Hollywood is a business and, as such, works to make as much
money as possible. One way that the
money is made is through franchises.
People will go see things that they recognize out of nostalgia for the
previous installment. Look at the
theater experience now. There’s not a
week that goes by without some franchise releasing a new installment. Deadpool
2 came out last week, continuing the journey of Wade Wilson while also
showing more of the X-Men lore that
has existed on viewing screens since 2000.
This week saw the release of Solo,
the newest in the forty year old Star
Wars franchise. That brings us to
this week’s movie.
The Ewok Adventure,
also known as Caravan of Courage: An Ewok
Adventure, was a television movie that aired on ABC in 1984. It followed Wicket (Warwick Davis), returning
from Return of the Jedi, as he helped
Mace Towani (Eric Walker) and Cindel Towani (Aubree Miller) travel across Endor
to save their parents from the evil Gorax.
They put together a band of Ewoks and caravanned to the cave of the
Gorax to fight it.
One of the most interesting things about The Ewok Adventure is that it is not
even be part of the Star Wars
cinematic canon anymore. When Disney
bought out the rights to Star Wars
and started producing the newer movies, they deemed that the extended universe
was no longer part of the lore. Only the
theatrical movies and The Clone Wars
television show from before the 2014 clean slate counted as part of the
continuity. Everything else was tossed
out, leaving The Ewok Adventure as a
lost part of the Star Wars legacy.
Star Wars is far
from the only franchise in movie history to change continuity in an attempt to
reboot the series while playing true to its roots. Most of the time, this sort of thing happens
in horror films. Many of the examples
that will be brought up will be examples that fit into the horror genre, since
those are the ones that come to mind most easily. Let’s start with Star Wars specifically.
Star Wars
George Lucas’s space adventure franchise began in 1977 with
the release of Star Wars, later
renamed Star Wars: Episode IV - A New
Hope. It was followed by two theatrical
sequels in 1980 and 1983 called The
Empire Strikes Back and Return of the
Jedi, respectively. Those could have
been it, but the galaxy of Star Wars
was expanded through three television movies about Ewoks and Wookies, as well
as a myriad of books chronicling event that weren’t seen on screen. In the books, people got to know the children
of Luke, Han, and Leia. The books dove
deeper into the lives of supporting characters like Wedge Antilles. There was even a history established in the
world of Star Wars. Then there were the theatrical prequels about
Anakin Skywalker’s slide into the dark side, and the Clone Wars stuff.
Disney bought the Star
Wars rights in 2012, and soon announced their plans to put out new
theatrical movies that would, hopefully, go over better than the prequels had. They did.
These new movies didn’t come without some controversy though, notably
when it came to the lore that had been built since the 1970s. Disney threw out all of the lore. They didn’t erase it from existence. The books, television films, and other story
bits were collected into an offshoot called Legends. But they took them out of the canon,
essentially rebooting the franchise so it would be easier to do their own thing
when it came to the new trilogy of movies.
Most of that rebooting worked for the Star Wars movies. Episodes VII and VIII became two of the most successful movies of all time. Rogue
One was an interesting spin-off that brought in new characters, while still
tying nicely into the original trilogy of movies. Star
Wars Rebels was a critically acclaimed television show, and there is a new
universe of books that have been released since 2014, helping to set up the
characters and story beats that people loved about the movies. It was one of the more successful instances
of rebooting part of a franchise to take other parts out of the canon.
Halloween
Halloween has been
rebooted numerous times in big and small ways.
Of course, the most obvious was the third movie, which told a different
story that wasn’t connected to the Michael Myers saga. It told the story of a mask maker who was
using his Halloween masks to cause a mass murder. Then there was the Rob Zombie reboot that
retold the origin of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. But the one most notable to the topic of
erasing lore through a semi-reboot is Halloween:
H20.
After the second Halloween
movie, the story of Laurie and Michael was supposed to be over. John Carpenter wanted the franchise to turn
into an anthology, where each subsequent movie would be a different horror
story that took place around Halloween.
That’s why Season of the Witch
happened. When that didn’t work out, the
producers went back to the Michael Myers well.
Jamie Lee Curtis didn’t come back, so they wrote around that with the
character of Jamie Lloyd. She was
Laurie’s daughter, now living with a foster family after Laurie died in a car
crash. That would be the basis for Halloween 4 through Halloween 6.
Jamie Lee Curtis agreed to come back for the seventh
installment, as a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Halloween’s release. This meant that there had to be a way for her
character to be alive again. That way
was to brush the mythology that the previous three movies had built under the
rug. They were no longer canon. Halloween:
H20 was a sequel to Halloween and
Halloween II, but not any of the
other Halloween installments. It was essentially rebooting the franchise at
the third entry to create a new continuity.
It was a mild success, with Halloween:
H20 being one of the better installments, especially coming off of the
crazy mythology of Halloween 6: The Curse
of Michael Myers. It wouldn’t be the
last time that a horror franchise ignored some of what came before.
The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre
The film that kicked off this franchise came out in 1974 and
told the story of a group of friends who were attacked by a family of
cannibals. The iconic character of
Leatherface helped bring about three sequels, in 1986, 1990, and 1994. Then the franchise went dormant. It wasn’t a long franchise. Other horror franchises at the time had many
more movies in a shorter amount of time.
It was a memorable franchise, however.
The mid-2000s saw a full reboot of the franchise from
Platinum Dunes. That’s not the one
that’s important to this post, though.
What’s important is what came after.
Following the two Platinum Dunes movies, the franchise was half-rebooted
again. This time, it went back to the
continuity of the first movie, but ignored anything that came after. Texas
Chainsaw 3D came out in 2013 as a direct sequel to the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It ignored anything that was done in the
second through fourth installments, and instead only continued from the first
movie. Leatherface came out in 2017 as a prequel to both The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Texas Chainsaw 3D. It was a new continuity for a new generation.
Sleepaway Camp
The Sleepaway Camp
movies are more known for the twist in the original movie than the actual
quality of the slasher fare. That twist
helped garner the attention that created a five movie franchise. The first four movies were all one single
continuity, with the second and third films following Angela after her
transition was completed. The sequels
were more comedic, playing on Angela’s morbid sense of humour.
Rob Hiltzic, the writer/director of the original Sleepaway Camp made his own sequel in
the mid-2000s called Return to Sleepaway
Camp. This sequel retained most of
the original’s tone. It took out the
dark humour that the sequels were known for.
It brought back a bunch of the original performers. Most importantly, it ignored the events of Sleepaway Camp II through Sleepaway Camp IV. It was a direct sequel to the original
without any of the lore that the sequels had put into the franchise. It wasn’t a huge success, having been made in
2003 and released in 2008 to little or no fanfare. It was a return to the roots of the series,
though, which was nice for the people who had come into the franchise with the
first and gone through the different tones that were the sequels.
Those are only four of the franchises that were rebooted
with later installments that picked and chose what parts of the lore to
keep. They would ignore entire works to
try and keep a concise mythology as they moved forward. Most of the time, it happened in horror. Star
Wars was one instance where it was a different genre.
What benefit do these soft reboots give to Hollywood? In the case of Star Wars, it allowed the fans of a new generation to come into the
movies without having to dig into the exhausting extended universe that had
been built up for nearly forty years. It
let Disney create their own extended universe that people would be more likely
to purchase because it was canon. Things
were easier for fans, and more money could be made by the studio. Win win situation.
The Ewok Adventure was
one of the works that was pushed aside in the Disney reboot of the Star Wars franchise. The continuing adventures of Wicket were no
longer canon. They may have entertained
a certain generation of children, but the Caravan
of Courage would be forgotten in future generations. It’s a shame.
This is basically what the Star Wars Story spin-off films are doing,
only with different characters. Maybe
there will be a remake in the future?
Who knows?
Now let’s get to some notes:
- This post saw mentions of Halloween 6 (week 48) and the Sleepaway Camp franchise (week 150).
- Tony Cox played one of the Ewoks in The Ewok Adventure. He was previously in Date Movie (week 164) and Mom and Dad Save the World (week 186).
- Wicket was played by Warwick Davis, who also played the leprechaun in Leprechaun in the Hood (week 120) and Leprechaun Back 2 Tha Hood (week 120).
- Finally, Debbie Lee Carrington was in The Ewok Adventure. She made other appearances in Tiptoes (week 28), Howard the Duck (week 75), and Mom and Dad Save the World (week 186).
- Have you seen The Ewok Adventure? What did you think of it? What do you think of reboots that don’t reboot the whole series, but instead just remove some from continuity? What others did I miss? Let me know in the comments.
- The comments can also be used to suggest movies for me to watch in future Sunday “Bad” Movies weeks. Twitter can be used for that, too.
- Sometimes when I watch bad movies, I share clips of them on my Snapchat (jurassicgriffin). If that sounds like something you want to see, add me.
- Next week is another week of the Sunday “Bad” Movies. What I mean by that is that I’ll be checking out another bad movie. This time, I’m going into the horror genre once again to check out a serviceable yet lackluster film called Intruder. I have no idea what I’ll write about it yet. Keep your eyes open in seven days’ time as a post will be coming your way.
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