The Towani family is preparing to leave the third moon of Endor. But as Jeremitt is making final repairs to the spacecraft, a band of armed marauders attacks the Ewok village. The Ewoks are either herded into primitive vehicles or killed. Mace puts up a valiant fight, but he and his mother are both killed in the attack. Cindel runs back to find her father being held prisoner by more marauders and a witch named Charal who appears to be human. Jeremitt buys enough time for Cindel to escape, but he too is killed. Cindel and Wicket are captured and thrown into a wagon with the surviving Ewoks. They both manage to escape, but they must outrun marauders and brave some indigenous predators as well. They finally befriend a strange, fast-moving creature called Teek, who leads them to an isolated house deep in the woods. The house belongs to an old man named Noa, whose two-man exploration ship crash-landed on the Ewoks’ moon back in the heyday of the Empire, stranding him ever since. Cindel and Wicket stay with Noa and Teek for a few days, but Cindel is kidnapped by Charal. Charal’s master, the marauder king Terak, has stolen a power cell from the Towanis’ ship. He can’t figure out how to use the object’s “magic,” and has instructed the witch to capture the one remaining person who knows anything about it. If Cindel can’t give Terak the answers he wants to hear, she, Charal and all of the captured Ewoks will die. Noa, Wicket and Teek set out to rescue her…but even once all of the Ewoks are set free, they’re hardly any match for Terak’s army. When it is revealed that Noa’s ship is still intact, and lacks only the power cell from the Towanis’ ship to escape, the already high stakes are raised even further.
screenplay by Ken Wheat and Jim Wheat
story by George Lucas
directed by Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat
music by Peter BernsteinCast: Wilford Brimley (Noa), Warwick Davis (Wicket), Aubree Miller (Cindel Towani), Sian Phillips (Charal), Carel Struycken (Terak), Niki Botelho (Teek), Paul Gleason (Jeremitt Towani), Eric Walker (Mace Towani), Marianne Horne (Young witch), Daniel Frishman (Deej), Tony Cox (Willy), Pam Grizz (Shodu), Roger Johnson (Lieutenant), Michael Pritchard (Card player #2), Johnny Weissmuller Jr. (Card player #2), Malumba Anderson
(Marauder), Tom Calabrese (Marauder), Scott Cooper (Marauder), Scott Cowan (Marauder), Dan Cunningham (Marauder), Charles Davis (Marauder), Mike Dito (Marauder), Scott Ferry (Marauder), Michael Franti (Marauder), Andre Keys (Marauder), Jerry Keys (Marauder), Jerry Martin (Marauder), Brendan Reitz (Marauder), Marques Strane (Marauder), Peter Thiebeaux (Marauder), Bill Tilman (Marauder), Dawn Abbey (Ewok), Anthony Bagnarol (Ewok), Mary Henning (Ewok), Bethany Jewett (Ewok), Michael Lipsky (Ewok), Steve Morgan (Ewok), Matthew Roloff (Ewok), Irving Scible Jr. (Ewok), Judi Weaver (Ewok), Darryl Henriques, Sydney Walker, Kevin Pollack, Ken Grantham, Mark Dodson, Rick Cimino (Ewok and Marauder voices)
Notes: Blurrgs, a beast of burden featured more prominently in The Mandalorian, are first seen here in stop-motion form.
LogBook entry by Earl Green