Ewoks – Everybody’s Favorite Teddy Bear
The Ewoks were born of George Lucas’ imagination in the 1983 Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi. They were the inhabitants of the Forest Moon of Endor and turned out to be a critical piece of the puzzle when the Rebel Alliance set out to destroy the second Death Star and the Emperor.
The Ewoks looked like tall furry teddy bears with large eyes who walked upright, though their noses were much flatter than those of a regular bear or teddy bear. Their fur was mostly various shades of browns, though some Ewoks had gray or even white fur around their faces. They wore hoods around their heads and bib-like clothing over their chests. One Ewok, Teebo, wore a Gurreck skull headdress.
The Ewoks were somehow related to the Wookies, though they’re much shorter. They spoke Ewokese, a fictitious language with its roots in the sounds produced by the Kalymk language from Russia. The humans in the story didn’t understand Ewokese at all and so had to depend on C-3PO to translate.
The Ewoks were a primitive people who lived high above ground in the tall trees of the forest. They were naturally suspicious of strangers, and kept to themselves, which is probably why the Imperial troops ignored them.
It’s interesting to note that neither the term “Ewoks” nor any of the Ewoks’ individual names are part of the movie, but were only revealed in the end credits and in their subsequent films.
The Ewoks may look like cuddly teddy bears, but in reality they were fierce warriors.
In Return of the Jedi, the Ewoks played a pivotal role in the defeat of the Imperial troops on the Forest Moon and the resultant destruction of the Death Star and the Emperor’s forces by the Rebel fleet.
The Ewoks didn’t appear until the second half of the movie. At that point in the story, the Rebel Alliance had discovered that the Emperor was building a second Death Star near the Forest Moon of Endor. So the Rebel Admiral sent a strike force led by Han Solo to the Forest Moon to knock out the generator for the Death Star’s protective energy shield so the Rebel fleet could destroy the Death Star and kill the Emperor. Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca and the two droids R2-D2 and C-3PO went with their friend as part of the strike force.
The strike team had no idea the Ewoks existed until Leia, knocked out by an encounter with an Imperial scout detail, was befriended by the Ewok scout Wicket and taken to Bright Tree Village. Later Han, Luke, Chewbacca and the droids fell into an Ewok trap when they went looking for Leia. Taken prisoner, Luke used the Force to convince the Ewoks that C-3PO had special powers. The Ewoks freed the captives.
That evening, C-3PO told the Council of Elders led by Chief Chirpa and the tribal shaman Logray the story of the Rebel’s fight against the Empire. The Ewoks made the strike force team part of their tribe and agreed to take them to the field generator bunker and help them defeat the Imperial troops that were there.
Later that night Luke went alone to the shield generator bunker, was captured and taken by Darth Vader to the Emperor on the Death Star.
Not knowing that the Emperor knew of their presence on the Forest Moon, the strike force assaulted the shield generator bunker, but were soon overcome by a large force of Imperial Stormtroopers. It was then that the Ewoks entered the fray, freeing the strike force to destroy the generator and helping defeat the technologically-advanced Stormtroopers. For despite their small size and primitive weapons, the Ewoks were strong and knew the forest inside and out so as to lay traps for the Stormtroopers and their AT-ST walkers.
With the shield generator destroyed, the Rebel Admiral sent his fighters, led by Lando Calrissian piloting the Millennium Falcon, to destroy the Death Star’s main reactor. They were successful and the Death Star blew up. Luke, however, was safe, having survived a light saber fight with Darth Vader and almost death until Darth Vader had killed the Emperor. Luke escaped the Death Star in an Imperial shuttle with the body of his father Anakin Skywalker, formerly Darth Vader, who had returned to the good side just before his death.
At the end, the Rebels and Ewoks celebrated their victory as the Force-ghosts of Obi-Wan, Yoda and Anakin looked on.
The good guys won the day, with the help of their furry allies. The power of the evil Empire had been broken.
Fortunately for Ewok and Star Wars fans, that was not the last of the Ewoks. After Return of the Jedi, the Ewoks appeared in two made-for-TV movies: Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984) and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985). They also starred in Ewoks, a short-lived cartoon series, plus books and games. They were, perhaps even more popular than Luke, Leia, Han and Chewbacca, though the two droids generally took the day.
And since they look a lot like teddy bears, let’s not forget a whole line of Ewok teddy bears brightens the lives of millions of fans.