AN EWOK ADVENTURE (CARAVAN OF COURAGE)

Narrated by Burl Ives. Eric Walker, Warwick Davis, Fionnula Flanagan.
US, 1984, 96 minutes, Colour.
Directed by John Korty.

Caravan of Courage is a children's entertainment - from producer George Lucas. The film takes the Ewoks from the third film in the Star Wars series, The Return of the Jedi. Parents and children crash-land on an alien planet, the children travel with the Ewoks to rescue their parents from a giant monster. While the special effects are very good, while the Ewoks have a kind of teddy bear charm, the children are very stodgy and stolid. This takes away from the impact of the entertainment - and its credibility. The film also has a rather long running time as the Ewoks and the children move from adventure to adventure. It is undemanding entertainment - rather than the imaginative entertainment it might have been.

1. A children's film? Family film?

2. The quality of the story, imagination? The appeal of fantasy?

3. The planet, its landscapes, differences from Earth, similarities? Special effects? The Ewoks? The giants and the monsters, the caverns? Action sequences? Musical score?

4. The appeal of the story, the adventure, the journey and the quest? The heroics? The children and their concern, the parents and their anxiety, the Ewoks and their friendliness, hostile ogres and giants? The pace of the final confrontations, dangers?

5. The appeal of the children? Mace and Cindel - their parents, their love for their parents, separation, the search, the dangers and difficulties, the friendship of the Ewoks, their being led, arguing, dangers, Mace and his almost drowning, the horse? The final confrontation, their parents?

6. The crash, the alien planet, the parents and the giant? The friendly Ewoks? The reconciliation?

7. The sketch of the parents, their concern, separation, dangers, reconciliation?

8. The attractiveness of the Ewoks - their appearance, way of communicating, sounds, style, helps, fighting, play?

9. The monsters and their size, movement, ugliness? between good and evil? The confrontation?

10. The entertainment of the episodes? Their point? The pool trapping Mace, the runaway horse, the fireflies, the giant spider?

11. The popular themes of journey, search, help, danger, fight between good and evil, the victory of good?