I, as well would like to see these films given the fan-preservation effort. They are many times overlooked and put down by up-tight star wars fans. The DVD release was a rushed one, for all DVD's involved in the November 2004 release. I have never seen any copies but the DVD release, due to the fact that I couldn't find them anywhere. Kind of like the holiday special, I had heard of it, but couldnt find it. I had actually put up a list of changes Lucas made to the films for the various dvd, laserdisc, and VHS releases over the years, but no one seemed interested at the time. A preservation would be great, yet another time-worthy contribution to OT.com!

I have the trailer for COC, it's not the greatest quality, I downloaded it from some nastalgia site a while back. I can upload it if you are interested. Also, someone else asked a while back for the original TV opening for COC, and the file was uploaded. I have that as well.

I can upload the trailer to yousendit.com

In an attempt to revive this thread and this project, I will post the known changes which have been made to these two films over the years, courtesy of TheForce.Net (http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/story/caravan_of_courage_dvd_changes_88058.asp) and the IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089110/alternateversions). If anyone attempts to restore these two, you must keep in mind a couple of things. First off, there have been three different releases on home video, which were the 1990 VHS release, the 1990 Laserdisc release, and the 2004 DVD release. Also, Caravan of Courage was released both theatrically, and on TV. And it might be helpful if anyone has any home-recordings from the original TV airings, or happen to have any prints of the films. You would have to decide which version you intend to restore (Also I must note that the theatrical version of COC was NOT in widescreen, it was merly reformatted from its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio to a 1.78:1 aspect ratio). The changes were very minor to these films, but there indeed were several changes:

Caravan of Courage:

-The original TV version had the title of "The Ewok Adventure," rather than "Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure." The "Caravan" titles were only present for the theatrical release in the UK and Australia.


-The original TV version credited Bob Carrou as writing the "teleplay," rather than writing the "screenplay."


-The TV, VHS, and Laserdisc versions did not open with the 20th Century Fox fanfare, but the DVD does, since it was taken from the theatrical version. The laserdisc and VHS had merely cut straight to the movie from the opening logos.

-The VHS and Laserdisc versions gave the company logo at the beginning as MGM, the DVD version has replaced it with the Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox company logos.


The Battle for Endor:

-In a home video release, the following two scenes were deleted: when being chased by Terak's men, Wicket races for Noa's house but Noa tells him the only chance they've got is the star cruiser. Then a scene that happened shortly after where the men went inside and burned down Noa's house.

-When Cindel has a nightmare about bad guys coming into Noa's house after her has the following scene cut in a version on television in which Cindel rushes to Noa's bed to wake him up, but instead finds Terak in the bed then she wakes up, so on TV it just shows her waking up after the men breaking in.

-Cindel's lines: "Do something, Wicket! Use your sling! You hit the ring!" have been altered to "Do something, Wicket! Do something!" for the DVD release.

HERE ARE THE DVD COVERS FROM GRISAN:



posted at: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a12/Adamwankenobi/caravan_of_courage_hires.jpg



posted at: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a12/Adamwankenobi/battle_for_endor_hires.jpg

I would gladly take on this project if I had the resources. I thoroughly enjoy these two great films, even though I am not a young kid or a nastalgic adult. I hope someone comes along (Rikter? ocpmovie? ADigitalMan?) who can work on this project.

I have them on DVD, just discovered them earlier this year. They show a part of Star Wars I had never imagined up until I first saw them. There's a certain quality to them that allows them to stand on their own as classics. Somehow, the use of stop-motion and the low-budget TV effects of the 80's gives them this certain, undescribable quality. Honestly, I don't see the point in making such small changes. Perhaps there were simply differences in the various versions originally released in 84' and 85'. Ell the Ewok, what versions did you get from eBay, the VHS/Laserdisc release, the DVD, or the TV bootlegs?

Rikter has one of the original TV spots for Caravan of Courage from Rarities 1. I've asked him if he could upload it, but he hasn't yet. But, here is the link I've found to the trailer for COC:

http://66.98.238.16/retro/media/19hiywjhx/trailers/the-ewok-adventure-1984.wmv

By the way, you might want to check out this site that made a fake press release of what they would like to see in a future release:

http://www.lucasfan.com/ewdr/pressrelease.html

The beginning of COC is HEAVY in grain. And at some points, the image gets very dark. Then, BFE almost looks black and white at the parts where Cindel hears the witch calling her name. And, overall, there is much grain in the movies. But, some places, especially those in pure daylight, look as if they were remastered or something.