Caravan of Courage at 40: A story of kindness leaves a mark

As much as I love Star Wars, it was not much of a part of my childhood. I saw the original trilogy one long Saturday when I was thirteen and was hooked as soon as Darth Vader arrived on the screen. But I had the luck to first meet the Ewoks in the 1985 film Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. However, I had never seen Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure until recently. With the film turning 40 this year, let's look back on it with an adult fan's appreciation for childlike wonder.

Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure is a delight for new fans 40 years later

The message I remember from The Battle of Endor is that bravery is important, but you don't have to be brave on your own. I gleaned the same meaning from Caravan of Courage and love it. The story is by George Lucas, so it feels a bit like a bedtime story for his kids in the same way that J.R.R. Tolkien put his kids to bed with the adventures of Bilbo Baggins.

I recently spent an afternoon with young nieces and a nephew and introduced them to the adventures of Kai Brightstar, Lys Solay, and Nubs with a couple of Young Jedi Adventures episodes. I wanted to share a show that I loved but also give them stories that would be a safe space for their juvenile inexperience with Star Wars. The stories of Cindel and Mace Towani feel like they filled a similar need for people who weren't yet ready for the casual brutality of the Emperor or the internal struggles of Luke Skywalker.

We get to reunite with some of the Ewoks, like Wicket, who first appeared a year earlier in Episode VI:  Return of the Jedi, and it's delightful to see them in a more day-to-day storyline. I can't help thinking that, since this is canonically set before the Battle of Endor, Wicket sympathetically cuddles up to Han Solo during C-3PO's storytelling because he's comforted someone in peril before. He doesn't speak Basic to Leia Organa because she's not tiny and blonde, so he might not recognize her as the same type of human. There are many opportunities for theorizing.

The Ewoks are the title characters but not necessarily the protagonists. I love that Cindel succeeds in breaking through some of the language barriers, but I also appreciate how children and their parents all model a caring family unit. It's particularly touching to see Mace care for his sister when she falls ill, and while he has made several missteps along the way, his perseverance lets him have a role in the final battle. In fact, that character development makes the story even more relatable for young audiences who couldn't imagine themselves playing a heroic part.

Perhaps most effective is the use of a narrator. The legendary Burl Ives comments on the entire thing as though we're watching a National Geographic wildlife special and this gives an impression that everything about this meeting of species is a natural part of life on the Endor moon.

40 years later, Caravan of Courage holds up, and it made a new fan in me.

Caravan of Courage and its sequel can be enjoyed on Disney+.