July 1st, 2005, 02:58 PM
I just re-watched ROTJ, and I have to say, people's comparison of characters like Jar Jar to the Ewoks is largely unwarranted, in fact, the Ewoks are not the "stupid" part of the movie at all!
First off, I think massive over exposure to furry toys and the Disneyesque "Ewok Adventure" plus an insipid cartoon colored the veiw of anyone who lived through the eighties. seting all those things aside, let's look solely at Lucas's movie creations.
1. Wicket W. Warrick. This character is the Ewoks greatest weakness. He is an obvious play to Warrick Davis and other children. Let's compare Wicket to the other Ewoks. Only Wicket has the costomary light colored Cheeks and Belly often associaed with Teddy bears. Only Wicket appears to be covered with fake "Teddy Bear" material, the other Ewok's coats look more like a real bear hide and are in colors more commonly found on animals, stripes, irregular spots, camoflaging colors. Even though Wicket is a child, only he and Paploo (Who steals the speeder bike) appear with greatly oversized eyes among the closely seen ewoks. Chirpa, Logray, and Teebo have smaller heads and eyes.
2. Ewok actions. The Ewoks behave in the movie just like a primitive tribe, or a band of apes, might behave when presented with technology that they do not understand. They worship it, they act skiddish and jumpy, and they talk a lot. They look to spiritual (Logray) and government (Chirpa) leaders to explain it.
3. The movie plot. From the beginning, Lucas invisioned a primitive people to rise up and be instrumental in the Empires downfall. The stone age Ewoks fulfill this role perfectly. They would not be nearly so impressive had they had technology (like Jawas) and if they were big, they would've inevitably been called Chewbacca clones. Hence the reason for the small size. I do fill Lucas's vision of a primative army was most fully realized in the Gungans (not Jar Jar) and Wookies in the prequils, who fight with a less sophisticated level of technology, instead of no technology.
4. The scene where Teebo is chased by R2 and shocked, where he jumps in the air, is over done.
Now, lets look at the Ewoks compared to some of the goings on a Jabbas place. You had a frog creature and the Salac which burped. Bobba Fett, the bounty hunter with nerves of steel, screams like a cartoon character when his jetpack misfires, as do other characters thrown into the Salac pit. You have a droid "torture shop" whose primary feature is a power droid, a model without a vocabulator, screaming "no no no" as hot irons are applied to its feet, since that is supposed to motivate a walking battery. Not to mention the irons never touch its feet, and steam shoots out of painfully obvious holes on his feet, like a cheap amusment park ride (cue small small world music). Comparitively, the Ewoks are very well done. Sure, they do some stupid things, and the morphing from short Wookie to teddy bear was an obvious play to children and toy makers, but there are far far stupider parts of the movie.
First off, I think massive over exposure to furry toys and the Disneyesque "Ewok Adventure" plus an insipid cartoon colored the veiw of anyone who lived through the eighties. seting all those things aside, let's look solely at Lucas's movie creations.
1. Wicket W. Warrick. This character is the Ewoks greatest weakness. He is an obvious play to Warrick Davis and other children. Let's compare Wicket to the other Ewoks. Only Wicket has the costomary light colored Cheeks and Belly often associaed with Teddy bears. Only Wicket appears to be covered with fake "Teddy Bear" material, the other Ewok's coats look more like a real bear hide and are in colors more commonly found on animals, stripes, irregular spots, camoflaging colors. Even though Wicket is a child, only he and Paploo (Who steals the speeder bike) appear with greatly oversized eyes among the closely seen ewoks. Chirpa, Logray, and Teebo have smaller heads and eyes.
2. Ewok actions. The Ewoks behave in the movie just like a primitive tribe, or a band of apes, might behave when presented with technology that they do not understand. They worship it, they act skiddish and jumpy, and they talk a lot. They look to spiritual (Logray) and government (Chirpa) leaders to explain it.
3. The movie plot. From the beginning, Lucas invisioned a primitive people to rise up and be instrumental in the Empires downfall. The stone age Ewoks fulfill this role perfectly. They would not be nearly so impressive had they had technology (like Jawas) and if they were big, they would've inevitably been called Chewbacca clones. Hence the reason for the small size. I do fill Lucas's vision of a primative army was most fully realized in the Gungans (not Jar Jar) and Wookies in the prequils, who fight with a less sophisticated level of technology, instead of no technology.
4. The scene where Teebo is chased by R2 and shocked, where he jumps in the air, is over done.
Now, lets look at the Ewoks compared to some of the goings on a Jabbas place. You had a frog creature and the Salac which burped. Bobba Fett, the bounty hunter with nerves of steel, screams like a cartoon character when his jetpack misfires, as do other characters thrown into the Salac pit. You have a droid "torture shop" whose primary feature is a power droid, a model without a vocabulator, screaming "no no no" as hot irons are applied to its feet, since that is supposed to motivate a walking battery. Not to mention the irons never touch its feet, and steam shoots out of painfully obvious holes on his feet, like a cheap amusment park ride (cue small small world music). Comparitively, the Ewoks are very well done. Sure, they do some stupid things, and the morphing from short Wookie to teddy bear was an obvious play to children and toy makers, but there are far far stupider parts of the movie.
Lord Vader, do you use drugs?
Depressants,...most depressants.
Depressants,...most depressants.
