I was so excited to see it on opening day, any flaws didn't catch up with me until later. (Front row balcony center during speeder bike scene=IMAX!) I've been through a love/hate thing with the Ewoks over the years, and currently like them more than I like Jar Jar. ;)
They had the potential to be vicious little furry bastards, but noooooo!
There was some criticism in print at the time. SF author Norman Spinrad wrote a pretty harsh review in Starlog magazine that got a lot of fanboy hate mail. He might have also been the one who first suggested Lucas ripped off H. Beam Piper's "Fuzzy" novels for the Ewoks.
One of the other Starlog columnists later spoofed the whole controversy with a cartoon depicting Spinrad frozen in Carbonite.