Ewoks: The Battle for Endor

Cindel Towani and Wicket Wystri Warrick are depicted gathering wildflowers in the woods on the forest moon of Endor. They arrive at an edge that overlooks her father, Jeremitt, who is finalizing repairs on the star cruiser. She shouts to him that she and Wicket are heading back to the village. As they continue their walk, Cindel and Wicket talk about her upcoming departure, and how this makes them both sad. As they get closer to the village, Wicket senses danger, and the two rush to see what's happening.

Upon reaching the village, they witness the Sanyassan Marauders launching an attack. A Sanyassan armed with a staff immediately knocks them down a hill, and they find cover behind a Sanyassan cart that has been overturned. Wicket instructs Cindel to remain there as he chooses to assist the other Ewoks in defending their village. Cindel's life monitor indicates that her mother, Catarine's, life is ending, leading her to investigate. The marauder shoots a bordok. She discovers her brother, Mace, beside their deceased mother. He urges her to stay back and seek help from their father. He attempts to resist the Sanyassans, but is killed when a hut he is hiding in explodes. During the fight, the Ewoks are eventually captured and many of their huts are destroyed by fire.

Jeremitt is approached at the Towani star cruiser by Charal (a Nightsister) and Terak (the leader of the Sanyassans). As they demand that he give them "the power," Terak's men tear apart the ship trying to find it. Jeremitt insists that he doesn't know what they're talking about and doesn't have what they are looking for, but one of Terak's men eventually finds what they are looking for. Cindel then reaches the ship, and Jeremitt attacks one of the men when he sees her. He attempts to escape, but is shot in the back by one of the Sanyassans. He picks Cindel up and they run into the forest. In the meantime, Charal uses her ring to turn into a raven.

While hiding at the base of a tree, Cindel informs her father of the deaths of Catarine and Mace. Jeremitt explains their situation by reminding her of a story about a young bird learning to fly. He instructs her to seek out Deej and the Ewoks so that they can take care of her. She resists at first, but he hugs her and reassures her that he will always be with her. He sees Charal in raven form, who has alerted the Sanyassans. This prompts him to tell Cindel to run away, which she does as instructed. Jeremitt exchanges fire with the Sanyassans, but is soon killed. As Cindel runs away, Charal flies after and catches her.

Cindel finds herself imprisoned with the Ewoks in the captured Ewok village, yet she is gladdened by her reunion with Wicket. They are being held in carts being pulled by blurrgs, which then leave the village. Cindel tells Wicket about the death of her family, but Wicket assures her that he will take care of her and that the Ewoks are her new family. Some of the Ewoks tear a board out from the floor, but discover that they are too big to fit through.

Despite this challenge, Cindel insists that she and Wicket could fit, so they slide on through and escape into the forest. However, two of the Sanyassans spot them, and shoot and chase after them. Cindel and Wicket climb up the side of a mountain, with the Sanyassans on their trail. They run into a cave. The Sanyassans shoot at the cave entrance, which causes rocks to fall and knock them off of the side of the mountain to their deaths.

Cindel and Wicket realize that although they are safe from the Sanyassans, they are also trapped from the rock collapse. Wicket insists that they can find a way out. They walk through the cave until they find themselves at an opening atop a ledge overlooking the forest. Wicket then finds some materials to build a skin glider. Later, after they have built a fire, Wicket is almost finished with the glider.

As he searches the cave for some final materials to put the finishing touches on the glider, he runs across a condor dragon. He runs from it and tries to hold it off with a spear and a rock. Cindel also throws a torch at it. However, this does not deter it, and it picks up Cindel and carries her away into the night sky. Wicket panics, but quickly gets on his glider and chases after it. He drops a stone on its head, which causes it to drop Cindel. He flies down and catches her, and then crashes the glider into the ground. They see the dragon overhead, which prompts them to run into the forest. When they stop, Wicket sees the dragon fly away, and tells Cindel that she is safe. They find a hollow tree trunk to rest in for the night.

The following morning, they are awakened by Teek, an incredibly swift creature who irritates Wicket but amuses Cindel. Wicket attempts to attack him, but Cindel insists he could help them. Teek guides them to a house, which they find to be messy and full of junk. Cindel assumes that it is deserted, and suggests that they clean it up and make it their house.

Later, however, as they are preparing to eat, the house's owner Noa arrives at the door. He is very displeased with them being there, and sends them away. He then scolds Teek for letting them in. Cindel and Wicket sit down not far from the house, where they discuss how hungry they are. Noa finds the food they were making, and prepares he and Teek some of the food. Noa tells Teek not to give any of the food to Cindel or Wicket, but he does anyway while Noa isn't looking.

Outside, Cindel and Wicket start a fire, which is soon extinguished by an angry Noa with a bucket of water. He invites them in to stay for the night. During the night, Cindel dreams that the Sanyassans attack the house. She wakes up calling for Wicket, and Noa reassures her and lets her and Wicket sleep in his bed instead of himself. The next morning, Noa tells Wicket that it's time for them to leave, insisting that they must have family somewhere worried about them. Wicket asks Cindel if they are leaving, saying that his family needs him. She wonders where they are, and he says they will find them.

At Terak's castle, Charal bows before Terak's throne, trying to perform a ritual on the power supply that they stole from the Towani star cruiser. Terak is frustrated, wondering if the power supply really is "the power" they were looking for, to which she suggests that it is. He tells her that she either "discover its magic or die." She then says things would have been easier if he wouldn't have let "that child" (Cindel) escape. Terak becomes infuriated and repeatedly screams at her to "Find me that child!"

Returning to the forest, Noa arrives at his dwelling, presuming Cindel and Wicket have departed. He feigns contentment at their absence, attempting to dismiss the fact that he had prepared two beds. At that moment, Cindel and Wicket reappear, presenting him with the flowers they've gathered. That evening, they create pies using the flowers, and Noa tucks Cindel and Wicket into the beds he had made for them. The following morning, before he departs, Noa assigns Cindel and Wicket a set of daily chores. Cindel is curious about Noa's daily whereabouts and convinces Wicket that they should follow him. They follow him to a ship, where they get caught in a booby trap. This sets off an alarm, which alerts Noa. He gets very upset with them, and frees them while explaining that he doesn't even allow Teek to come there.

Inside the ship, Cindel asks Noa how he got to Endor. He explains that when he was a young man, he and his friend Salak were on their first mission together when their ship crashed on Endor. The crystal oscillator was shattered in the crash, so Salak went in search for another one while Noa stayed behind. Salak never returned, so Noa ended up stranded there. That night, Noa plays his flute and they all make music, until Wicket accidentally hits a steam cap that bounces around the room. Cindel sits in Noa's lap, and bonds with Noa over the fact that they both have lost people close to them. She sings him "My Star," a song that her mother used to sing to her. Outside, meanwhile, Charal (in raven form) has tracked Cindel down.

The next morning, Cindel hears a voice calling for her that she thinks is her mother. She starts trying to follow the voice to its source in the forest. Wicket realizes that Cindel is gone, and wakes Noa up by throwing a bucket of water on him. Wicket senses danger, and he and Noa also hear the mysterious voice, which is by now singing "My Star." In the forest, Cindel finds a woman dressed all in white, with a white horse by her side. Cindel approaches the woman, who asks her to get her robe. The woman then reveals her true form to be Charal, who kidnaps her and rides away on her black horse. Noa and Wicket see the horse carrying Cindel away, so they quickly return to Noa's house, where he gets weapons and supplies. As they leave, Teek follows them.

Meanwhile, Charal rides back to Terak's castle, where she presents Cindel to Terak. She demands to know what he has done to the Ewoks, to which he insists they are his guests. He promises not to hurt the Ewoks as long as she can make the power supply work. He asks her to perform her magic, but she says she knows nothing about magic. He gives her until dawn to do what he asks, or else they are "doomed." Before they are taken to their cells, Terak takes away Charal's ring. Meanwhile, not far away, Noa, Wicket and Teek approach the castle. Back in the castle, Charal tries to get information out of Cindel, who again says that she doesn't know anything, and insists that it's only a component of the star cruiser. Charal then reveals that Salak came to her long ago looking for "the power," and that Terak killed him for it.

Noa, Wicket and Teek reach the castle's moat, and use a grappling hook to climb to the top. Teek easily climbs the rope, where he secures the grappling hook for the other two. Wicket climbs up second, and is nearly attacked by a moat monster. Noa then prepares to climb up, but is spotted by a Sanyassan. Wicket ties one end of the rope to the Sanyassan and throws him into the moat, which acts as a pulley, causing Noa to instantly be pulled up to safety.

They descend into the castle, where the Sanyassans are drinking and laughing. Wicket realizes where the Ewoks are located, and tells the others. Teek sneaks into the main room, where he grabs a cloak. He, Noa and Wicket then walk through the main room pretending to be a robed figure. They reach the imprisoned Ewoks, but need a key to unlock the cages. The keys are located near a pair of card-playing Sanyassans, so Teek plays a trick on them. He inserts a card into one of their sleeves, which eventually falls out and causes the other to accuse him of cheating. The two instantly draw their guns and shoot each other. Meanwhile, Teek takes the keys. They use the keys to free Cindel and the Ewoks. Charal also begs to be freed, but Cindel protests and throws the keys into a drain.

Noa, Cindel, Wicket, Teek and the Ewoks try to make their way out of the castle, but run into a Sanyassan guard, whom Wicket shoots in the leg. They run the other way, but the guards alert the rest of the castle of their escape, who proceed to look for the escapees. Meanwhile, Noa uses a proton grenade to blow a hole in the castle wall. Wicket tries to hold the Sanyassans off by shooting a few with a blaster. Noa throws a grappling hook over to a rock, which allows them to escape from the castle.

Before they leave, Cindel points out Salak's skeleton and explains what happened to Noa. She also shows him the power converter, which he takes with them at Charal's protest. They all finish escaping, with the Sanyassans shooting at them. Inside the castle, Terak threatens to kill Charal, but she tells him that there is another ship. He gives her ring back, and she turns into a raven. He then takes her ring back, leaving her in raven form. As the humans and Ewoks make their way back to the village, the Sanyassans prepare for an attack. They too then head for the village, with Charal flying ahead of them.

Everyone reaches the village at nearly the same time. Noa tells the Ewoks to defend against the Sanyassans while he gets his ship ready. He then installs the power converter into the ship, but has trouble getting it to work. Meanwhile, the Ewoks prepare to fight. They fight the Sanyassan army with a combination of their own techniques and ingenuity, combined with use of Noa's catapult. The Sanyassans eventually reach the ship, and start attacking it. Noa finally gets the power going, and he, along with Teek and an Ewok, use to turrets to defend against the Sanyassans.

Cindel initially watches the battle from one of the ship's monitors, but eventually ventures out to help Wicket. Terak captures her, and has the Ewoks tell Noa he will trade Cindel for the power supply. Noa confronts Terak, and they engage in a duel, with Terak using his sword and Noa using his walking stick. Cindel urges Wicket to "do something," and he uses his sling to shoot a rock at the ring hanging around Terak's chest, which causes him to turn to ash. Charal, who is still trapped in her raven form, flies away.

With the Sanyassans defeated and Noa's ship now operational, Cindel and Noa say goodbye to Teek and the Ewoks. Teek is sad to see Noa go and the two embrace. Cindel also speaks with Wicket and Teek, promising to visit them again. Before leaving, she hugs Wicket. The two humans then climb aboard the ship, which flies away. Teek and Wicket, who are now friends, watch as the ship blasts off into the atmosphere.

Following the success of Caravan of Courage, George Lucas decided that he wanted to create a second film. He hired Jim and Ken Wheat as directors for the film after they told him that they thought Caravan of Courage had been flawed and disappointing. Lucas then met with the Wheat brothers in two four-hour story conferences. The brothers first proposed to him a story involving the entire Towani family. However, Lucas had viewed the film Heidi with his daughter Amanda prior to the sessions, and told the Wheat brothers that he wanted the film to center around the young girl character of Cindel Towani, who would be orphaned and come into the care of an old man in the woods. Drawing inspiration from various adventure films they had enjoyed during their childhood, the Wheat brothers proposed the Marauders as the antagonists, with Lucas suggesting that they be seven feet in height. Joe Johnston and Phil Tippett participated in the second story conference. Although the Wheat brothers were initially employed solely as directors, the original script was deemed inadequate, leading to their assignment as screenwriters as well.

The filming process was conducted with utmost secrecy. Throughout the production phase, Lucas made three weekly visits to the set, frequently examining the art and costume designs. He would communicate his evaluations of the designs using a collection of rubber stamps created for him by Johnston, bearing the words "Great," "CBB" (could be better), and "86," respectively. According to Ken Wheat, Lucas's involvement was mainly in pre-production and editing: "He'd given almost no notes on the script at all, but after our first cut, he came up with an assortment of new scenes and shots for us to film and cut in. Apparently, that's the way he likes to work, and although we hadn't been tipped off in advance, producer Tom Smith had scheduled and budgeted this 'George Factor' from the beginning." Warwick Davis shared his filming schedule with Starlog magazine: "I did seven weeks from May 11 and then I went back to England. Two weeks later, I did a few more weeks." […] "We did quite a lot of location stuff in the Redwoods around San Rafael and then we went to ILM to do some of the special FX and most of the indoor scenes inside the cottage and castle." Davis performed several of his own stunts, including parts of the moat scene at Terak's castle. Wilford Brimley was not fond of working with the Wheat brothers, resulting in Joe Johnston directing his scenes.

The movie was first shown as a special holiday program on ABC on November 24, 1985. It came with a warning for parents because it had violence and showed Cindel's family dying, which could be upsetting. The credits at the end went over a still picture from the last scene, but when it was released for home viewing, the credits rolled over a black screen after the last scene. The movie also played on the Disney Channel in 1991.

In a version shown on TV, a scene where Terak jumps out of Noa's bed when Cindel has a nightmare about the Marauders breaking into Noa's house was removed. In this TV version, she wakes up after the men break in. In a home video release, two scenes were deleted: When being chased by Terak's men, Wicket races for Noa's house only to have Noa tell him their only chance is the star cruiser; in the other scene, Terak's men burn down Noa's house. On the DVD release, Cindel's line "Do something, Wicket! Use your sling! You hit the ring!" is instead "Do something, Wicket! Do something!"

In 1986, Random House released The Ring, the Witch, and the Crystal: An Ewok Adventure, a children's book that was based on the movie. Also, Buena Vista Records put out Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, which was a book-and-record that explained some parts of the story that were not clear and sometimes had different words than the movie. The music from the movie was released as an album called Ewoks in 1986. Peter Bernstein, who wrote the music for Caravan of Courage, also wrote the music for The Battle for Endor.

The film was made available on VHS and Laserdisc in 1990 through MGM. On November 23, 2004, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox released the film on DVD. The DVD shows the film in its original 1.33:1 format with English audio in Dolby Digital 2.0 and English subtitles. It was called Star Wars: Ewok Adventures and included both Caravan of Courage and The Battle for Endor. The DVD has two sides, with one film on each side. Eric Walker said he was disappointed that the DVD did not have any extra features.

On March 16, 2021, it was announced on Disney's fan club website D23.com that the movie, along with Caravan of Courage, would be available on Disney+ starting April 2.

In a poll on StarWars.com in 2001, fans voted this movie as their favorite of the two Ewok films.

In late 1985, George Lucas mentioned to Starlog that there were plans for more Ewok movies, and Warwick Davis and Eric Walker both thought that a third movie was being made. However, Lucas later said that they made two movies and were planning a third, but they became too expensive to produce.

During the opening of Celebration IV, the cast of "Star Wars in 30 Minutes" did a skit called "Lucasfilm in Five Minutes 1983–2005." In this skit, they acted out or made fun of parts of all the major Lucasfilm productions from 1983 to 2005. Both Ewok movies were included in this skit. Bonnie Burton listed Noa Briqualon and Teek as #7 on her list of "10 Unlikely Unleashed Figures," but she thought that Teek would be a better figure than Noa. In 2009, StarWars.com celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Ewok films with a series of articles covering various aspects of each.

The movie was labeled as C-canon in the Holocron continuity database. However, Lucasfilm changed its canon system completely after Disney bought the company in 2012, in preparation for the Star Wars sequel trilogy. From April 25, 2014, only the six main movies, the The Clone Wars TV series, and anything made after that would be considered canon.

There has been some debate about where the story fits in the timeline. A timeline in Star Wars Insider shows the Ewok films taking place shortly before Return of the Jedi. The films use a lot of Ewokese, which is the language that Ben Burtt created for the Ewoks. However, in The Battle for Endor, Wicket seems to learn Basic because he spends time with Cindel. This seems to cause a problem with the timeline because in Return of the Jedi, Wicket does not seem to understand Leia Organa's Basic. StarWars.com suggests that Cindel and her family are actually speaking a different language from Basic, and that it was translated into Basic (English) for the benefit of the viewing audience.

In the novel Legacy of the Force: Fury on page 155, Darth Caedus checks on his daughter Allana in a secret part of the Anakin Solo. He finds her asleep while an "entertainment broadcast in which Ewoks spoke Basic and befriended shipwrecked little girls" is playing on a viewscreen. An Abyssin ornament that is seen in Jabba's Palace in Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi is used as an alarm bell holder in Terak's fortress.