Techtite Feature Article!

"That's the Ewoks to a capital 'E'; the cute furry creatures, the goofy furry creatures, and yet...we're still talking about Star Wars, right?"

---from the article

-------------

Sidebar :

-------------

Artoo was Almost "Head Ewok". According to trivia sites like the Internet Movie Database; the Ewok who was going to first meet Princess Leia was Paploo, played by the same actor behind R2D2, Kenny Baker. Unfortunately Baker had a case of food poisoning the day the scene was scheduled to be filmed so in came Warrick Davis as the Ewok "Wicket". As they say; the rest is cinema history.

They Make Sense When You Think About It...Kinda. The concept behind the Ewoks defeating the Empire are obvious when you think about it. The idea was that the Emperor could only see "The Dark Side" of things. He could see Vader and volcanoes and brats who kick kittens. He could not see Smurfs, posies, or Ewoks. Nor could he see how a bunch of Ewoks, even on a good day, could possibly defeat his mighty Empire. That makes two of us.

-----------------

Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted!

------------------

As we approach the "worse half" of this top ten list, it's not as much of a shock of who made the list, as to where they are on the list. It's pretty obvious that Ewoks would make the cut. Perhaps less obvious is that they made a rather complimentary "#6" on the list. Why...?

It's intriguing how much the origin of the Ewoks has become a buried mystery. The never confirmed urban myth describes their origins this way: Originally, Return of the Jedi was to have the final battle fought on Chewbacca's home world. Yet George Lucas had a daughter at the time, and that daughter had no Star Wars toys to play with (couldn't they have given her a Princess Leia doll or something?). So the script was rewritten to include lovable teddy bears called Ewoks. This explains why the Ewoks were not (and could not be) made to look more menacing. It also explains why they look like they were intended for a six year old. If the above trivia story is true: they really were!

Yet let's be fair. There's no denying they were cute; and cuter than Jar-Jar Binks, to be sure. It is also fair to admit that the jokes they offered in Return of the Jedi were actually funny, unlike Jar-Jar (and you can see where we're going with this, later on this list!). I mean, sure; it wasn't totally believable to see two tree stumps squash a AT-ST armored tank, and yet how loud did we all laugh, when seeing that scene as kids?

Then again; there's still a Death Star sized "hiccup" to consider. In Star Wars canon, not even the mighty Jedi could defeat the Empire, even if they were admittedly taken by surprise. Yet along come Ewoks with their rocks and sticks, and they defeat what The Emperor refers to as "an entire legion of my best troops." And then there's the cutesy gibberish! Even when that gibberish was translated into English for the Ewok series (yes; a whole series!), their dialog was little more than, "Star Cruiser Crash Crash!" They were cute, though they were characters in a movie about an interstellar war. That paradox has frustrated Star Wars fans for over two decades...and with reason.

-------------------------------

 What was your choice for best/worst sci-fi series, ever...?

Send your opinions to Techtite's Letters page!