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The 2 Ewok Films - 'Caravan Of Courage' (aka 'The Ewok Adventure'), & 'Battle For Endor' — Page 4

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 (Edited)

SilverWook’s earlier comment about Battle for Endor being the Alien 3 of this franchise is spot-on, and is what I’ve always said about it as well. These films committed one of the cardinal sins of filmmaking, which is this:

NEVER make a film that kills off the characters you spent the entire previous film searching for and/or rescuing, especially when you kill them in the first 5-10 minutes. It renders the entire previous film pointless, and makes the viewer not want to watch any more.

Apart from that, I find Battle for Endor to be particularly solid (and actually Alien 3’s extended version as well once I get past the anger over its cardinal sin, and even though I will not consider it part of the canon). I watched both Caravan of Courage and Battle for Endor again for the first time in quite a while recently, and I found myself enjoying both quite a bit more than I expected. I’ve always liked them to some degree, but this time around I found a lot more to appreciate. Maybe it’s the lack of things I dislike about the prequels and the sequels (which are completely different things). Or maybe it’s because it’s a little more like The Mandalorian in certain ways (which I just now realized), in that it shows the everyday life of nobodies on a backwater planet rather than the big name heroes of the movies. I also spotted quite a bit more Easter Egg material this time around while watching it upscaled on a 65" TV (Cantina band instruments, FX-7 in the background, etc.). Rather a fun romp.

It’s definitely a crime that these two films are not on Disney+, and not available on a better physical format. They are not problematic the way the Holiday Special is, so why the reluctance to make them available? Come on, Disney - these are your perfect kind of family fare! (well, apart from the family being murdered thing…)

–SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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With Disney’s announcement today of more streaming Star Wars series in thw works, I imagine they would want to do something with the Ewoks again?
Releasing the tv movies and the Droids/Ewoks cartoons on Disney+ is a no brainer.

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Where were you in '77?

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 (Edited)

They probably wont. Releasing a new series called Ewok Adventures is more in line with their model.

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Mocata said:

They probably wont. Releasing a new series called Ewok Adventures is more in line with their model.

Given how great The Mandalorian has turned out to be, I would be totally on board with this if they followed the same model. As far as I’m concerned they can keep making Mandalorian episodes like they have been until the end of time.

I just hope they don’t kill the golden goose (again) with all these planned projects at once.

–SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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What are the chances these will ever be available again on disc or streaming? Zero?

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Rodney-2187 said:

What are the chances these will ever be available again on disc or streaming? Zero?

I would have to think they are pretty good. The Ewok movies may not be the brightest points in the Star Wars galaxy, but they aren’t the Holiday Special, either. The fact that they finally put all of The Muppet Show up on Disney+ (with a disclaimer against stereotyping, even) is a good sign that they are finding ways to make this older content available.

They’d better do them in fully remastered hi-def, though. I’ve seen the Ewok movie fan-sourced upscales, and I am absolutely floored at how good they look. I have never seen any upconverted SD material look so sharp and clear before in my life, and my hat’s off to the guy responsible for those. Makes me wonder what else is possible.

–SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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It’s only going to cost Disney the price of a new film scan and Lucasfilm may have done it already in the past decade.

Dare I even ask what could be in The Muppet Show Disney feels they have to slap a disclaimer on?

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Where were you in '77?

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SilverWook said:

It’s only going to cost Disney the price of a new film scan and Lucasfilm may have done it already in the past decade.

Chances are good that they have. I’m not even sure what the hold-up would be, other than hesitation about the two TV movies not being considered good enough. They’re certainly better than a lot of the, say, B-grade 70s-80s Disney movies they’ve put up there (which I’m still happy to see made available!).

Dare I even ask what could be in The Muppet Show Disney feels they have to slap a disclaimer on?

Well, there are apparently some skits containing racial and/or cultural stereotypes that could be considered problematic. That was kind of standard fare for the time period, but as far as I know (I’ve only watched 2-3 episodes so far) there isn’t anything extremely bad - Marty Feldman in drag playing an Arabian Nights harem girl isn’t particularly culturally sensitive by today’s standards, but it’s not exactly blackface either. I think they’ve handled it the right way for today’s critical eye by not censoring the episodes and instead offering the disclaimer. I’m totally fine with that.

Disney did opt to leave particular episodes out: in particular, one episode featuring Chris Langham is missing. When you Google what he was convicted for in 2007, you will see that it was probably wise not to make it currently available for children to watch. I have to agree with this decision, despite my general feelings about censorship and desire for completeness of material. I believe the episode is/was available on DVD, so that satisfies the completeness aspect - but Disney+ is a more “living” sort of medium, and kids might tune in unsupervised. Again, I think they made the right call.

I guess copyright clearances are preventing other missing episodes from showing up, but they are working on that, and I expect they will show up eventually. That’s good news.

Overall, I think Disney has done well on this. It would be easier I’m sure to just say no to having The Muppet Show on there at all, so I applaud them for taking the more difficult road.

–SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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Putting a few disclaimers up on something that will get them more subscribers? That’s one thing. Putting up terrible Ewok movies they’d rather deny exist in their current Saga? That’s something else.

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Mocata said:

Putting a few disclaimers up on something that will get them more subscribers? That’s one thing. Putting up terrible Ewok movies they’d rather deny exist in their current Saga? That’s something else.

That may be the very reasoning behind their non-action. But, I expect we’ll see them pop up on there eventually. The Holiday Special…not so much.

–SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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I could see them putting the Ewok movies up on Disney+ just to add to the list of things only available on Disney+. Makes me think if they ever do release an unaltered original trilogy, it will only be streaming on Disney+, but that is for another thread.

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Sounds like something is definitely coming to Disney+, but nothing official yet. Various sites are reporting different lists of content. The titles I’m seeing listed most often are both Ewok movies, the Ewok animated series, and the original Clone Wars animated series. I’ve even seen the Holiday Special mentioned, but I seriously doubt that. No sign of the Droids series or Star Wars Detours, but you never know. Hope something official is announced soon!

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Well now…there we go. And apparently a piece of the Holiday Special as well - that I did not expect! 2021 is already shaping up to be not such a bad year.

Now here’s the real question: did they go back and hi-def scan the Holiday Special cartoon from the original film elements (as it is the only part of the Special that was on film)? If so, this is gonna be great!

–SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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 (Edited)

Good question! It’s been murky if Fox/Lucasfilm ever had the film elements or Nelvana had them. They lost some stuff in a vault fire some years ago, and the workprint of Rock & Rule was a casualty.

The Story Of The Faithful Wookiee? I have never heard the animated segment called that before…
https://twitter.com/CBR/status/1371966955305963522

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Where were you in '77?

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SilverWook said:

Good question! It’s been murky if Fox/Lucasfilm ever had the film elements or Nelvana had them. They lost some stuff in a vault fire some years ago, and the workprint of Rock & Rule was a casualty.

The sound and film elements are apparently in the Lucasfilm archives…there was a photo of a pile of that material posted once on StarWars.com in 2008.

The Story Of The Faithful Wookiee? I have never heard the animated segment called that before…
https://twitter.com/CBR/status/1371966955305963522

Yep - it’s what the title card says at the beginning of the cartoon, and you can almost kind of read it if you squint.

–SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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Wasn’t the title card in Aurebesh or something? I don’t have my HS DVD handy.

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Where were you in '77?

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Oh god they’re doing it. They’re releasing this random stuff and not the OOT.

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SKot said:

SilverWook said:

The Story Of The Faithful Wookiee? I have never heard the animated segment called that before…
https://twitter.com/CBR/status/1371966955305963522

Yep - it’s what the title card says at the beginning of the cartoon, and you can almost kind of read it if you squint.

–SKot

Not seeing any English on this…

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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Mocata said:

Oh god they’re doing it. They’re releasing this random stuff and not the OOT.

I think it will show up on Disney+ eventually.

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Mocata said:

Oh god they’re doing it. They’re releasing this random stuff and not the OOT.

There have been preservation projects for Ewoks and Droids around here for several years, attempting to scrounge together various far flung video releases from around the world. (I curse the time I loaned my own off-air copies to the girlfriend of a college buddy in 1989, and never got it back.) There’s a lot to be glad about here. Droids is sure to follow.

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Where were you in '77?

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Star Wars just has a hold on me. I can’t believe I’m this excited over 2 Ewok made for TV movies and an 2 animated series, all of which I’ve seen before.