Ewoks: The Battle For Endor (1985) -
Despite the hideous looking Marauder creature King Terak, played by Carel Struycken, this film was definitely made for kids and the focus didn't appear to be on spending a lot of money towards special effects for that purpose. As a result some of them were 'Neville Longbottom On The Broom' bad.
Some of the acting was bad too, not the Ewoks obviously, because there was only so much that the actors could do to deliver any performance in miniature bear suits, but the Towani's were pretty ropey.
To be fair, Aubree Miller was only about 5 when she played Cindel, but she was as sickly and treacly in this one as she was in the first Ewok film 'Caravan Of Courage' (1984), yet still the better actor of the Towani family.
At least Eric Walker's older brother role of Mace was severely reduced to what was basically a cameo, thankfully.
And the introduction of Wilford Brimley as Noa added a dimension that was different from the first offering, whilst also creating a different kind of adventure for Cindel and Wicket (Warwick Davis).
Yes, it was a very slow film, but certainly the more bearable of the two 'Return Of The Jedi' (1983) spin off films and it was 'Star Wars' enough to keep my interest, without being too much like a fairy tale or fantasy film by only utilising a little amount of magic from the Witch Charal (Sian Phillips).
Other than that, Teek (Niki Botelho) was an interesting creature and fun for the children, but I didn't feel that he was a very well made puppet and not even that pretty to look at.
I think that I would be inclined to return to this story far more than I would with 'Caravan Of Courage', but I will probably stick to the main "Skywalker Saga" in general and put this one to the back of my mind instead.
501.88/1000.
Despite the hideous looking Marauder creature King Terak, played by Carel Struycken, this film was definitely made for kids and the focus didn't appear to be on spending a lot of money towards special effects for that purpose. As a result some of them were 'Neville Longbottom On The Broom' bad.
Some of the acting was bad too, not the Ewoks obviously, because there was only so much that the actors could do to deliver any performance in miniature bear suits, but the Towani's were pretty ropey.
To be fair, Aubree Miller was only about 5 when she played Cindel, but she was as sickly and treacly in this one as she was in the first Ewok film 'Caravan Of Courage' (1984), yet still the better actor of the Towani family.
At least Eric Walker's older brother role of Mace was severely reduced to what was basically a cameo, thankfully.
And the introduction of Wilford Brimley as Noa added a dimension that was different from the first offering, whilst also creating a different kind of adventure for Cindel and Wicket (Warwick Davis).
Yes, it was a very slow film, but certainly the more bearable of the two 'Return Of The Jedi' (1983) spin off films and it was 'Star Wars' enough to keep my interest, without being too much like a fairy tale or fantasy film by only utilising a little amount of magic from the Witch Charal (Sian Phillips).
Other than that, Teek (Niki Botelho) was an interesting creature and fun for the children, but I didn't feel that he was a very well made puppet and not even that pretty to look at.
I think that I would be inclined to return to this story far more than I would with 'Caravan Of Courage', but I will probably stick to the main "Skywalker Saga" in general and put this one to the back of my mind instead.
501.88/1000.