More big Star Wars news coming out of Disney+ today: in addition to the non-canonical 2004 Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series, the Ewoks cartoon from the mid-1980s, and the animated segment from the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, the streaming service will also be releasing Lucasfilm’s two live-action made-for-TV Ewoks spinoff movies on Friday, April 2: 1984’s Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and 1985’s Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.
While these two films have been issued on physical media in the past, they are not considered part of the current Star Wars canon and have not yet been released on Disney+ prior to today’s announcement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqtyw18jXyI
What’s happening:
- Lucasfilm’s live-action made-for-TV movies Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor will be released on Disney+ on Friday, April 2.
- The films originally aired on the now-Disney-owned ABC network in 1984 and 1985, respectively, and were released on DVD together in 2004.
- These movies will join several selections of non-canonical Star Wars animation also announced today to be arriving on Disney+ in early April.
What they’re saying:
- Charles Champlin, author of George Lucas: The Creative Impulse: “After the success of the Star Wars films and the ratings the films earned when broadcast, it was inevitable that television would find something for Lucasfilm to do directly for the small screen. That first something proved to be the Ewoks, the lovable, furry, tree-dwelling creatures from Return of the Jedi. Lucas created two Ewok adventures, each of which appeared as “The ABC Sunday Night Movie,” the first in November 1984, the second a year later. Both were intriguing mixtures of future and past, star cruisers and forest creatures, space guns and monsters and a wicked queen.”
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