Warwick Davis: Return Of The Ewok

Good memories have a habit of reintroducing themselves from the deepest realms of the subconscious at a time when their mere existence serves only to remind you of how sparse and irregular they become as life goes on. A recently uncovered photograph of my bedroom, taken when I was much younger, only brought back how sweet, innocent and simple life was before ‘Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace’.

Happy looking, content Star Wars figures lay on the floor, the odd dog chewed Stormtrooper here, a Jawa there. Then, the terrible summer of ’99 came and with it, the childhood admiration that existed within a generation was tarnished, buggered and sent to CGI hell for all eternity.

It’s been really hard to give a shiny sixpence about anything Star Wars related in the last decade. All three movies were awful and the less said about the animated adventures the better. Lucas & Spielberg have squeezed the franchise for all that its worth. I am not for a moment trying to suggest that Star Wars was never designed to make money, but the endless re-releases and special editions soon became less than essential purchases. In short, I stopped caring. Not even a showing of the ‘Holiday Special’ a few Christmases ago could spurn a resurgence of my interest (Not least of all because it was horrible).

If they had simply included ‘Return of the Ewok’, starring Warwick Davis on any of these DVD’s, it would have made a million dateless wonders very, very happy indeed.

This half hour documentary style film is a fictionalised account of Warwick Davis’ acquisition of the role of ‘Wicket’. It features all of the main characters, hamming it up marvellously as they jump from the fictional Star Wars universe to grey old England.

An ominous talent scout gets the young Warwick to dress up like an Ewok and sends him on his way to find his brethren. In this mini adventure, he encounters everyone from Yoda to Vader. The outcome of this tongue in cheek mini movie is a delight and a joy to see. As an Ewok, he searches for his place amongst the cast members, trying to find where he is supposed to be on the shoot. This masks (unsubtly) a few other issues which I won’t insult you by spelling out.

Set during the filming of ‘Revenge of the Jedi’ (A far more awesome name), you can see the actors having fun with it all, the solemnity and piety of the recent travesties (I-III, Pthoooey) it really did remind me of the pleasure without irritating association that Star Wars used to represent.

This has been the best Star Wars related item that I have come across in a very long time and will most certainly be played to unsuspecting visitors and inopportune times throughout the coming months. It’s just a damn shame that it’s always followed up by the realisation of what a great franchise has now become.

PS: I prefer The Battle For Endor and Caravan Of Courage to any of the last three Star Wars movies. That’s how much they suck.
PPS: Am I really writing about Star Wars? How did this happen? This is a new low for me. I think I will actually have to spend the rest of the day hammering short nails into my thighs in repentance. Or I might just re-watch Battle for Endor.

PPS: Warwick Davis was a member of a video store that I once worked in.
Christ, I’m a nerd aren’t I? I really thought I wasn’t for so long, but I guess there’s no denying it now.

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