Mr Khan said:
Not hard, actually. The Ewoks were what Jar Jar Binks should have been: minimalist comic relief. The grand difference between the Ewoks and Binks was that, not knowing what they were saying, they were reduced to pure physical comedy on a point, much like what has made R2D2 so endearing across all 6 films. Binks' antics were funny, but because he never shut the hell up, his experience came off as very grating overall. In the case of the Ewoks it was also more inspiring to see their primitive technology overcome the mechanical might of the Empire, again to compare it to the Gungans who just had "different" technology that wasn't entirely primitive If Binks had been, for all intents and purposes, "silent" like the Ewoks and Chewbacca, i would bet that Phantom Menace would get 50% less hate than it does |
I agree with a lot of that, but I think the general consensus is that the Ewoks completely clowned the Empire. I know George Lucas has massive boner for the Viet Cong and all, but the Rebel Alliance already fulfilled that role quite nicely. The Ewoks seem like a bridge too far, especially when they only exist for merchandising purposes (like a lot of the revisions to the ROTJ script). The original plan was to use Wookiees, and I think that would have been far preferable. Wookiees could have credibly defeated the Empire in guerilla warfare. A bunch of teddy bears, not so much.
