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Ewoks (1985)

First episode title: The Cries of the Trees

How familiar with the show am I?: I have watched the original trilogy of Star Wars films, and I was somewhat aware that the cartoon spin-offs existed.

Return of the Jedi, the third movie in the Star Wars franchise, introduced the forest moon Endor and its lovable population of fuzzy bear-like beings called Ewoks. They were especially popular with kids, which made them an obvious choice for an animated spin-off.

Ewoks title card

The theme song, an odd little song about how "We are the E-E-E-E-E-E-Ewoks", interestingly refers to the Ewoks as "spirits from the forest moon". Aren't they just alien creatures? Where do spirits come into this? I don't know whether this is set before or after Return of the Jedi, but none of the space travel stuff seems to factor into this show at all, so without the Star Wars context it kind of comes across more like fantasy than sci-fi. Not that Star Wars was at all hard sci-fi to begin with, but at least it had the aesthetic.

When the episode starts, a group of little Ewoks are walking through a dark forest, carrying lanterns. At the front of the group is Wicket, the most recognisable Ewok from the film - he has brown fur and a light-brown-to-orange hood. All of the Ewoks have hoods of some kind, although in a variety of shapes so some of them look a bit more like hats. The hoods just seem decorative at this point but we'll learn more about them later.

One female Ewok with grey fur and a pink hood, who we'll later hear is called Kneesaa, remarks that it hasn't rained for a long time and there don't seem to be any Aura blossoms left - information that the other Ewoks could probably have worked out for themselves, since they appear to be there specifically to look for these blossoms. Wicket, looking around but not looking where he's walking, falls down a slope...

Wicket trips and falls off a ledge

...and when he lands he sees a grassy patch full of glowing spheres. Wicket tells the others to look, and Kneesaa says "Goon daa, Wicket."

Ah yes. The Ewok language.

So, in the film, the Ewoks don't speak English and C3PO has to translate for them. This show has the characters speak English as far as we can hear, but sprinkles Ewok phrases like the ones from the film throughout their dialogue, which is slightly odd if you try and work out what they must actually be saying - shouldn't it all be the one language? It looks like the writers of the show picked specific meanings for each phrase that don't necessarily line up with what later lore established, essentially giving the show its own unique Ewok dictionary. So, whenever one of these phrases appears, I'll do my best to say what the show seems to be using it to mean - please bear in mind that all translations here are my own inference from this one episode and may well prove to be wrong in other episodes. I've taken the spellings from online sources that talk about the films, but, as I said, not the meanings.

Kneesaa was saying goon daa because Wicket seems to have found those elusive Aura blossoms, which Wicket says they can use as decorations at tomorrow's "Festival of Hoods", but when another boy Ewok, wearing a green hood with a feather in it, approaches the "blossoms", they fly up from the plants, and the Ewoks realise that they're actually firefolk. No, not fireflies - these actually seem to be little fairies, some red, some blue, all with glowing white wings that make them look like balls of light from a distance. Kneesaa recognises one of the red ones as "Queen Izrina".

Kneesaa: Greetings from the Ewok tribe, o Queen of all the Wisties.

The Ewoks dance around with the firefolk

It's made more obvious later, but it looks like "Wistie" is the proper name of the species and "firefolk" is just an informal term the Ewoks use for them, not that they take offence to it or anything like that. We can't actually understand anything the fairies say - they just make chittering noises. One Ewok gets out a flute and Wicket starts dancing around with the fairies, accidentally dancing backwards right into an annoyed-looking larger Ewok. Wicket apologises to "Aunt Bozzie" and she replies "tash te".

She tells the younger Ewoks off for playing when they should be doing the job she'd sent them on, and then reminds them to be careful with the fires in their lanterns since the forest is so dry. This is foreshadowing for what might happen in the forest, but also pretty much sums up Bozzie's character instantly.

So the Ewoks leave the Wisties behind, the Wisties hear some approaching noises, and we see... some creatures. Well, I mistook each entity that's approaching for a single creature initially, but each one is actually one thing riding another - a round-ish fuzzy creature carrying a spear-like weapon, on top of some kind of giant skeletal spider. Both have dark blue bodies in the same shade, which is how I made my mistake.

A fuzzy blue creature riding a spider-like beast

The fairies start squeaking and flying around in fear, and one of the fuzzy creatures throws a net over them, capturing all of them except Izrina, who starts flying in the attacker's face, making them drop the net and letting the Wisties free. The creature falls off its steed at this point, making it more obvious that they're not just one creature.

The Wisties start flying away, and it looks like they will escape... until another odd-looking creature catches Izrina in a kind of lantern! This other being, who talks like an old woman and looks like an alien version of one, refers to herself as Morag and says that Izrina will help her to get revenge on Logray and the Ewoks, as she heads up a mountainside, laughing evilly and hovering slightly above the ground, accompanied by the spider-riders.

Morag catches Izrina and tells her there's no escape

Now it's the next morning and two suns are shining in the sky over the Ewoks' village, which consists of huts high up in the trees connected to each other by wooden bridges. Looks precarious to me. Inside one hut there is a bubbling cauldron with two older male Ewoks around it. One of them exclaims, "Ee cha! And I thought it was hot _out_side!"

The speaker, who wears a hood decorated with horns, is revealed to be Chirpa, and the other Ewok, whose hood has an animal skull on it, and who is the one working at the cauldron, is Logray! Since Morag is clearly some kind of alien witch, Logray must be the good wizard of our story. See? Fantasy! The stuff he's making in the cauldron sounds a lot more mundane when he spells it out though - it's "magic foam" that could help if the forest ever caught fire. In other words, he's made a fire extinguisher!

Logray says to Chirpa that this is a necessary discomfort

Outside on the walkways, a purple bovine-like creature is running along in a frenzy while Wicket's voice shouts for "Baga" to come back. The animal runs right into Aunt Bozzie and inadvertently puts her on its back, and she ends up rolling off into a stand where one Ewok is selling some oddly ordinary-looking fish.

Bozzie rolls into a market stand and gets showered with fish

Wicket and Kneesaa try to sneak away from her but Bozzie yells Wicket's name, and so they continue chasing after Baga. But Baga stops when it reaches the feather-hooded boy from earlier, and its eyes get hypnotised swirls in them as he speaks.

Teebo: Goopa, Baga. You wanna be a good little bordok and take your bath, don't you?

I'm not counting species names like Ewok and bordok towards the dictionary, of course, since they just are what they are. But anyway, this Teebo seems to have some kind of power over animals, which even Wicket finds perplexing.

So Baga gets in a big wooden tub for Wicket and Kneesaa to give it a bath. While they're doing that, a bigger Ewok with several small feathers on his hood arrives by swinging on a vine, and they greet him as "Paploo", Kneesaa's cousin. They start talking about tonight's Festival of Hoods - Teebo says his sister Malani will be receiving her hood. That probably gives you an idea of what kind of celebration we're talking about already.

Wicket is a bit miserable over being told off by Bozzie so many times, so Paploo, looking around furtively first, suggests playing "Drop-the-Sack". That sounds like it could be the name of any number of innocent child-friendly games, but Kneesaa points out that the Elders forbid playing it. Killjoys. Teebo is excited to play, but Wicket is more cautious and thinks he'll stay behind. Then he pours out the water from Baga's bath, not looking at the walkway level below him, and drenches Bozzie! Wanting to be anywhere but there, Wicket rushes to follow Paploo.

Kneesaa tells Paploo he's being foolish

On a dark clifftop there's an oddly-shaped spiky hut that looks like it has a face, with some of the fuzzy blue guys like the ones that rode the spiders standing guard nearby, and this is the domain of Morag. She's keeping Izrina shackled to some kind of small metal implement, and cackling about her imminent victory. Then two of the fuzzies come in carrying a big bag together, and Morag is annoyed. The bag talks in a voice she recognises as the shaman of the Duloks, and she casts a spell with her big staff to zap the bag away, revealing said shaman, a furry green goblin-like creature with a pierced ear and a tail, the latter of which the spell actually singes a bit.

The shaman says the Duloks have been having trouble with insect bites lately, and clearly wants something from Morag to help with that. Subtly, he scratches at his butt a bit while saying this, implying to me at least that that's where the insects are biting... But then the shaman gets distracted by the kidnapped fairy, saying that firefolk are delicious, and Morag uses another spell to zap the hair on the shaman's head as she tells him not to eat the Wistie. She says that the fairy is part of her plan for revenge on the Ewoks, and the Dulok asks why she hates them so much, to which she only replies that Logray is an old "friend" of hers.

Morag begins her big spell. She heats the end of her staff over something steaming and starts chanting, then shoots some sparks towards Izrina. The fairy's wings glow yellow and take on a more flame-like shape, her shackles break, and she starts zooming around the room emitting sparks herself. And it looks like she's in pain from it.

Morag: Firefolk, the Ewoks call ye, and now firefolk ye be! [evil cackling] And from your fire shall spread the forest's death. [more evil cackling]

Izrina transforms into a fiery form as Morag cackles and the shaman looks scared

Then we're back in the forest, and the establishing shot here shows a group of little rodent-like creatures with anteater snouts feeding on insects that are buzzing around. It's just a nice little detail to remind us there are more kinds of alien animals here than the ones that actually do anything in the plot.

Here we get to see what it means to play "Drop-the-Sack". Teebo is running around on the ground, wearing a painted wooden target on his back, and Wicket and Paploo are sitting on tree branches above, chanting about dropping the sack. Each of them has several sacks and they start throwing them down, missing Teebo, each sack bursting and expelling mud when it lands. Teebo calls the other two "lurdos" when they miss, which is one of those words that somehow just sounds like it means what it means.

Paploo and Wicket, on tree branches, throw bags of mud down at Teebo, wearing a target

Wicket asks Paploo why the elders banned this game, and Paploo dismissively says that they think it's dangerous. Then Wicket hurls another sack, just as Aunt Bozzie happens to wander by where they're playing, and the throw is a direct hit on Bozzie! All that happens is she gets covered in mud - is this the so-called "danger"? Wicket says "Oh, kvark", which really feels like it should be a swear word, but I'll err on the side of safety here.

Almost as if to highlight how redundant it is to have them speak both English and Ewokese, Paploo responds "Oh no". The pair climb down from the trees, and Bozzie domands to know who threw the mud. Paploo calls her "mom", implying Bozzie is only really "Aunt Bozzie" to Kneesaa, despite Wicket calling her that too. Paploo tries to claim that some giant "thunder bats" were flying around dropping mud everywhere. Wicket isn't very enthusiastic to go along with the lie, though. Chirpa, who we saw with Logray before, also shows up and points out the target on Teebo's back, destroying the ruse completely.

In the mountains, near the hut, Morag is floating along and the shaman is following, carrying the container with Izrina in it. He trips and almost drops it, and Morag threatens to feed him to the "Yuzzums" - it looks like that's what the blue furry people are called. The shaman asks her why all this trouble over some Wistie, and Morag clarifies that it's the queen of the Wisties he's holding, and takes the container back, having reached her destination of some nondescript cliff edge. He asks her about the bug bite cure and she waves a hand, making a bag float into his hands, and says he owes her a favour. We won't find out what that is today, though. The shaman starts obsequiously telling Morag what a great witch she is as he leaves, so she magics up a ribbon of lightning to attack him, as he deserves.

A ribbon of lightning repeatedly jabs at the shaman

At the cliff edge, Morag opens the container, sending the inflamed Izrina back to the forest. Morag explains what the effect will be as it's happening - the curse on Izrina passes to every Wistie she goes near, each one starts whizzing around uncontrollably, and every time one of them touches a tree, it catches fire. Soon, large sections of the forest are already alight...

The cursed firefolk spread the fire throughout the forest

In a part of the forest that isn't burning yet, Wicket and his friends are being punished for their game by being put on the "work crew", which just seems to involve sweeping and raking and such. Do people normally sweep the forest floor? Isn't that more of an indoor chore? Anyway, the writers must have just wanted Wicket to be holding a broom, because at that moment a Wistie flies by, unseen by the Ewoks, and Wicket's broom catches on fire! He yells "Danvay!" and starts slapping it on the ground, but that only spreads it to the grass. When the three boys' tools prove ineffective, Chirpa arrives with a couple of other elders, shouting "Dangar!", and uses... some kind of staff that spreads mud onto the flames? It's not that obvious from the animation what exactly he's doing.

Teebo, Wicket, and Paploo try to beat out the fire

With the fire put out, Chirpa asks who started it, and of course he doesn't believe the boys when they say that Wicket's broom just seemed to catch fire all by itself. Chirpa confers with the other elders, and the next thing we see, the boys are being held in some hut out of the way somewhere, like a prison cell! They're lying on hammocks and Paploo is even playing a mournful song on some kind of horn instrument, like an Ewok equivalent of the stereotypical harmonica.

Teebo and Paploo get in an argument over the fact that it was Paploo's lie that started all this in the first place, both calling each other lurdos, and at one point Paploo calls Teebo "Dulok brain" - wow, since we already know Duloks are sentient beings, that just comes off as racist! Wicket breaks up the argument and reminds them they've got to spend three days here so they will need to be more patient. Oh, and when he tells them to break it up he says an Ewok word I can't find any transcript of, which sounds like possibly "Leekeeleek" or "Leeteeleet", and I guess from context means something like "leave off" or "let it go".

A couple of guards tell the "inmates" - yes, they actually use that word! - that it's lights out time, blowing out their candle, and Ewok reassures the other two that things will seem better in the morning. But of course, in the forest, the fires continue to spread, still unbeknownst to the Ewoks. The three boys start tossing and turning in their sleep, and we enter their dream, which they're all having at once - in fact, there's a brief argument over whose dream it even is!

In the dream, they're in a desert, and then large leafless trees start bursting from the ground around them, looming over them like huge monsters, lifting the Ewoks high up from the ground and then vanishing, causing them to fall. They all wake with a start and then Paploo's hammock bursts, and he lands on Teebo. Why give the biggest Ewok the highest hammock, anyway?

Trees burst out of the desert floor around the Ewoks

They are shocked to realise they were dreaming the same thing, and Teebo is convinced that the trees of the forest are in trouble and calling out to them for help. Why pick these three Ewoks in particular? Well, who knows how trees think anyway. Teebo asks if they can hear the trees crying out, and there is indeed a kind of eerie screaming noise in the background. They all look at the window and see the approaching forest fire in the distance, and decide they need to warn everyone.

They rush to the next hut over, where the guards are - the guards are understandably annoyed that they've left their confinement. You might have expected there to be a lock or something, but this area seems remote enough that the guards could probably have caught any escapees before they could reach anywhere significant. Wicket is about to explain about the forest, but before you have time to think that this is just going to be yet another cycle of the kids not being believed, one of the flaming Wisties flies into the hut! All any of them can see is that it's a ball of fire, but Wicket thinks quickly enough to throw a nearby bag of water over it, and that's apparently enough to remove the curse - the Wistie turns back to normal and Teebo recognises her as Izrina.

Izrina explains what happened in her chittering fairy voice and Teebo translates for everyone else. So does his skill with talking to animals also transfer to understanding other sentient beings' languages? Teebo says Izrina was put under a spell by "Tulgah witch" Morag, so now we know what her species is called. Everyone goes outside and the guards can see for themselves that there is a fire in the forest, so they and the kids together start running back to the village.

In case you've forgotten with everything else that's going on, tonight is the night of the Festival of Hoods, which is now taking place in the village. Ewoks are playing music and dancing and others have gathered to watch, one of whom is Kneesaa. She says that she wishes Wicket and Paploo were here to see this. So I guess she doesn't care about Teebo! Three very young hoodless Ewoks are standing in front of the crowd, ready to receive their hoods. Chirpa is holding the ceremony.

Chirpa: Tonight we gather here in the shadows of our sacred Soul Trees, to honour these young Ewoks. Like the trees planted for each of you on your birthday, you have grown strong and tall.

One of the young Ewoks is a brown-furred boy wearing what looks like a kind of bandolier, giving the impression of a tiny Chewbacca. The other two are girls, one dark-furred with a bow in her hair, one light-furred and not yet wearing anything until they all receive their hoods from Chirpa. Her one is too big for her and Chirpa comments that they might need to get her a different one, but she insists she'll grow into it.

Chirpa gives the young Ewoks their hoods

Chirpa starts to say "I declare you all..." but we never find out what he was going to declare them, because Wicket, Teebo, Paploo, and the guards run in at that moment, Wicket shouting "Hutar!" which is one bit of vocabulary that every source seems to agree on the meaning of.

Chirpa is annoyed to see the boys out of confinement, and when Wicket says the forest is on fire Bozzie declares it another lie, but the guards and Izrina confirm the story. In the process it becomes clear to us that Logray is another person who can understand fairy speech, Chirpa looking to him for the translation. When Logray hears that Morag is behind this, he calls her a "twisted hag", so we see the animosity is mutual.

The Ewok with the oversized hood turns out to be Teebo's little sister Malani who he mentioned earlier. She and the other little Ewoks are crying, and Malani says that the trees are crying out to her too - the elders say that it has always been the children who the trees would speak to. Something to do with the innocence of children, maybe? Although the Ewoks as a species have such an innocent feel to them anyway.

Chirpa orders immediate action, and then we see chains of Ewoks passing buckets of water along to put out the flames. With everyone operating so close to the fire, the scene ends up very red and the whole thing feels a lot more dangerous than before. In retaliation, Morag, from up on her cliff, has the Yuzzums dam up the river to stop any more water from getting to the Ewoks. So then Logray arrives, along with Wicket, Kneesaa, and Paploo, carrying bags full of Logray's magic foam, and another group of Ewoks bring a catapult to fire the bags. When the bags are fired, they burst and the foam inside expands into floods of water, extinguishing large areas of the fire.

Wicket and Kneesaa load the catapult and fire foam at the flames

Morag still doesn't seem at all unhappy at the Ewok's successes, though, and laughs to herself. It seems like, to her, this is just one big game between her and Logray. She raises her arms to cast a spell, causing the Wisties to descend on the catapult and engulf it in flames. Wicket throws some bags of foam at it, putting out the fire and returning the Wisties to normal, but the catapult is still destroyed.

So we next see the Ewoks sitting around despondently, with no way to spread the foam over the still-blazing forest fire. I guess the whole Ewok village only had a single catapult between them. Wicket suggests using their gliders to get above the flames. The Ewok hang-gliders were in the movie and they have a brief appearance in the opening sequence of this show, but this is the first time they're even mentioned in the episode itself, which is a bit late to introduce a critical plot element if you ask me! Chirpa points out that the wind would just blow them all into the flames, but Izrina, through Logray, says that the Wisties will guide their paths. So, Wicket and the other kids set off on their gliders.

Wicket: Dangar, Ewoks! Here we go!

In a quick easily-missed shot, various kinds of Endor wildlife we haven't even seen before are shown fleeing the flames as the Ewoks fly overhead, Wisties hovering around them. The Ewoks start throwing down the bags of foam and putting out fires all over the forest. Watching the young ones on their gliders, Chirpa comments to Bozzie about how they might have been too harsh on the boys before, but Bozzie refuses to agree. Wow. Chirpa starts instructing the other Ewoks to use the path the young ones have made through the fire to protect the Soul Trees, at which point Bozzie's demeanour changes completely out of worry for those sacred trees. Right, I see... very judgemental of others but also deeply religious... we all know of a Bozzie or two.

The Ewoks fly over the flames on their gliders, dropping foam bombs

One of the Wisties starts chittering at Paploo and gesturing downwards. Paploo, of course, doesn't seem to be able to understand her words, but he doesn't need to - he looks down and sees a group of still-flaming Wisties continuing to set trees alight. He douses them with the foam, and the Wistie gives him a little kiss on the cheek. Wicket jokes to Kneesaa that the Elders can't tell them off for playing Drop-the-Sack this time. You know, because they're literally dropping sacks to solve this problem... everything is connected.

But Kneesaa points something out to Wicket - Aunt Bozzie, on the ground, way too close to the flames, trying to stop them spreading to her Soul Tree by throwing dirt on them ineffectually. The animalistic way in which she bends down and shovels at the dirt really serves as a reminder that these Ewok characters aren't just humans in costumes. Wicket throws a foam bag down, dousing the flames and also soaking Bozzie, who starts to rant at him again, until she realises he's saved her tree, at which point she switches to enthusiastically complimenting him!

Morag, looking out over the forest from the cliff, congratulates Logray on his victory. To herself, of course - we've still not seen them meet in person. She swears she will have her revenge, and then a swarm of Wisties fly past and drop one of the foam bags on her, as a playful little joke on her. It would be understandable if they had wanted to do something much worse to her, given everything she's done!

Then... it starts raining. I can't tell if this just makes most of the efforts to put out the fire moot, or if it's some magical consequence of what they've done, considering the earlier screams of the trees and the clear nature-to-Ewok connection they've got going on here. Logray's reaction is "Thank the Spirit Tree", which could go either way, although Wicket and Kneesaa do start chanting "We saved the trees!" as they dance around with each other happily. Then Bozzie thanks Wicket for saving her tree - he goes to give her a handshake but she picks him up and gives him a big kiss on the cheek instead, leaving Wicket stunned and exclaiming "Ee chee wa wa!"

OK, this show is so much better than I expected! Corny made-up words aside, I loved the plot and the characterisation, and the animation wasn't bad either. And we all know Star Wars spin-offs can be, and already had been, so much worse. I do wish we'd actually gotten to see any interaction at all between Morag and Logray, because right now their apparent rivalry is just something we're told and not shown, but I assume they got to that in further episodes.