1184. Caravan Of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984)

Starring: Warwick Davis, Eric Walker, Aubree Miller

Director: John Korty

Running Time: 97 mins

Caravan Of Courage: An Ewok Adventure is an American film about two children whose family’s starcruiser crash lands on Endor, and after their parents go missing, they must join forces with a local Ewok tribe to find them.

When I first saw the Ewoks in Return Of The Jedi, the last thing that I was thinking was that they needed a fleshed-out, family-friendly backstory. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what this film is, and it’s just as terrible as you would expect, thanks to a completely empty story, terrible acting, poor production values and not one single thing that would ever make you care about what’s going on on screen.

I do recognise that this is a film completely intended for young kids, and that it was made for TV, so it doesn’t have to have the same production quality as the actual Star Wars films. So, this might be fun for really young kids who couldn’t care less about any sense of fun or excitement, just watching some pictures happen on screen with nothing else behind it.

The issue is, though, that this is already an extremely dated film. Its special effects are pretty laughable, and the Ewoks somehow look even worse than they did in Return Of The Jedi, whilst the two main characters, two young kids, don’t add any sense of entertainment that kids would really ever care about.

Let’s talk about those two main characters. Apart from the first and last scenes in the movie, there are no adults in this AT ALL. It’s just two kids and a bunch of Ewoks walking around Endor, and that’s it. So, there’s inevitably no sense of drama in the film at all, but the kids don’t add any fun either.

Aubree Miller is only 4 years old, and so she’s just sort of there, doing nothing but sucking her thumb, leaving everything down to 14 year old Eric Walker to bring something to the table, considering the fact that the Ewoks don’t actually talk.

Unfortunately, his performance is pretty atrocious. He just seems unnecessarily angry throughout the whole film, and comes across as an even more petulant kid than Anakin in the prequels, making me really dislike his character, and therefore not care one bit about whether he found his parents in the end or not.

In terms of the story, there’s not really much to say. Basically, it’s just some things on Endor doing some things that don’t actually mean anything, have any effect in terms of excitement or entertainment, and so this is a film that just sort of exists. It’s immediately forgettable even within its own running time, and that’s why it gets a 4.3 from me.