Star Wars: 10 Reasons Return Of The Jedi Isn't As Perfect As You Remember
3. Ewoks, Ewoks, Ewoks
Yes, you knew this one was coming. The introduction of Ewoks, the most famously controversial aspect of Return of the Jedi, signalled a fork in the road for Star Wars, as the franchise relaunched itself into a series of kids’ films masquerading as simple family entertainment, turning its back on the dark tones of Empire.
Intended to parallel the Vietnam war, we understood what Lucas was going for when he made a low-tech race take down an evil mechanised regime, using nothing but local knowledge and wits. What we don’t understand, though, is why these had to be tiny cuddly bears who communicated via cutesy gibberish.
Well, actually, we do understand, and the reason is because Lucas knew that Ewoks would sell toys. Sixteen years before unleashing Jar Jar Binks onto the world, the Ewoks demonstrated George’s shift in focus from creating quality cinema to saturating his increasingly kid-friendly franchise with cuddly characters that would look great as a plush or an action figure.
Ultimately, the introduction of Ewoks was the pinnacle of a series of strange directorial choices which solidified Star Wars as a cash-grabbing merchandise machine, deviating it from the high drama established in The Empire Strikes Back.
Top class introducing the Ewoks in the same film as ‘Slave Leia’, though.