ewok movie and it was not bad to me.

00:23:32.929 --> 00:23:33.750
Not bad to me either, christine.

00:23:33.750 --> 00:23:35.231
Thank you for commenting.

00:23:35.231 --> 00:23:36.534
And we have Tales from the Fandom.

00:23:36.534 --> 00:23:37.674
He says I've watched it.

00:23:37.674 --> 00:23:43.243
It was one of my first experiences with Star Wars, before I knew it was.

00:23:43.263 --> 00:23:43.825
Star Wars, so similar to you.

00:23:43.845 --> 00:23:45.087
Brash, yeah, and our last one.

00:23:45.087 --> 00:23:48.521
We've got Peruna2001, who said we had it recorded on VHS.

00:23:48.521 --> 00:23:52.843
My sister watched this non-stop until someone stole it with our VCR in a home break-in.

00:23:52.843 --> 00:23:56.132
I think we ended up with another copy plus the sequel.

00:23:56.132 --> 00:24:00.151
I think we'd remember both more fondly if we hadn't watched them so many times.

00:24:00.151 --> 00:24:06.369
Thinking back, I like the aspects of getting another view of the star wars universe with familiar characters like the ewoks.

00:24:06.369 --> 00:24:10.843
I think we're starting to get similar toned shows such as the mandalorian and and or now.

00:24:10.843 --> 00:24:18.105
Ultimately, I think this is the kind of story that star wars fandom craves and I kind of agree, because I do too.

00:24:18.105 --> 00:24:30.351
Yeah, I know that lots of people, when the acolyte came out, for example, that was jedi heavy and everybody kind of well, there was a little pocket of the Star Wars fan that kind of liked it, but there was a very negative kind of reviews on the Acolyte.

00:24:30.351 --> 00:24:37.667
But stepping away from the Skywalker saga, and the Skywalker name especially, is something that people in the Star Wars fandom really are looking towards.

00:24:39.181 --> 00:24:44.829
There's been a lot of Star Wars shows out lately that sort of don't really roll around Jedi.

00:24:44.829 --> 00:24:48.353
Yeah, started shows out lately that don't really roll around Jedi.

00:24:48.353 --> 00:24:54.803
I actually didn't mind the Acolyte, I just think they should go a step further and just do Old.

00:24:54.844 --> 00:24:55.288
Republic.

00:24:55.288 --> 00:25:03.964
I think they dipped a toe in and everybody was expecting more, and expectations versus reality never is a good combination when it comes to adapting IP media.

00:25:03.964 --> 00:25:07.566
But thank you, peruna, for your comprehensive comment there.

00:25:07.566 --> 00:25:11.608
We really appreciate it and I'm really sorry to hear about your VCR going missing.

00:25:11.608 --> 00:25:19.125
Yeah, that's sad, that's a bummer, but hopefully you can watch the Ewok movies with a little bit more fondness now on Disney Plus.

00:25:19.125 --> 00:25:23.310
Okay, that is our community's voice.

00:25:24.059 --> 00:25:31.851
Now, one thing that also blew me away with this, before we move on Brash, is we've talked a little bit about the visual effects.

00:25:31.851 --> 00:25:39.271
Now, as we said, some of them are a little bit janky by today's standards, but they actually pull off quite a few shots that were stepping stones for movies.

00:25:39.271 --> 00:25:42.309
Now, one thing, for example, was forced perspective tricks.

00:25:42.309 --> 00:25:48.710
So obviously the Gorax is really big and Ewoks are really small, and the way that they pulled that off was using forced perspective tricks.

00:25:48.710 --> 00:25:50.103
And do you know another movie that used that?

00:25:50.103 --> 00:25:50.663
Most recently?

00:25:50.663 --> 00:25:51.645
One of my favorites of all time?

00:25:51.645 --> 00:25:53.049
You know it, of course you do.

00:25:53.049 --> 00:25:53.991
Hobbits and Wizards.

00:25:53.991 --> 00:25:54.512
Come on, bro.

00:25:54.512 --> 00:26:06.594
Oh, really yeah, and that's why they hold up today as such a like when you're watching the Lord of the Rings, it kind of holds up seeing the small hobbits next to the large sort of creatures, because they use force perspective instead of CGI.

00:26:11.160 --> 00:26:23.324
That seed was planted here in the Ewok Adventure movies using ILM, industrial, light and Magic, which is a company that we've talked about a lot on this podcast, but I actually think that is George Lucas' visual effects company.

00:26:23.324 --> 00:26:24.409
Is that true?

00:26:24.409 --> 00:26:27.690
Yeah, parent organization Lucasfilm Founder, george Lucas.

00:26:27.690 --> 00:26:28.582
There you go.

00:26:28.582 --> 00:26:38.165
So we've talked about it so much and I didn't even realize that it was George Lucas's company, because they're the ones that were responsible for the CGI on Draco and in this movie especially.

00:26:38.165 --> 00:26:43.579
They had to be very resourceful and very thrifty because, as we said, there was a budget of $2 million.

00:26:43.579 --> 00:26:51.663
They didn't have the star wars feature films, uh extensive resources to draw from, so they had to use innovative miniature work.

00:26:51.663 --> 00:26:57.086
They used matte paintings as well as backgrounds, some of them you can pick out in the landscape shots as well.

00:26:57.086 --> 00:27:00.122
I don't know if you did brash, but I definitely did the landscape paintings.

00:27:00.122 --> 00:27:02.346
Sorry, you've just made me deep dive.

00:27:02.346 --> 00:27:04.952
Well, yeah, that's what we do here on the Phantom.

00:27:04.972 --> 00:27:05.433
Boys Podcast.

00:27:05.433 --> 00:27:17.284
I remember about ILM, Tron Ares, the Fantastic Four, Superman, Jurassic World, Rebirth F1, Leo and Stips they're part of all these things.

00:27:17.765 --> 00:27:18.607
Yeah, the.

00:27:18.627 --> 00:27:19.148
Thunderbolts.

00:27:19.550 --> 00:27:21.142
Yeah, ilm is.

00:27:21.142 --> 00:27:27.034
It's Hollywood's leading visual effects company, severance.

00:27:27.295 --> 00:27:32.460
Stunt 3 Electric State Gladiator 2 all of it, wicked Venom.

00:27:32.941 --> 00:27:35.446
That's why George Lucas is so rich and he could be like yeah, you can have Star Wars.

00:27:35.446 --> 00:27:39.667
Yeah, because he knew he'd still have a hand in it, because everybody's using ILM Lord of the Rings.

00:27:41.105 --> 00:27:44.306
Aqualad Ghost of Jackson Echo so yeah, mm-hmm, acolyte Buster Jackson Echo.

00:27:44.326 --> 00:27:57.048
So, yeah, so ILM, even on that reduced budget, they kind of were able to give these TV movies a cinematic polish and they don't really stand that far, apart from Star Wars and the Star Wars universe that people balked at it, except for the fantasy vibe of it all.

00:27:57.048 --> 00:28:05.247
But in terms of visual effects I think they hold up just as much as the Star Wars movies A New Hope, empire and Return.

00:28:05.247 --> 00:28:17.425
So that was really good to see and probably very exciting for people in the 80s when they were watching them on their TV as well, having these movies winning an Outstanding Visual Effects Emmy as well, so that was just another thing for my hot take.

00:28:17.445 --> 00:28:18.047
Think of the Rancor.

00:28:18.809 --> 00:28:19.731
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

00:28:19.731 --> 00:28:21.926
And the Rancor and the Gorax.

00:28:21.926 --> 00:28:27.779
The Rancor, I, I think, was a practical effect, whereas the Gorax was a cinematography.

00:28:28.259 --> 00:28:34.054
No, I mean like between the Rancor and the Boarhounds.

00:28:34.054 --> 00:28:36.500
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:28:37.320 --> 00:28:38.045
Yep, I know what you mean.

00:28:38.299 --> 00:28:46.173
Being similar in a way, yeah, and I think that they did a really sort of decent job, especially using the practical creature effects as well.

00:28:46.173 --> 00:28:55.771
It's pretty hard to pull off stop motion animation at the best of times, but then coupling that with real life actors is just really difficult and different to do.

00:28:55.771 --> 00:28:57.026
So kudos to ILM.

00:28:57.026 --> 00:29:03.923
You are a masterful organization, pioneer in the industry.

00:29:03.923 --> 00:29:04.907
Right, that was our hot takes.

00:29:04.907 --> 00:29:06.545
Let's get into our Fandom Fact Face-Off.

00:29:13.682 --> 00:29:19.233
In the Fandom Fact Face-Off, hosts go head-to-head with trivia about the focused media learning new facts along the way.

00:29:19.233 --> 00:29:26.743
When the host collectively gains 25 points together from correct answers, we will give away another movie voucher to someone on our mailing list.

00:29:26.743 --> 00:29:33.945
Might come as a surprise to you I didn't flag this with you, brash, but I enjoyed working as a team so much that we're going to do it from here on out.

00:29:33.945 --> 00:29:42.169
We're going to work as a team, we're going to get 25 points, and when we get 25 points we're going to send one of our mailing list.

00:29:42.169 --> 00:29:52.348
Go to wwwfandomportalspodcastcom and join our mailing list and we can send you the movies after we get 25 points.

00:29:52.348 --> 00:29:55.567
Our last winner from our last giveaway from last month was Rhys.

00:29:55.567 --> 00:29:57.205
So congratulations, rhys.

00:29:57.205 --> 00:30:01.867
We've already sent you your movie voucher and hopefully you're enjoying some popcorn right now.

00:30:01.867 --> 00:30:06.565
If you're not listening to the Fandom Portals Podcast, ah, okay, easy one for the first one.

00:30:07.067 --> 00:30:09.488
Okay, where was this movie shot?

00:30:09.960 --> 00:30:15.630
It was shot in one location and one location only this movie was shot in the same place that Return of the Jedi was shot.

00:30:15.630 --> 00:30:19.152
It was somebody's ranch or range.

00:30:19.152 --> 00:30:22.403
It's a pretty famous place, marin County.

00:30:22.403 --> 00:30:24.234
Home of the Skywalker Ranch.

00:30:24.234 --> 00:30:24.960
Yes, home of the Skywalker Ranch.

00:30:24.980 --> 00:30:26.925
Yes, home of the.

00:30:26.945 --> 00:30:27.667
Skywalker Ranch.

00:30:27.667 --> 00:30:34.144
Hmm yeah, and much of the action shots was shot in public parkland in Roy's.

00:30:34.144 --> 00:30:47.467
Redwoods as well, which contains a 300 year old sequoia that is a really old tree older than these movies, definitely but yeah, those Redwood trees are really brilliant background for the forest moon of Endor.

00:30:47.980 --> 00:30:56.200
Speaking of brash forest moon of Endor, with a bunch of places that aren't forests, a lot of biomes.

00:30:56.342 --> 00:31:04.662
On this forest moon including a desert and a rocky outcropping a large river and many, many castles.

00:31:05.424 --> 00:31:07.077
One in minnows and fields.

00:31:07.077 --> 00:31:09.027
Yeah, one in each movie, apparently.

00:31:09.027 --> 00:31:13.288
But yeah, this one was shot in Marin County, skywalker Ranch.

00:31:13.288 --> 00:31:14.951
All right, you ready for my question?

00:31:14.951 --> 00:31:16.114
That's a point for me, the room.

00:31:16.114 --> 00:31:25.690
So far, out of our 25 points we've got one because we're resetting all of the month, so 24 more and we get to send a lucky mailing list person and listener to the movies.

00:31:25.690 --> 00:31:26.724
Go see us.

00:31:26.724 --> 00:31:29.465
Alright Aubrey Miller was cast in this movie.

00:31:29.465 --> 00:31:32.465
She plays Sindel Tawani, the young girl in the movie.

00:31:32.465 --> 00:31:34.722
She was remarkably young when she was cast.

00:31:34.722 --> 00:31:35.907
Do you know how old she was?

00:31:35.907 --> 00:31:36.209
Brash.

00:31:38.663 --> 00:31:48.826
I did look up a lot about her because this was her first role and they actually picked her up from the town itself as a local talent.

00:31:48.826 --> 00:31:52.229
I think she's about the same age as I was when I watched it, like five or six.

00:31:52.990 --> 00:31:54.525
Correct, she was five years old.

00:31:54.525 --> 00:32:02.492
She was born in 1979, aubrey Miller was, and this was shot in 1984.

00:32:02.492 --> 00:32:22.506
So that makes her five years old and they were looking for a child who could be visibly young but also be emotionally grounded and carry some emotional scenes, especially for the second movie, the Battle of Endor, where she takes a more title role, whereas in the first one she was kind of sick for the first part of it and there are a lot of techniques that they use to reduce her filming and screening time as well.

00:32:22.506 --> 00:32:38.912
Jim Wheat, who directed the movie, remarked that Aubrey had a remarkable intuitive sense of the screen presence, which is good for somebody who's five years old, and it makes her a rare example of someone who was very young in a lead character role in a live action Star Wars story who actually did a good job.

00:32:38.912 --> 00:32:48.848
Her performance next to Wilta Bromley also earned her lots of praise from different kind of family audiences as well, so I think her performance definitely improved from the first movie to the second movie.

00:32:49.250 --> 00:33:03.087
Not to critically judge the performance of a five-year-old, but I have been a teacher for a very long time and I've seen them trying to go home sick on days when they don't really look that sick and I can just say that Aubrey Miller is Oscar-worthy winning, for I would have sent her to the office with a slip.

00:33:03.087 --> 00:33:07.153
She was sick, she needed her medicine, had to take her, got to go.

00:33:07.153 --> 00:33:07.814
Well done, aubrey.

00:33:07.814 --> 00:33:12.003
All right, so that is a point to you, that is a point to our pool.

00:33:12.003 --> 00:33:12.945
That is two points total.

00:33:12.945 --> 00:33:13.989
Your turn, brash.

00:33:14.250 --> 00:33:17.708
In Return of the Jedi there's a whole bunch of Ewoks Mm-hmm.

00:33:17.708 --> 00:33:25.413
Two stood out so much that they were given actual names in the Battle of Endor.

00:33:25.413 --> 00:33:26.931
Do you know the names of the two?

00:33:27.031 --> 00:33:29.513
Ewoks Two Ewoks Is Wicked one of them.

00:33:30.217 --> 00:33:32.458
No, that's none of the main cards.

00:33:32.458 --> 00:33:36.376
Oh Okay, but I'll give you a hint.

00:33:36.376 --> 00:33:45.094
Alright, one sounds very close to a automated sucking device, so Rhomba is one of them.

00:33:45.394 --> 00:33:46.038
Yeah, Rhomba.

00:33:46.931 --> 00:33:53.396
And the other one named, closely, resembles Chief Elder Chakatrok Chakatrok was a woodsman in this movie.

00:33:53.396 --> 00:33:54.913
The Elder Logre.

00:33:55.453 --> 00:33:58.442
Oh, logre, yeah, Nah, don't know, can't do it, what is it?

00:33:59.210 --> 00:34:02.576
So it was Rhomba and Chubre.

00:34:03.517 --> 00:34:07.002
Ah, Chubray Actually was one of those, the ones that actually stole the speeder.

00:34:07.503 --> 00:34:10.657
Oh, I see In the Return of Jedi they were unnamed.

00:34:10.657 --> 00:34:13.847
It could have been, but I'm pretty sure Wicket stole it, Doesn't Wicket steal the speeder?

00:34:13.847 --> 00:34:14.289
I thought it was.

00:34:17.094 --> 00:34:20.822
Wicket that stole the speed yeah, he was also later named oh, paplu.

00:34:21.284 --> 00:34:28.206
If only it was those people who play Star Wars Galaxy Heroes and they're in the Ewok team, they could be such a pain in the ass.

00:34:28.206 --> 00:34:30.661
Oh, paplus, paplus, and their team as well.

00:34:30.804 --> 00:34:37.445
Paplu, wicket Logre no, paplu has more accoutrement, you might say, on his headdress.

00:34:37.445 --> 00:34:45.382
He's got some feathers and a couple of like acorns by the look of it, whereas Wicket just has a plain leather looking brown.

00:34:45.382 --> 00:34:49.338
But yeah, lots of famous Ewoks out there, guys, you should go and look them up.

00:34:49.338 --> 00:34:51.757
And, brash, we might talk a little bit later about it.

00:34:51.757 --> 00:34:55.221
But Ewok Hunt, have you played that on Battlefront 2?

00:34:55.221 --> 00:34:57.878
Oh, that was such a scary fucking mode.

00:34:58.219 --> 00:35:01.472
I know, man, it was a cult hit too.

00:35:01.472 --> 00:35:02.052
I loved it.

00:35:02.052 --> 00:35:03.414
We'll talk about that a little bit later.

00:35:03.414 --> 00:35:04.215
That's in store.

00:35:04.215 --> 00:35:08.561
But yeah, it's funny how these Ewoks just overtook in various different parts.

00:35:08.561 --> 00:35:11.405
Anyway, all right, let's do the second question for me.

00:35:11.405 --> 00:35:12.164
I didn't get that one.

00:35:12.164 --> 00:35:15.871
That is one that I needed to look up.

00:35:15.871 --> 00:35:27.344
So Eric Walker he played Mace and George Lucas did something intentionally to his character in order to help young audiences identify with his story.

00:35:27.344 --> 00:35:28.326
What was that?

00:35:28.550 --> 00:35:34.293
I was going to say that he picked the actor because he looked like Luke or looked like Buck Hamill.

00:35:34.715 --> 00:35:35.376
Exactly right.

00:35:35.478 --> 00:35:39.416
That's exactly right, yeah, because even when I watched it I was like damn, is that Luke?

00:35:39.416 --> 00:35:40.820
I'm like no, it's young.

00:35:41.360 --> 00:35:41.722
Yeah, yeah.

00:35:41.722 --> 00:35:49.322
So he picked him because he he drew comparisons to luke skywalker from a new hope, not only in personality, because he was.

00:35:49.322 --> 00:35:57.153
He started out as frustrated and naive and he had to work towards courage and self-reliance, which was mace's journey throughout.

00:35:57.153 --> 00:36:00.791
He had to work towards his independence, uh, working with the ewoks as central guides.

00:36:00.791 --> 00:36:04.402
They made him a teenager because otherwise he wouldn't really need the ewoks as a guide.

00:36:04.402 --> 00:36:10.739
So that was the drawcard there and, being a younger audience, they still sort of had that relation to him as a story element.

00:36:10.739 --> 00:36:19.153
He kind of plays the part of being the adolescent character that is moving towards independence and moving away from the family unit in terms of a leadership space.

00:36:19.153 --> 00:36:24.583
But he even looked like Luke Skywalker with the haircut and even with the clothes.

00:36:24.583 --> 00:36:33.577
Like, if you remember, at the end of A New Hope, luke was wearing an orange jumpsuit with a sort of flight vest on and that is literally his costume in this movie.

00:36:33.577 --> 00:36:36.518
And one thing I want to say about Eric Walker is his role as Mace.

00:36:36.518 --> 00:36:39.117
Ah, bro, zero to 100.

00:36:39.478 --> 00:36:40.811
Oh yeah, he was all gas no brakes.

00:36:40.811 --> 00:36:42.297
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was all gas no brakes.

00:36:42.697 --> 00:36:56.041
Yeah, yeah, yeah, especially when we're first introduced to this character in Caravan of Courage, he runs into the place where the Ewoks are just meeting Tyndale and he is immediately, just like gun in hand, yelling at these creatures.

00:36:56.041 --> 00:37:00.132
And I understand, you know, he is being very protective of his sister and he's very young.

00:37:00.132 --> 00:37:04.422
But man is good expression all gas, no brakes.

00:37:04.422 --> 00:37:04.811
I love it.

00:37:04.811 --> 00:37:09.731
But yes, you are correct, luke skywalker was his inspiration, very intentional by george lucas.

00:37:09.853 --> 00:37:27.378
All right, that's three points so far, 21 to go one of the one thing, which is another reason why the ewoks was reckoned though you're with ewok movies was reckoned is because there'd be a major plot hole because of something something Sindel does in the movies that would contradict the Ewoks in the Return of the Jedi.

00:37:27.378 --> 00:37:28.221
Do you know what that is?

00:37:28.710 --> 00:37:34.300
Yes, Sindel teaches the Ewoks to speak common language and they speak English.

00:37:34.300 --> 00:37:39.639
That was a critical failure in terms of the audience's response to them as well.

00:37:39.639 --> 00:37:42.878
They didn't like that the Ewoks spoke a common language.

00:37:42.878 --> 00:37:54.432
I've always sort of thought of it as, yes, they're speaking English to our ears, but perhaps if somebody like an imperial stormtrooper was down there they would listen to them and hear a different language.

00:37:54.432 --> 00:37:58.751
So for the purposes of story perhaps we hear them uh, listening to and speaking in English.

00:37:58.791 --> 00:38:18.083
But I kind of liked in the first one, in Caravan of Courage, how there was that language barrier because it kind of drew me in more to be intuitive, based on the behaviors of the characters, to interpret what was going on, what they were doing, who was in a relationship with who or who was talking to who and what they were talking about.

00:38:18.083 --> 00:38:20.934
And I think that forms a deeper sense of storytelling.

00:38:20.934 --> 00:38:25.036
Which is also why I really didn't like the narrator in the Caravan of Courage.

00:38:25.036 --> 00:38:31.570
I thought, even though it was a nice little touch and it gave it a storybook element, it kind of wasn't necessary because it reminds me of the start of WALL-E, the movie First.

00:38:31.570 --> 00:38:44.003
25 to 30 minutes of that movie, zero dialogue, and we know what's going on the whole time and I think they could speak a common language yeah.

00:38:44.664 --> 00:38:52.403
And also the only part that I liked was when he was introducing characters.

00:38:52.403 --> 00:39:08.818
I think that's the only part of the narrative that I liked, because them saying, say, wicked or anything like that I wouldn't know that that's a name of a character specifically, so I like how it named it, because then they used to get Arkay, that's Wicked, that's.

00:39:08.818 --> 00:39:15.135
I don't think Cheap Churph is in it, that's Longray, like it sort of gives them that thing.

00:39:15.135 --> 00:39:16.478
Like that's Chup, chup, that's.

00:39:18.090 --> 00:39:20.632
Weedle and Weechie, the brothers and Deej, the brothers and Deej, the leader.

00:39:20.833 --> 00:39:23.476
The only person, the only one's name I knew was Wicket.

00:39:24.697 --> 00:39:25.958
Yeah, I actually.

00:39:25.958 --> 00:39:32.126
The funny thing about it was in the Return of the Jedi, the word Ewok is never mentioned.

00:39:32.126 --> 00:39:38.902
The only way that we know that they're Ewoks is a good segue into my next question right here.

00:39:38.902 --> 00:39:39.382
So here it comes.

00:39:39.382 --> 00:39:41.878
So the Ewoks were designed specifically and this goes across all three sort it comes.

00:39:41.878 --> 00:39:50.494
So the ewoks were designed specifically and this goes across all three sort of appearances of the ewoks, in terms of return of the jedi caravan of courage and also the battle of endor.

00:39:50.954 --> 00:40:05.014
That was specifically crafted because george lucas was originally intending to use a different species very famous in star wars, but had to change direction due to production costs and the story structure he was going for.

00:40:05.014 --> 00:40:06.157
Do you know what?

00:40:06.157 --> 00:40:07.077
The original species?

00:40:07.077 --> 00:40:07.498
Oh, the Wookiees.

00:40:07.498 --> 00:40:14.932
Yeah, yeah, they were originally going to be Wookiees, but they changed it to Ewoks.

00:40:14.932 --> 00:40:17.559
For the production costs, yeah, because Wookiees are big.

00:40:17.559 --> 00:40:18.422
Yeah, they're big.

00:40:18.422 --> 00:40:28.498
But it is also rumored that George Lucas did this intentionally to specifically craft them towards children for and specifically design them for marketing.

00:40:28.498 --> 00:40:38.476
So the only way that people knew that they were called Ewoks is because, through all the merchandising and through all the marketing drives and the sales to young children, and through the ads and through the toys and through the plushies and the action figures and the animated spin-offs.

00:40:38.476 --> 00:40:40.896
They were called Ewoks and that's when the names came out as well.

00:40:41.056 --> 00:41:02.338
There was one person in the Star Wars cast who actually completely hated the inclusion of the Ewoks and has gone on the record to say that he said that the end of this climactic saga and the Rebels fate should never have been dependent on teddy bears and the climactic end should never have ended in a teddy bears picnic.

00:41:02.338 --> 00:41:05.197
Do you know who would have said that in the original cast?

00:41:05.197 --> 00:41:05.940
Who does it sound like?

00:41:05.940 --> 00:41:07.440
It's Harrison Ford.

00:41:07.440 --> 00:41:09.353
Yeah, mate, it's Harrison Ford, of course.

00:41:09.353 --> 00:41:10.416
He literally sat there.

00:41:10.416 --> 00:41:11.320
He's all mastered.

00:41:11.621 --> 00:41:11.900
I know.

00:41:12.489 --> 00:41:21.534
He's expressed his disdain for it on numerous talk shows and he definitely thinks it was a marketing scam as well, and I don't think George Lucas has ever really denied the fact.

00:41:21.534 --> 00:41:34.699
But it kind of worked because the popularity of the Ewoks led Lucasfilm to greenlight Caravan of Courage, for one greenlight, the Battle of Endor, and they had a TV cartoon called Ewoks as well, cementing their legacy.

00:41:34.980 --> 00:41:35.221
Is that?

00:41:35.221 --> 00:41:38.798
It, yeah, and it introduces so many of the other characters as well.

00:41:39.751 --> 00:41:41.577
That might be my son's entry point into Star Wars.

00:41:41.577 --> 00:41:46.398
Yeah, it's, it's, I'm looking for it, I'm looking for it.

00:41:46.418 --> 00:41:51.153
Um so, yeah, you got that one correct, I don't but I can give you a bonus question go for it.

00:41:51.153 --> 00:42:04.423
So, in the battle of endor, when they're prepping for the final battle against the marauders, those shots were actually taken from another place or another show or movie.

00:42:04.423 --> 00:42:05.976
Do you know what movie they were taken from?

00:42:06.157 --> 00:42:07.603
yeah, yeah, yeah, I read this one.

00:42:07.603 --> 00:42:14.639
They they were actually ripped straight from the return of the jedi, whether they were used or they were made for the return of the jedi and never made the uncut.

00:42:14.639 --> 00:42:17.291
I know that they were used for that and it's funny, it's actually.

00:42:17.291 --> 00:42:39.077
That's a really good point to bring up, because I really wanted to talk about the fact that george has gone on record to say that Star Wars, the Return of the Jedi, is an allegory for America versus Vietnam in the Vietnam War, with the Ewoks using their guerrilla tactics, their traps and their use of the natural environment, which is exactly what Ewoks did is very reminiscent of the Viet Cong, and he kind of got a little bit of backlash about that.

00:42:39.077 --> 00:42:45.516
So George Lucas, after Return of the Jedi and getting this backlash, thought to himself I'm not going to do it once, I'm going to do this twice.

00:42:45.516 --> 00:42:49.057
They're going to do the same thing against the Marauders.

00:42:51.159 --> 00:42:59.938
I thought it was really interesting because it's good and I reckon it's a good use of what couldn't be used in the actual movies.

00:42:59.938 --> 00:43:08.797
So, instead of them wasting all that footage that they've done, they're able to reuse it in a cool way on another project, just like in Kyra and Courage.

00:43:08.797 --> 00:43:11.653
The ship that they crashed on was actually reused.

00:43:11.653 --> 00:43:14.161
Wings of Snowspeeders from Empire Strikes Back.

00:43:14.670 --> 00:43:18.898
Yeah, and that's also a way that they could have cut down costs, because the budget was only $2 million for one.

00:43:18.898 --> 00:43:21.074
But I also like that.

00:43:21.074 --> 00:43:35.838
George Lucas has said before that he uses sci-fi as a really good, and star wars specifically is a really good vehicle to tell stories about humanity and about the human condition and about things that are going on politically and around the world that you can't really do in a real life way because you ruffle too many feathers.

00:43:35.838 --> 00:43:37.530
So I kind of like that.

00:43:37.530 --> 00:43:43.822
He's caught, he kind of spun it on its head where the imperial forces and even the marauders in this one were more technologically advanced.

00:43:43.822 --> 00:43:59.563
They were larger, they had more firepower or beast of burden power, but through ingenuity and through the use of technique over technology they were able to defeat their superiors, which also kind of drives the narrative of the underdog succeeding over the.

00:43:59.563 --> 00:44:05.936
What's the opposite to an underdog Overdog, the one that was like the one that's expected to win.

00:44:05.956 --> 00:44:20.315
Yeah, the favorite One of the scenes where I saw it most prominently, especially in the Battle of Endor, was when the marauders were trying to go from their plains or desert environment to walk through the forest where the Ewoks were running into and all of their stuff kept getting trapped, like all of their technology, all of their big monsters and things like that.

00:44:20.315 --> 00:44:22.079
So they had to get down on foot and they had to chase.

00:44:22.079 --> 00:44:28.197
So they drew them into their own environment, they drew them to the ship where they knew that if they could power it up, they had guns to use.

00:44:28.197 --> 00:44:29.375
Very, very clever, very smart.

00:44:29.375 --> 00:44:33.101
All of this in a movie that was directed towards children in the Battle of Endor.

00:44:34.251 --> 00:44:35.556
And they use it in the Caravan of Courage too.

00:44:35.556 --> 00:44:38.114
It's a literal David versus Goliath.

00:44:38.114 --> 00:44:41.619
Yeah, yeah, because of the Gorak being like 30 feet tall.

00:44:41.619 --> 00:44:42.681
No, not tall, it was like.

00:44:42.862 --> 00:44:43.181
Gorak.

00:44:43.181 --> 00:44:44.625
Yeah, it's about 30 feet tall.

00:44:44.985 --> 00:44:52.458
Like 30 feet tall, yeah, and they lure him into a space that's advantageous, before they then defeat him eventually, Not without loss.

00:44:52.458 --> 00:44:55.483
Rip Chook Chook Good man.

00:44:55.483 --> 00:44:58.619
All right, let's go on to our set secrets segment.

00:44:58.619 --> 00:45:09.815
This is where hosts look behind the scenes to focus on the movie and give you all the information about what went right, what went wrong and what was interesting about the way the movie was made.

00:45:09.815 --> 00:45:20.224
This week, Brash, I wanted to get into some of our characters and look at where they are now, and by that I mean what happened to Sindel Tawani after she left Endor with Noah.

00:45:20.224 --> 00:45:26.057
That's what I wanted to look at and then also what sort of happened to the Ewoks after the Battle of Endor as well.

00:45:26.057 --> 00:45:30.916
So obviously, this is not canonical anymore in terms of Star Wars, but it is still cool.

00:45:30.916 --> 00:45:32.916
So do you have any idea what happened to Sindel?

00:45:32.916 --> 00:45:35.317
She joined the Resistance.

00:45:36.380 --> 00:45:41.679
No, she became a political power Close.

00:45:42.282 --> 00:45:43.103
And she became princess.

00:45:43.103 --> 00:46:08.661
No, very close Boy, you're very close, because Sindel actually ended up becoming a journalist on Coruscant, yes, so after she left Endor, she ended up traveling around the galaxy with Noah for quite some time and then she ended up going to school in Coruscant because Noah decided to settle down somewhere in the mid rim and retire as um as he, as he should.

00:46:08.661 --> 00:46:24.320
Years later, after the battle of Endor, she eventually started to get into some educational programs to do with journalism and in around 17 ABY, which is about 15 years after the events of Caravan of Courage uh, she was a reporter for the news grid service known as the Life Monitor.

00:46:24.320 --> 00:46:38.498
During something called the Black Fleet Crisis she received leaked tapes from the New Republic Admiral Hiram Drayson which she used to break the story of Platt Malar, who was the sole survivor of the Yvithian attack.

00:46:38.498 --> 00:46:48.969
Now all of those sounds like lots of Star Wars words, but basically she is a political reporter who leaks human interest stories to the people.

00:46:49.190 --> 00:47:13.998
So although the Life Monitor had a limited readership, the article really picked up some speed and some larger news agencies gave Tawani some credit for that original story and she was able to then go on to bigger and better things and eventually started investigating the lost prophet, who was a holy man whose pronouncements were attracting pilgrims to the desert and in the brick sector.

00:47:13.998 --> 00:47:22.842
And she got enough evidence on this lost prophet to find out that that person was a clone trooper who had suffered lots of head injuries in a starfighter incident.

00:47:22.842 --> 00:47:45.032
And eventually she, in 41 ABY, she released a memoir or a doctorate or a journalist report called Portraits of the Galactic Civil War, where she actually interviewed survivors of the Battle of Endor and put together the most comprehensive journal view of the Battle of Endor during that time.

00:47:45.032 --> 00:47:53.190
So imagine being her at that time thinking to yourself wow, just one year later I'd have been stuck on that planet and a galactic war would have occurred, getting out at the right time.

00:47:53.391 --> 00:47:55.498
It would have been so cool to tie them with the action movies?

00:47:55.657 --> 00:47:56.280
I think so too.

00:47:56.280 --> 00:47:58.173
I think it would have been well to do that.

00:47:58.173 --> 00:47:59.978
They actually would have had to come out beforehand.

00:48:00.199 --> 00:49:01.418
But I think what they did in this legends arc was where she sort of was still involved vicariously and was obviously still impassioned through whatever happened at Endor, because she interviewed somebody called Hume Tal, who was a sergeant during the battle of Endor, who was a stormtrooper that survived, and that stormtrooper, hume Tal, actually took the position of the fact that the Ewoks were extremely brutal and the rebellions, or the rebels, were really brutal towards their treatment of the stormtroopers, down to the point where it actually talked about some of them were really badly killed in spike traps and left to die in various different inhumane circumstances, and some of them went on to say that some of the stormtroopers were actually cooked and eaten by the Ewoks as well, which is yeah, yeah, apparently that's actually canon, because if you see the end of the Return of the Jedi, the Ewoks are playing on the helmets of the stormtroopers, but then you know, there's lots of different things that are going on that might suggest that they're not so nice to humans because they were going to eat.

00:49:02.260 --> 00:49:07.099
Well, that's what I thought they were going to eat, until I see the Europe 3PO stopped them.

00:49:07.099 --> 00:49:09.496
I'm pretty sure they were on the menu.

00:49:09.938 --> 00:49:10.358
Exactly.

00:49:10.710 --> 00:49:15.860
Also, that's a question of like they helped the kid.

00:49:15.860 --> 00:49:16.762
It's really cool.

00:49:16.762 --> 00:49:18.036
It's been a meal ticket for them.

00:49:18.036 --> 00:49:21.898
Live happily ever after they don't have to go fight some big monster.

00:49:22.472 --> 00:49:23.485
That's the thing for me as well.

00:49:23.485 --> 00:49:25.041
Like that would have been easy roll credits.

00:49:25.041 --> 00:49:32.121
But maybe we were too harsh to judge old Mace Tawani when he rolled in with his guns ablazing beforehand, because we don't know what he would have seen prior to.

00:49:32.121 --> 00:49:36.170
But yeah, apparently Ewoks have a tendency and a taste for human.

00:49:36.170 --> 00:49:38.170
Brash Dudley Bears they are.

00:49:38.170 --> 00:49:42.731
They are not Our most famous Ewok, wicked Thoughts on him.

00:49:42.731 --> 00:49:45.873
Brash, I love Wicked, he's good as me.

00:49:46.153 --> 00:49:52.235
I love him Because I really liked him in the Caravan of Courage and, I think, in Return of the Jedi.

00:49:52.235 --> 00:50:04.222
Seeing Wicked again, I think for me, because I watched the Ewok movie before I watched the actual Star Wars movie, seeing Wicked in Return of the Jedi was such a huge high for me.

00:50:04.222 --> 00:50:07.922
Well, basically, seeing the Ewoks again in Return of the Jedi was a huge high for me.

00:50:07.922 --> 00:50:16.106
So yeah, and all three primary school teachers, me and my mates, we'd all just make Ewok noises just randomly.

00:50:16.106 --> 00:50:20.449
We'd just be walking along and someone would be like yeah, that's how it goes.

00:50:22.030 --> 00:50:38.378
Hey, you pick up on something like that Looking at Wicket's Wookieepedia page if you click because Wookieepedia has a cannons side and they have a legend side and you can click on to filter what the information is like and if you click on the legend side his Wookieepedia page is literally like as long as your arm.

00:50:38.679 --> 00:50:50.431
It's huge, because books, comics, yeah, all kinds, yeah, exactly like he had a whole thing uh, through through morag and through the tulag witch and he's done lots of different kind of adventures like that.

00:50:50.431 --> 00:50:54.650
But then if you click on the canon side he's literally been reduced to a third of what his adventures were.

00:50:54.650 --> 00:51:18.173
So I I think that it was awesome for for wicket at least in the 80s when he he actually gained so much popular appeal through the children and through the marketing of return of the jedi that he was able to to then you know, warwick davis return and reprise the role as wicket in the uh, in the courage of caravan of courage and battle of endor, which was really cool.

00:51:18.173 --> 00:51:19.257
Do you know full name?

00:51:19.257 --> 00:51:20.300
I didn't know he had three names.

00:51:20.320 --> 00:51:23.800
he has a full name oh, wicket does, yeah, yeah well.

00:51:23.800 --> 00:51:24.985
Three names, he has a full name.

00:51:24.985 --> 00:51:30.043
Oh, wicket does, yeah, yeah, well because I know they have the last name it's Wicket.

00:51:30.043 --> 00:51:32.759
Oh my God, they named him after they did.

00:51:32.759 --> 00:51:35.099
He's Warwick Davis they did.

00:51:35.710 --> 00:51:37.036
His last name is Warwick.

00:51:37.036 --> 00:51:38.974
Yeah, wicket, wisteria Warwick.

00:51:39.516 --> 00:51:40.476
They named him after Warwick Mysterio.

00:51:40.496 --> 00:51:41.938
Warwick, which is awesome, like.

00:51:41.938 --> 00:51:45.943
Imagine being named after a Star Wars character, let alone one as cool as Wait.

00:51:45.963 --> 00:51:47.905
doesn't that mean like it's Deej?

00:51:47.925 --> 00:51:49.726
Warwick as well, mm-hmm, yep.

00:51:49.726 --> 00:51:51.614
And Whittle J Warwick as well.

00:51:51.614 --> 00:52:04.282
Whittle Warwick, whittle Warwick, whittle Warwick there was actually like comic books associated with the Ewok cartoon and the actual cartoon itself as well went for three seasons, I believe.

00:52:04.282 --> 00:52:09.898
So very, very well loved part of the franchise the old ewoks there.

00:52:10.117 --> 00:52:26.190
The only other canonical and this is what I wanted to talk to you about a little bit later was the only canonical inclusion of the ewoks since the return of the jedi and the last jedi, where you see a little flash of Wicket and his son watching the Imperial Star Cruiser be destroyed.

00:52:26.190 --> 00:52:34.188
The only other time is in Battlefront 2 in the modded game Ewok Hunt.

00:52:34.188 --> 00:52:51.621
Ewok Hunt, yes, and I think that that was such a cool little inclusion into the game because in that game you can either be a stormtrooper who is looking to survive or you can be a little Ewok who is on the hunt trying to kill all of these stormtroopers, and it plays into that lethalness of those tiny little teddy bear creatures so much.

00:52:51.621 --> 00:53:07.474
And it's like if you're a stormtrooper you can only see through the lens of a circular spotlight, which is absolutely terrifying because these Ewok warriors just blend so well into the greenery of the Endor moon and I can tell you, and their spears like one shot and oh yeah.

00:53:08.652 --> 00:53:14.318
And I can tell you very much that I have screamed a lot in games, but not as much as I have in just the Ewok.

00:53:14.489 --> 00:53:18.378
I'm like a blank picture of Wicket's face and I'm like god, look at your little murderous.

00:53:18.378 --> 00:53:20.793
I know they're so, they're so.

00:53:20.793 --> 00:53:23.610
I've actually fashion running into that, like at night time in the jungle.

00:53:23.610 --> 00:53:26.755
It's like it's like it's what I would think.

00:53:26.755 --> 00:53:29.403
A drop bear, yes from Australia.

00:53:29.403 --> 00:53:33.356
I think Australia that people talk about that's what I see when I see these.

00:53:33.416 --> 00:53:38.670
I see little murderous drop bears yes, I love that too, because they're kind of a mix between a wombat and a koala.

00:53:38.670 --> 00:53:39.490
Yeah, in the koala, yeah.

00:53:39.490 --> 00:53:42.295
Anyway, let's get to our most valuable takeaways.

00:53:42.295 --> 00:53:51.634
Our most valuable takeaway is the heart and soul of the podcast, where we break down the one thing that hit the hardest, stuck longest or taught us something new from what we just watched.

00:53:51.634 --> 00:53:55.487
It is our moment to spotlight the takeaway that made us think, feel or see things differently.

00:53:55.487 --> 00:53:59.635
This is what we learned from the E courage Brash.

00:54:00.778 --> 00:54:03.643
I liked your most valuable takeaway of this movie.

00:54:03.643 --> 00:54:06.692
Yes, don't judge a book by its cover.

00:54:06.692 --> 00:54:19.070
Yes, and you know, looking at that, when you first said it to me, I thought you meant in terms of these movies as a whole, because looking at the covers, looking at how old they are, somebody might look at me like I'm a pass on that, but it's actually like a nice little comfort watch.

00:54:19.070 --> 00:54:27.221
Technically, in terms of, you know, movie going standards, might not be the best movie that you ever watch but, you know, story wise, it's very comforting.

00:54:27.221 --> 00:54:30.164
It's like it's a it's an oodie in a rainy day kind of movie.

00:54:30.164 --> 00:54:31.706
But you actually meant something different.

00:54:31.990 --> 00:55:13.231
You meant it in terms of Mace, the character of Mace yes, because Mace in this movie does a lot of judging, does does a fair amount of judging and instead of um, you know, accepting the help and and sort of going with the flow, he is, uh, pretty negative professionally the whole way through the movie, um, up until up until he realizes that the little rocky because they're all the ewoks and um, both Sindel and Mace all got items to start off with Wicket with his magic stick, weedle yeah, weedle and the other brother got the feather headbands.

00:55:13.231 --> 00:55:14.271
The father got.

00:55:14.271 --> 00:55:15.913
What did the father get?

00:55:16.114 --> 00:55:16.673
He got a headband.

00:55:16.673 --> 00:55:17.434
He got the white headband.

00:55:17.434 --> 00:55:21.137
At leadership there was the oh, that's right the leadership that's right the leadership.

00:55:21.157 --> 00:55:25.181
yeah, yeah, the little tooth, the white, one of the tooth Courage I think yeah, courage.

00:55:25.561 --> 00:55:27.802
Or the red one was courage, those three headbands.

00:55:28.103 --> 00:55:29.324
Yeah, blue or white and a red.

00:55:29.324 --> 00:55:33.708
The white one was leadership, the red one was courage and the blue one was For being the youngest.

00:55:34.590 --> 00:55:36.036
Yeah, he didn't actually do anything.

00:55:36.036 --> 00:55:42.940
And then, yeah, you've got the tooth and the crystal and then the rock yes, and the rock was given.

00:55:42.940 --> 00:55:51.557
And the candle oh sorry, and the candle which was given to the signal and the rock was given to Mace, saying this is a special magical rock that's part of the group.

00:55:51.557 --> 00:55:53.577
And he was like it is just a rock.

00:55:53.577 --> 00:56:00.652
But even I, when I saw that rock when I was a young kid, went there's something special about that rock Because that rock looked so smooth.

00:56:00.652 --> 00:56:04.039
I would just want to keep that rock purely just because how smooth it was.

00:56:04.039 --> 00:56:06.405
What a little rock like, I guess.

00:56:06.405 --> 00:56:07.929
But he throws away the rock.

00:56:07.929 --> 00:56:09.112
Luckily Wicket picks it up.

00:56:09.112 --> 00:56:10.297
Mvp.

00:56:10.318 --> 00:56:11.222
He sees him, throws it away.

00:56:11.222 --> 00:56:17.894
And yeah, exactly, mvp right there, because it is used later on to find the secret entrance to the castle.

00:56:17.894 --> 00:56:20.552
So that is one extremely good example.

00:56:20.552 --> 00:56:22.476
Example of don't judge a book by its color.

00:56:22.476 --> 00:56:25.641
Because it's a rock doesn't mean it's not magic quote, but yeah.

00:56:25.641 --> 00:56:30.661
And then again, at the very start, when the Ewoks find Sindel and they're like, oh, we need to help her.

00:56:30.661 --> 00:56:37.070
And they realize it's a little girl and they don't want to stab her, which realistically, they're like, oh, this is an easy meal ticket.

00:56:37.070 --> 00:56:40.771
They decide they're going to try and help her.

00:56:40.771 --> 00:56:42.536
And then he comes in guns a-blazin'.

00:56:42.536 --> 00:57:03.018
The Ewoks tackle him and restrain him, hog-tie him up, take him back and they start looking after him and he's still very distrustful, though after that isn't he, yeah, very, very, very distrustful, and he's very demanding, especially when they need to heal Tyndale when she's sick Food.

00:57:04.869 --> 00:57:07.199
And when he starts yelling and screaming at Sindel when she's sick, food and medicine, when he's like food, eat, eat, food.

00:57:07.199 --> 00:57:13.614
And he just keeps yelling the same words at them constantly and to the point where I'm like dude man, you guys got to do something different.

00:57:13.614 --> 00:57:21.639
They're not getting it, but eventually they give him all the food and give him all the medicine that they had to help Sindel.

00:57:21.639 --> 00:57:25.409
They even go out of their way to go and then help get some more medicine.

00:57:25.409 --> 00:57:30.914
Or for Mace to then say to Sindel when she's feeling better hey, let's just leave.

00:57:32.195 --> 00:57:32.416
Yeah.

00:57:33.297 --> 00:57:36.844
And go off and then get themselves into trouble, and then the Ewoks come and save them again.

00:57:36.844 --> 00:57:47.764
So yes, I reckon this movie heavily relies on the Don't Judge your Book Buys cover, because the Ewoks are actually quite friendly once you get to know them.

00:57:48.092 --> 00:57:52.673
Yeah, there's a lot of sort of things that point towards that as well with the Rock.

00:57:52.673 --> 00:58:11.311
For me and it sort of digresses into my most valuable takeaway as well with this one the most impactful scene to me in this movie was when they were running away from the Ewoks and Mace and Sindel sort of sat down for that moment because, you know, sindel was tired and then Mace decided to light a campfire.

00:58:11.311 --> 00:58:25.818
And it's in that moment where he starts to renounce his childhood ways and he vows to be that little bit more protective and he says I just wish I was the best kid ever and I never made any mistakes at all, and I just wish that we could go back to the time when everything was all good.

00:58:25.818 --> 00:58:32.539
And that's a very sort of childlike mentality and you can see that that's what he was acting like previous to that moment.

00:58:32.539 --> 00:58:38.813
You know he was very rash, he was very stubborn, he was really reflective of that preteen angst that we see in the early adolescence.

00:58:38.813 --> 00:58:45.590
He's resistant to change, he's very afraid of everything that's unfamiliar, and he tries to assume that protectorate role.

00:58:45.590 --> 00:58:48.137
He says I'm mom and dad, now I'm going to look after you.

00:58:48.137 --> 00:58:55.920
It's like he knows that's what he's supposed to do, but he hasn't made the emotional journey yet at all, because he's still very cynical and very skeptical, especially when it comes to that rock.

00:58:56.461 --> 00:59:01.434
And I think that that rock was kind of like a metaphor for him, like, looking at him, it's just like a rock, it's a normal rock.

00:59:01.434 --> 00:59:02.715
Looking at him, it's just like a rock, it's a normal rock.

00:59:02.715 --> 00:59:03.476
He's just like a normal kid.

00:59:03.476 --> 00:59:08.143
But he has what he needs on the inside to complete this mission, which is exactly what was inside the rock.

00:59:08.143 --> 00:59:11.365
He knew what he needed to do to find his parents on the inside.

00:59:11.365 --> 00:59:16.536
He just needed to access it, which is the same as what he had to do with the rock.

00:59:16.536 --> 00:59:20.932
And do you remember what he had to do with that rock in order to access that part of him that was able to complete the mission?

00:59:20.932 --> 00:59:23.217
Break it, no.

00:59:23.217 --> 00:59:29.380
Before that, before he had to break the rock, oh no, he had to listen to it, oh he shook it and he listened to it.

00:59:29.721 --> 00:59:33.237
And that's the thing when you're a teen, when you're a teenager, what does your parents try to tell you to do?

00:59:33.237 --> 00:59:36.875
To, to teach you things and to, to learn advice and to develop into an adult?

00:59:36.875 --> 00:59:39.300
They tell you to listen, listen, exactly.

00:59:39.300 --> 00:59:43.791
So I think that that rock is like a metaphor for the teenage journey that he's going on.

00:59:43.791 --> 01:00:00.402
And you know, one of the really funny scenes to me was when they found Canik, the shaman woman, and she had the staff and she sort of gave it to Mace and when she gave it to Mace it changed into a lizard.

01:00:00.402 --> 01:00:02.425
He was like, you know, because he was demanding.

01:00:02.425 --> 01:00:03.585
He said you need to come and help us.

01:00:03.585 --> 01:00:05.427
We can't do this without you.

01:00:05.427 --> 01:00:07.648
And then he did the test and he kind of failed.

01:00:07.648 --> 01:00:12.818
But then Sindel did it and she said can you please come and help us?

01:00:12.838 --> 01:00:16.135
You know, and there's that story about the innocence of the child and in this movie she is definitely very hopeful.

01:00:16.135 --> 01:00:24.784
She's very emotionally vulnerable, she's very reliant on her older brothers and her protection comes from Noah and then later the Ewoks as well.

01:00:24.784 --> 01:00:32.521
She is this symbol of warmth throughout the movie as well and also the symbol of early childhood innocence.

01:00:32.521 --> 01:00:38.833
Now, throughout the movie, these two movies the Caravan of Courage and also the Battle of Endor they're really her stories.

01:00:38.833 --> 01:00:44.617
They're Sindel's stories about how she grows from the innocence of a child to the independent survivor.

01:00:44.617 --> 01:00:49.802
And you do that through being thrust into circumstances that require you to survive.

01:00:49.802 --> 01:00:55.938
But she loses her entire family within minutes of the caravan of courage.

01:00:55.938 --> 01:01:10.692
So she has to learn to trust herself and I think that mace's role previously was very important to that because he was her first view of a quote leader or someone who's going to take charge.

01:01:10.692 --> 01:01:16.452
So she was able to sort of model her growth off of that in many sort of aspects as well.

01:01:16.452 --> 01:01:20.311
However, you know, she's still a child and she's still learning as best that she can.

01:01:20.771 --> 01:01:33.039
But I think my MVP for this one is that, you know, through those events she ends up becoming a little bit more self-aware, a little bit more emotionally resistant and she's kind of more ready to face uncertain events of the world alone.

01:01:33.039 --> 01:01:37.143
Because by the end of both of the movies she's lost everything but she's gained a lot more.

01:01:37.143 --> 01:01:45.784
And she's nervous but also happy to go out and explore space with Noah and start her new adventure and become a world-renowned journalist, apparently.

01:01:45.784 --> 01:01:52.559
But I think that that's important to sort of think about in terms of that journey that she goes on.

01:01:52.710 --> 01:01:55.596
And it's the journey that a lot of kids go through when they hit their teenage years.

01:01:55.596 --> 01:02:15.121
They sort of look at the destruction or destruction is a bit of a harsh word but the breakdown of their idea of a family, because they become something else in that sort of aspect and that's what Mace was becoming and it's sort of like the traditional coming of age stories and you can think about any kind of child centered movie.

01:02:15.121 --> 01:02:21.742
Something always happens to the kid's parents and they're forced to grow on their own and into independence.

01:02:21.742 --> 01:02:23.235
And there's so many children's movies about it.

01:02:23.235 --> 01:02:26.414
I can think of the Land Before Time Lion.

01:02:26.434 --> 01:02:26.715
King.

01:02:26.735 --> 01:02:27.396
Yeah, a New Hope.

01:02:27.396 --> 01:02:28.998
Literally A New Hope.

01:02:28.998 --> 01:02:31.302
Yeah, a New Hope.

01:02:31.302 --> 01:02:32.565
Star Wars it happens to Luke as well.

01:02:32.565 --> 01:02:49.815
All these coming-of-age stories that require the protagonist to move beyond their circumstances because of something adverse that happens and I think that's the message that comes through these movies the most is that they they really highlight the fact that this child is going on a journey, and that's one that can be only led by the children watching as well.

01:02:49.916 --> 01:03:00.675
You know, you go through hard things, but you can get through it especially speaking of um, star wars and in this sort of trope as well, it also shows, uh, well, if you look at it, a lot of the young, because what?

01:03:00.695 --> 01:03:16.849
Luke was 15, I believe, when his uncle and aunt uh were killed and he had to go off with luckily he had everyone there with him and had to go off and sort of grow up right then so that no more speeding around taking out rats and messing around with your friends on the weekends.

01:03:16.849 --> 01:03:20.594
It was now you're a part of a rebel force.

01:03:20.594 --> 01:03:54.438
Whereas if you look at anakin, who was an adult when he found his mom and lost his mom and he slaughtered an entire village of women, men and children, it sort of shows that uh, and especially star wars and a lot of other movies, the children having to cope with that and grow up real quickly, always generally grow up doing the right thing because they're, I suppose, trying to, even though their parents or their guys are not there.

01:03:54.438 --> 01:04:04.800
They try and make them proud of the people who they can become through that growth, whereas if you're already an adult, like Anakin, it can sort of go the opposite sort of way.

01:04:06.050 --> 01:04:11.943
Well, that's kind of drawing it back to how I would use this in terms of parenting my kids.

01:04:12.110 --> 01:04:20.876
You know there's always that you always want to make sure that your kids are okay, but you want to give them enough freedom to explore things on their own and that's the balance of a parent, isn't it?

01:04:20.889 --> 01:04:28.211
And you kind of look at different sort of situations and you don't want to overstep when they're exploring something new because they won't develop any skills to get through it on your own.

01:04:28.211 --> 01:04:33.733
So you slowly have to withdraw your level of support in things so they can build up their mastery.

01:04:33.733 --> 01:04:45.362
And doing that in a slow and controlled way, in a safe way, is how lots of children mature and kind of grow, and that's kind of the development that we're seeing in terms of this movie.

01:04:45.362 --> 01:04:56.599
For one, I know that there is an abrupt sort of loss of family unit there, but Sindel also has lots of different support networks that she goes through and works with.

01:04:56.599 --> 01:05:08.103
Yeah, that help her take those risks safely so she doesn't have to go and leave endor in a big spaceship on her own.

01:05:08.103 --> 01:05:19.371
Yeah, she has that support and that supervisor or that, that that caring sort of individual to help her take these steps and and move through that coming of age journey with some assistance and support.

01:05:19.431 --> 01:05:40.967
I think having that sort of still having that um, childlike wonder within you, going through that trauma, will also be a massive help because if you look again, like you look at anakin when he loses quaggan yep, he doesn't flip out straight away then because he still has obi-wan as a support network and I guess he still has that sort of even though he's lost someone important.

01:05:40.967 --> 01:06:15.114
He's about to embark on a new crazy adventure of becoming a jedi, which he's sort of, in a way, sort of fantasized and endeavored to be like Qui-Gon as a sort of, because he was sort of like the father figure to Anakin, that he still had Obi-Wan, but because he was an adult instead of like us all us adults instead of us going and seeking help from others, we just either boil over or bottle that shit up, which is sort of what he did.

01:06:15.516 --> 01:06:16.800
I think that's what he was doing the whole time.

01:06:16.800 --> 01:06:27.804
I think Qui-Gon's death would have definitely affected him, but he would have bottled it and bottled it, and bottled it, and bottled it and to the point where he was facing so much adversity and he wasn't really taught or told how to deal with that kind of thing.

01:06:27.804 --> 01:06:38.512
Because the Jedi doctrine doesn't really give you avenues to deal with emotional, conflicting thoughts in a positive kind of way.

01:06:38.512 --> 01:06:45.492
I think that the Jedi doctrine on like a whole probably does, but I think it's just the way it's presented.

01:06:45.492 --> 01:06:51.032
Sometimes, as you know, hate leads to anger, anger leads to fear, fear leads to destruction and loss.

01:06:51.032 --> 01:06:54.380
That's just, and not dealing with those in the proper way that we know.

01:06:54.380 --> 01:07:06.052
We like us, as people know now, it's great to talk about those kinds of things and having those support networks there in terms of, especially for caravan of Courage and the Battle of Endor In every movie.

01:07:06.052 --> 01:07:11.853
These kids are in trouble, but that's what the Ewoks are, that's their support, that's there.

01:07:11.853 --> 01:07:24.355
They're not the ones going through the trouble and the trauma, except for when the Morals come and destroy their village, but the kids are the vehicle for them, helping the Ewoks, helping them through that moment.

01:07:24.534 --> 01:07:26.039
Alright, let's rate it on Fenneportals on a Board.

01:07:26.039 --> 01:07:35.458
All right, it is time to rate it and rank it.

01:07:35.458 --> 01:07:41.880
Each host gives the movie a score out of five and we take the average and add it to our official Letterboxd on a Board.

01:07:41.880 --> 01:07:44.237
If you want to follow along with that, you can find it on Letterboxd.

01:07:44.237 --> 01:07:46.675
We are always everywhere at Phantom Portals.

01:07:46.675 --> 01:07:56.172
We're talking about a new rating system that we're going to use because our Phantom Portals on a board is getting pretty hefty at the moment and Letterboxd only lets us rate things out of 5, which is fine.

01:07:56.172 --> 01:08:02.197
But we feel like we have a lot of 3 and 3.5 movies, which isn't a bad thing.

01:08:02.197 --> 01:08:17.596
But we needed to sort of revamp and refresh the way that we do things and we've decided to look at these movies in terms of five characteristics and this sort of mirrors what we used to do in terms of the real deal segment, where we picked an element and talked about it and rated it good or bad.

01:08:18.177 --> 01:08:40.978
But in this way we're going to be looking at the story in the script, which one, the characters and the performance as another direction and tone as a third, visuals and sound as a fourth and just overall enjoyment as a fifth, and what we're going to be doing is we're either going to be giving our star of approval for that aspect, we're going to be withdrawing our star if we don't think it deserves it, or we'll give it half a star if we think that air was okay.

01:08:40.978 --> 01:08:52.436
By the end, you'll have a five rating, I'll have a five star rating and we can talk about where it might sit on the honor board as well.

01:08:52.436 --> 01:08:53.158
So test running the first time.

01:08:53.158 --> 01:08:54.220
The phantom portals rating system 2.0.

01:08:54.220 --> 01:08:56.225
First of all, the story and the script.

01:08:56.225 --> 01:08:59.436
This is the bones of the film the plot, the world and the writing.

01:08:59.436 --> 01:09:00.980
What do you think of this brash?

01:09:00.980 --> 01:09:04.701
Are you giving you a star, are you giving half, or are you giving it no stars?

01:09:05.992 --> 01:09:21.555
I would give this no stars, but I think the only thing that saves it is the symbolisms behind the actual story, Because the pacing's, I think for me the pacing's like way off.

01:09:21.555 --> 01:09:25.537
Sorry, it doesn't spend a lot of time in the middle of the movie.

01:09:26.119 --> 01:09:29.560
No, and the time that it does, spend a whole lot of walking.

01:09:30.090 --> 01:09:31.657
Yep, a lot of walking, which actually I do.

01:09:31.657 --> 01:09:37.738
The one thing I do love, sorry, the one thing that always gives me goosebumps is the little bee's nest on the back of the horse.

01:09:38.420 --> 01:09:39.002
I love that thing.

01:09:39.002 --> 01:09:40.292
Fun fact you know why they use that.

01:09:40.292 --> 01:09:42.114
Why they use that?

01:09:42.114 --> 01:09:51.497
Because child actors have a certain amount of hours in the day that they're allowed to shoot and because Sindel was so young, they could only have her on set for a certain amount of time.

01:09:51.497 --> 01:10:00.117
So in order to explain her absence not being on screen but still being on screen they hid her in the back of a beehive on a horse instead of sitting her on the horse.

01:10:00.117 --> 01:10:00.972
So that was really clever.

01:10:00.972 --> 01:10:01.935
I thought too, that was awesome.

01:10:02.398 --> 01:10:02.880
Oh, that'll be.

01:10:02.880 --> 01:10:03.722
I think I'll warrant one.

01:10:03.722 --> 01:10:06.813
Um, uh, but yeah, that middle part there.

01:10:06.813 --> 01:10:23.481
Like they, um, the meat, all the characters, like, uh, the other two characters so quickly, so abruptly, all right, here's took a truck and here's Kenick there, horsecoat runs off with Sindel and Chookatruck goes to chase him down.

01:10:23.481 --> 01:10:31.759
I love that scene, the scene that I was like huh, and that's the scene when Mace falls into the water in that magical water.

01:10:31.759 --> 01:10:46.796
But the thing is you've got Wicket and Sindel playing off in the distance, ages and ages away, and he touches the water and just blinks into the water and then Sindel's there, not even looking at him, goes my blinks into the water and then singles there, not even looking at him, goes.

01:10:46.796 --> 01:10:48.703
My brother fell into the water and it's like how did you know that he fell into the water?

01:10:48.722 --> 01:11:01.002
a, there's no splash and b went from looking in that direction well that, yeah, that's exactly what they would have done it for, but also I think it helps in mace's journey trust and a bit more yeah, and and his recklessness.

01:11:01.503 --> 01:11:05.087
So from he was reckless to go and be curious and dip into the pond.

01:11:05.087 --> 01:11:10.255
And then you know afterwards he learns okay, they had to come and save me.

01:11:10.255 --> 01:11:11.359
I shouldn't do that anymore.

01:11:11.359 --> 01:11:16.798
I shouldn't go and poke the beehive or poke the magical pond, or don't touch things you don't know about.

01:11:17.314 --> 01:11:21.554
Every single scene you could put down to a lesson that parents would tell their kids.

01:11:21.554 --> 01:11:27.936
So on the surface you could tell that that water one is like telling kids don't go near the water, don't play near open water.

01:11:27.936 --> 01:11:28.880
That's dangerous, you might drown.

01:11:28.880 --> 01:11:32.841
But also you could look at it and say reckless choices could put you in danger.

01:11:32.841 --> 01:11:44.739
Yeah, and then when you're talking about the scene with Canik and how Mace went in and just ordered her to join and then Sindel came in and asked her to join, there's ordered her to join and then Sindel came in and asked her to join.

01:11:44.739 --> 01:11:47.664
There's a difference between demanding something of somebody and asking them nicely.

01:11:47.664 --> 01:11:49.475
So there's that lesson as well.

01:11:49.475 --> 01:11:56.179
So every single little scene that you're looking at, there could be a little parental lesson, because this is dedicated towards children as well.

01:11:56.179 --> 01:12:01.518
But I think that the overall story, the plot structure of the story, extremely simple, very long-winded and paced.

01:12:02.671 --> 01:12:03.997
I give it half a star.

01:12:04.489 --> 01:12:06.322
Okay, so half a star for you.

01:12:06.322 --> 01:12:13.780
I'll give it half a star as well, because I think that generally the plot is very simple, and it's meant to be because it's a children's movie.

01:12:13.780 --> 01:12:30.859
But I think that I'm giving it half a star because of the little micro lessons that you can take out of it, like what I talked about before, and I think that it definitely isn't worth a full star because that marriage would have been good between the actual plot and the little lessons that it's trying to teach, but unfortunately that wasn't there.

01:12:30.859 --> 01:12:31.462
All right.

01:12:31.462 --> 01:12:33.220
Next one Characters and performance.

01:12:33.381 --> 01:12:37.135
This is who we're following and how well they were played by the actors in the movie.

01:12:37.135 --> 01:12:43.137
So for this one, for me, the acting performances don says don't mean to shit on child actors woeful, bloody, terrible.

01:12:43.137 --> 01:12:57.774
Um, I think that, uh, the lines in these movies were delivered by kids and experienced kids and as a result of that, it probably does play to a children, a child viewing this, but for me it was just like you could tell that they were reading it off the script and that is it.

01:12:57.774 --> 01:13:00.000
I feel like a dick saying, saying no star.

01:13:00.000 --> 01:13:04.520
But for me, for the performances and the characters, I think I, I think I do love the.

01:13:04.911 --> 01:13:08.280
I do love the Ewok characters.

01:13:08.280 --> 01:13:18.198
I do like that they chose even though it's probably based on marketing I do like that they chose Wicket to use because he wasn't a Skywalker, he wasn't a politically invested character.

01:13:18.198 --> 01:13:27.158
They chose to bring it right down to the forest moon of Endor and just have it isolated on this one place, which is what we told and said before that Star Wars really kind of needs to do.

01:13:27.158 --> 01:13:36.307
So I think I'll probably give it half a star for the use of Ewok characters and I will not comment any further on the child actors.

01:13:36.307 --> 01:13:36.729
What about you?

01:13:36.871 --> 01:13:42.582
See, I want to give it half a star because of the Ewoks, like you said, but to be honest I have to give it zero.

01:13:42.582 --> 01:13:52.719
But to be honest I had to give it zero, no stars, because like, yeah, the child actors, but yeah, their lines were just always so dreadful, but that was sort of common in that sort of time period.

01:13:52.719 --> 01:13:58.632
Back then it was fine and for, like, the kids it would be fine, but for me, watching it again, I was like God, these guys are annoying.

01:13:58.972 --> 01:14:00.755
Yeah, what a dry delivery.

01:14:01.435 --> 01:14:03.077
Mace always yelling all the time.

01:14:03.077 --> 01:14:14.365
I liked how the characters looked, both Mace and Sindel, because Mace definitely gives off that Luke Galka vibe which helps sort of tie in that sort of Star Wars-y theme.

01:14:14.365 --> 01:14:21.252
And even Sindel with the clothes she's wearing white reminds me of the white that Leia wears on Hoth.

01:14:21.252 --> 01:14:24.398
So it sort of reminded me of Luke and Leia sort of pairing.

01:14:24.398 --> 01:14:30.877
They both don't have parents anymore and stuff and they have to sort of grow up and do their own thing, basically like Luke and Leia have to do.

01:14:30.877 --> 01:14:48.837
So I do like all that and I do like the Wicket and then they've got Log Ray in it but like I wish they had like Chief Chir Paplu, instead of just being Wicket and his family, it could have been Wicket and it didn't necessarily have to be his family, it could have been Wicket Paplu.

01:14:48.837 --> 01:14:57.556
I don't think Lodray could have joined them, but there's a whole bunch of other Ewoks that they could have used.

01:14:58.210 --> 01:15:04.773
But yeah, I think that half a star is probably generous for me and I think you giving it zero stars kind of evens it out really really well.

01:15:04.773 --> 01:15:07.940
All right, all right direction and tone for this one.

01:15:07.940 --> 01:15:15.533
For me I'm going to give it zero and that is because, uh, for me, unless it's a creative choice, the tone kind of has to be consistent throughout.

01:15:15.533 --> 01:15:21.899
And for me I was looking at these thinking is this my kids entry point into Star Wars because these are targeted towards children is a children's movie.

01:15:21.899 --> 01:15:26.716
It is full of, like family, adventurous themes and caravan of courage.

01:15:26.716 --> 01:15:36.695
You know, maybe, except for the, the sort of cgi that might scare him a little bit, but the battle of end or death, like the, the tone will change and the themes that are in that, and the themes even in the caravan of courage as well.

01:15:36.716 --> 01:15:43.300
Just, if you're gonna set it for children as a tone, then you need to sort of maintain and keep it as as a children-centric tone for me.

01:15:43.300 --> 01:15:45.311
Uh so, and then the director's style.

01:15:45.311 --> 01:15:50.329
There was nothing really that sort of stood out to me in terms of amazing direction.

01:15:50.329 --> 01:15:54.771
They just kind of told the story as best that they could for two million dollars, which was, which was decent, they pulled it off.

01:15:54.771 --> 01:15:58.542
Uh, the narrative pacing as well was absolutely just sort of drawn out.

01:15:58.542 --> 01:16:02.277
It was an hour and a half where it could have probably been an hour, maybe, maybe 40 minutes.

01:16:02.277 --> 01:16:05.963
So for me I'm giving it zero for director and tone.

01:16:06.530 --> 01:16:11.235
Yeah, I'm just saying zero for me as well, Like you were saying how you didn't like the narrator.

01:16:11.395 --> 01:16:12.139
Yeah, the narrator too.

01:16:12.139 --> 01:16:12.921
That's another point for me.

01:16:13.130 --> 01:16:14.496
But I wish they had.

01:16:14.496 --> 01:16:22.331
I mean, if they're going to go down the narrator path, they should have had the whole thing sort of narrated, not just certain parts to try and help you explain.

01:16:22.331 --> 01:16:28.055
Because narrated, not just certain parts to try and help you explain, because you can watch the whole entire movie without a narrator and you get the gist of the movie.

01:16:28.055 --> 01:16:34.199
The narrator just comes in every now and then to clarify parts and you're like oh, I sort of already got that.

01:16:34.699 --> 01:16:39.023
Well, yeah, but that might be because it is a children's movie and maybe they're thinking the children won't get it.

01:16:39.023 --> 01:16:40.583
The adults will, but the children won't get it.

01:16:40.623 --> 01:16:45.587
Well, this is a children's movie, so I should have thought of that before they made the movie yeah, so zero for you.

01:16:46.047 --> 01:16:47.332
Yes, alright, let's go.

01:16:47.332 --> 01:16:51.280
Visuals and sound this is what you see, what you hear and how well you think it hits.

01:16:51.280 --> 01:16:56.329
So for me, I think I'm actually going to give this one half a star.

01:16:56.329 --> 01:16:58.989
I think the soundtrack is okay.

01:16:58.989 --> 01:17:02.782
It definitely sounds like Star Wars, even though it is not John Williams.

01:17:02.782 --> 01:17:08.649
I think that all the time the special effects were pretty well used in terms of the forced perspective, the little minis that we used.

01:17:08.649 --> 01:17:11.478
The stop motion is a little bit janky, but still okay for a TV movie.

01:17:11.478 --> 01:17:15.578
For their budget that they used pretty, pretty decent, not too bad.

01:17:15.578 --> 01:17:17.525
But the biggest thing for me, set design.

01:17:17.525 --> 01:17:21.695
Endor looked great, like every little piece of knickknack.

01:17:21.695 --> 01:17:25.863
All of the costume designs for the Ewoks are very consistent with Star Wars.

01:17:25.863 --> 01:17:27.115
So I think I'll give it half a star.

01:17:27.115 --> 01:17:32.777
The only sort of thing against it again is that sort of janky by today's standards.

01:17:32.777 --> 01:17:36.956
Stop motion and yeah, that's probably it.

01:17:36.956 --> 01:17:37.998
So half a star for me for that one.

01:17:38.510 --> 01:17:40.634
Yeah, I 100% agree.

01:17:40.634 --> 01:17:45.362
Half a star for me as well, because at For for a time, like all the groundbreaking stuff was made.

01:17:45.362 --> 01:17:46.805
Yeah, it's on.

01:17:46.805 --> 01:17:50.448
You see the things like when they're fighting the spider?

01:17:50.469 --> 01:17:52.676
Yes, you can see the fishing lines.

01:17:52.676 --> 01:17:53.658
That was so hilarious.

01:17:53.658 --> 01:17:55.636
Yeah, you can see the fishing lines attached to it.

01:17:56.137 --> 01:17:58.596
But then I mean that sort of added to the enjoyment of watching it.

01:17:58.596 --> 01:18:06.524
I was like I just love Ewoks.

01:18:06.524 --> 01:18:08.436
They're amazing creepy little bears.

01:18:08.436 --> 01:18:26.489
They are Like I'm so glad they gave them, but I'm not sure if this helped or hindered the fact that they gave them like eyelids for this movie, because in the Zalhors they don't have eyelids so they never blink, which is crazy enough, as it is so.

01:18:26.510 --> 01:18:30.261
they never, they did, they never blink, which is crazy enough as it is, but insane night vision needed to hunt stormtroopers in ewok hunt.

01:18:30.283 --> 01:18:30.724
They give them.

01:18:30.724 --> 01:18:40.511
They get my lids in this and I'm not sure if that made it worse or not, but I just love the creepiness to them as well, as I'd like they like.

01:18:40.511 --> 01:18:43.497
You can see some photos on and you're're like oh, it looks adorable.

01:18:43.497 --> 01:18:46.805
And then you see like close-ups of them and you're like, oh my God, that's nightmare feel.

01:18:47.211 --> 01:18:51.760
I actually feel like Muppets and puppets and things like Ewoks like that.

01:18:51.760 --> 01:18:54.003
They're really either hit or miss with people.

01:18:54.003 --> 01:19:03.444
People either look at things like Labyrinth or this or anything, jim Henson, and they think to themselves I'm not watching it because that is uncanny, I cannot see it.

01:19:03.444 --> 01:19:06.155
I can't see something that looks real but is alive.

01:19:06.155 --> 01:19:07.060
No way, no, how.

01:19:07.060 --> 01:19:10.733
But then there are other people, like myself included, that look at anything that's like.

01:19:10.733 --> 01:19:16.858
That's like really comforting and nice and endearing, like and yeah, I, I think for me that's the.

01:19:16.858 --> 01:19:18.402
That's the half a star that I'm giving it there.

01:19:18.402 --> 01:19:20.154
All right, let's go for enjoyment.

01:19:20.154 --> 01:19:22.037
How does this land?

01:19:22.037 --> 01:19:24.783
Uh, how does it land then and how does it land now?

01:19:24.783 --> 01:19:27.257
So this might include like rewatchability scores for you.

01:19:27.671 --> 01:19:55.640
I'm going to give it a full star for this because, even though it is not the best movie in the world, I really enjoyed sitting down with this cuddly teddy bear picnic on the forest moon of Endor watching just like I'm not going to say mindless, because there's a lot that you can sort of glean from the movie and just watch a movie that was from a time before I was born and see what it was interesting to me to think about, the things that the children were watching in the early 80s and the 90s and things like that.

01:19:55.640 --> 01:19:58.429
So for me, I had a good time with this.

01:19:58.429 --> 01:20:01.335
It was good to see a different sort of element of Star Wars and I actually loved that.

01:20:01.335 --> 01:20:07.444
This was probably the bedrock for what Star Wars is today in terms of the stories that are coming out, the expanded universe, all that kind of stuff to see.

01:20:07.444 --> 01:20:10.900
If it landed and it definitely did there was lots of marketing involved with it.

01:20:10.900 --> 01:20:16.657
I think that for me, I'm giving it a full star for my personal enjoyment of the movie.

01:20:16.657 --> 01:20:17.320
What about you, brash?

01:20:17.885 --> 01:20:20.293
Oh, 100% a star For me when I watch this again just goosebumps.

01:20:20.293 --> 01:20:24.368
There were parts that came up like the me I watched this, when I watched this again just goosebumps, like, absolutely good.

01:20:24.368 --> 01:20:34.073
Like then there were parts that came up like the um nest on the back of the horse, or even even the rock how it made a trail through the sand.

01:20:34.073 --> 01:21:05.532
Just re-watching that, something like for me to stir up so many like emotions in my because, like there's, there's things in this movie that I can always remember and I always remember, like and like Gorax walking down this, like just that, how they slowed it down when he's trudging down the stairways to make themselves, to make all the people look like they're faster than a big hunking monster is, and like I just yeah, this movie is always going to be one of my like top movies that I'll always cherish.

01:21:05.832 --> 01:21:07.551
yeah, so definitely one star for me.

01:21:07.551 --> 01:21:08.253
All right.

01:21:08.253 --> 01:21:14.427
So that means a total for myself for the movie the caravan of courage an Ewok adventure.

01:21:14.427 --> 01:21:28.554
For me, I gave it a 2.5 out of 5 and for brash you gave it a 2 out of 5, which means our average for this movie is 2.25, which, if you want some context, we both rated Captain America Brave New World 2.5.

01:21:28.554 --> 01:21:29.497
That's it by it.

01:21:29.497 --> 01:21:31.497
That's it, that's it by it.

01:21:31.497 --> 01:21:32.994
Alright, so let's put it on our honor board.

01:21:32.994 --> 01:21:35.578
That means that it is going to sit 2.25.

01:21:35.578 --> 01:21:36.358
Let's see where it goes.

01:21:36.358 --> 01:21:39.073
It is going to sit under Dragonheart and above Gabriel.

01:21:39.172 --> 01:21:42.518
Above Gabriel or under Dragonheart.

01:21:42.918 --> 01:21:44.681
It'll be 16th on our on-the-board list.

01:21:44.681 --> 01:21:54.211
Yeah, all right, I would have asked you because, technically, indiana Jones, gabriel and this have scored the same thing, but I think I know where you sit.

01:21:54.211 --> 01:21:57.215
On Indiana Jones, I reckon it should be lower, lower.

01:21:57.215 --> 01:22:01.761
It's almost at the bottom of our list, the only thing below it is red one.

01:22:02.882 --> 01:22:04.725
I'm actually starting to think that it should be lower than red one.

01:22:04.725 --> 01:22:11.114
Alright well, with it rated, it is going to sit at the 16th position on our fandom portals on a board.

01:22:11.114 --> 01:22:15.094
Let's do our sign-offs, alright, guys?

01:22:15.094 --> 01:22:17.537
This has been Aaron and Brash at the Fandom Portals Podcast.

01:22:17.537 --> 01:22:23.016
Thank you so much for joining in on our episode on the Ewok Adventure Movies.

01:22:23.016 --> 01:22:34.001
Now, remember, you can get all of your Fandom Portals goodness, wwwfandomportalspodcastcom, and on that website it includes access to our monthly newsletter.

01:22:34.001 --> 01:22:44.975
Now, our first newsletter went out to all of our people that have subscribed so far, and it is in that newsletter where we're going to first announce all our giveaways when we reach 25 points for our Fandom Fact Face-Off.

01:22:44.975 --> 01:22:52.775
And you can also get amongst our community by following us on Threads, instagram and Reddit, always at Fandom Puddles.

01:22:53.430 --> 01:22:55.752
Now, next week, brash, we're going to change it right up.

01:22:55.752 --> 01:23:02.695
I'm going to start officially doing horror on the podcast, and by horror I mean I'm going to sort of dive in nicely.

01:23:02.695 --> 01:23:06.144
We're going to be doing Ready or Not from 2019.

01:23:06.144 --> 01:23:15.475
It's technically a slasher thriller, but I've been looking at it on my Netflix and it's sat in my library for a little while and I want to give it a try.

01:23:15.475 --> 01:23:22.800
So next week we'll be doing an episode on Ready or Not from 2019 and hoping to come with clean underpants.

01:23:23.770 --> 01:23:31.618
And maybe one day I can work you up to watching all of the Conjuring saga, all the Conjuring's, all the Annabelle's.

01:23:31.618 --> 01:23:37.078
That is a hard the nuns like all of that.

01:23:37.972 --> 01:23:39.257
I have seen one nun movie.

01:23:39.257 --> 01:23:40.840
I haven't.

01:23:40.900 --> 01:23:45.412
I didn't make it 20 minutes, so seen as a is a very you know loose word.

01:23:45.412 --> 01:23:49.355
I didn't make it 20 minutes, so seen is a very you know loose word.

01:23:49.355 --> 01:23:56.521
Anyway, if you guys wouldn't mind, small podcasters like us absolutely thrive on word of mouth.

01:23:56.521 --> 01:24:08.639
So if there's somebody who you're thinking, oh shit, remember that Ewok adventure movie that we used to watch, send it to them, because we're talking about it here on a podcast and I actually don't know if any other podcast has talked about this ever.

01:24:08.639 --> 01:24:09.242
So send it to everybody.

01:24:09.242 --> 01:24:12.413
Go on, uh yeah, send it to everybody and make sure you're supporting the geek freaks network as well.

01:24:12.413 --> 01:24:20.297
All right, keep learning, keep growing, keep loving fandoms brash which is ewokies or thank you, goodbye that's so sweet.

01:24:21.239 --> 01:24:21.600
Bye everybody.