Before Jar Jar Binks divided Star Wars fans, there were the Ewoks! The little critters first appeared in the Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi in 1983. In 1985, the Ewoks debuted in an animated series, which included a segment featuring Droids R2D2 and C3PO. The Droids were dropped from the show in 1986. The cute, furry Ewoks translated nicely to Saturday Morning television, alongside the fantasy worlds of the Smurfs, Pac-Man and Q-Bert (I loved Q-Bert). I thought the cartoon versions of the Ewoks were far more appealing than the characters in the film.
In 1986, Star Comics (part of Marvel Comics) debuted an Ewoks comic book. Star Comics also published comics books featuring the Droids, plus other favorites of the time like Thundercats, Fraggle Rock, Muppet Babies, and Peter Porker (a Spiderman spoof with a pig character---please revive this, Disney!).
I have an Ewoks animated series videotape I bought years ago at Big Lots. The problem is that I no longer have a working VCR. I'm pretty sure you can find the series on DVD these days.
Here's a great set of stickers from 1983, and a couple of comic books from 1986. Admit it, they are cute!
If you weren't a fan of the Ewoks from the film, maybe you should give these more animated versions a try.
Hmmmm, I didn't know the Ewoks had their own comic book. Did Jar Jar Binks get a comic book? An animated series? A cereal?
ReplyDeleteHa ha! I know there was a line of Jar Jar Binks merchandise aimed at kids when the first prequel debuted in 1999 (storybooks, etc.) but I think that character was nowhere near as popular as was hoped by Lucasfilm.
ReplyDeleteWow. That brings back memories, even though I didn't read the comic. How? I read Droids, and advertisements for Ewoks were of course always in there. Thanks for the flashback!
ReplyDelete(I also liked seeing Spider-Ham again.)
Hey tomh1138! I never read the Droids comic--I can't remember actually seeing it, but I know I must have. I remember the Droids and Ewoks animated series action figures--never had those, though.
ReplyDeleteI never read Spider-Ham--I think I would have liked it!