Star Wars : Ewoks Ewoks is an animated television series that follows the adventures of the Ewoks of Bright Tree Village prior to the Battle of Endor . The primary recurring villains are Morag the Tulgah Witch and the Ewoks ' rival species the Duloks . Produced by Nelvana on behalf of Lucasfilm Ltd . , " Ewoks " was broadcast on ABC from 1985 to 1986 . The first season was advertised as simply " Ewoks " , and was aired as part of the " Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour " , whereas the second season was advertised as " The All New Ewoks " . Development . " Star Wars " creator George Lucas had long been interested in animation , and had wanted to tell " Star Wars " stories in an animated form . During production of " The Star Wars Holiday Special " in 1978 , director David Acomba showed Lucas a recent film made by Clive A . Smith ' s animation company Nelvana . This convinced Lucas to hire the company to produce the animated segment for that film . Lucas was pleased with their work , and in 1984 , he again hired them to work on the two animated series he was developing , " Droids " and " Ewoks " . These two subjects were chosen because they would appeal to young audiences and because , as the future of the film franchise was uncertain , they would be the least likely characters to conflict with the stories of the feature films . With these two shows , Lucas ( who served as executive producer ) hoped to raise the standards for Saturday morning animation ; he wanted the animation and voice acting to be better than the average animated series of the time . Pre - production began in May of 1984 . During this time , Lucas met with the show ' s producers , directors and writers , who all collaborated on story ideas . Lucas laid out his basic ideas for the series , but wasn ' t involved with day - to - day matters . He wanted the Ewoks ' culture to be based on themes universal to mythology and religion , and suggested the crew read " " and " " . Writer Paul Dini later reflected on these sessions : " In my first meeting with George , one of the things we kept coming back to was that the Ewoks would have a sense of community and continuity . " Though the main characters from the saga films were off - limits , the writers were given almost complete creative freedom to develop the Ewoks beyond " Return of the Jedi " . The crew reimagined the Ewok characters for the animated format , giving each Ewok a unique , distinguishable personality and distinctive features . The stories were often inspired by " " , " " and the stories . For visual reference , Lucasfilm had the crew travel to , a location near Skywalker Ranch where the Endor scenes were filmed for . Writer Bob Carrau recalled the experience : " What was really great for me about " Ewoks " , was that you could walk around in nature ( like when you were camping or something ) and you would come across a pine cone that looked really neat . What [ sic ] was great , because you could go back to the writing table and write a story about it ! " Clive Smith estimated that each hour - long pair of " Droids " and " Ewoks " episodes cost approximately $ 500 , 000 to $ 600 , 000 to produce , making them amongst the more expensive animated series for that time . He later commented on the production : " " Ewoks " wasn ' t as problematic because you could get away with more animal characters . " Droids " had many recognizable humanoid characters which are much harder to do and make look right " . Layout artist Brian Lemay had a different take : " The " Droids " show was much more challenging as it had far more locations and they required perspective drawing which I really enjoy ( a lot more than drawing trees , that ' s for sure ) . [ . . . ] The main difference was the lack of trees in " Droids " . [ . . . ] I guess the other key difference was the lack of emotion in the characters in the " Droids " series . They always seemed to have the same emotion on their faces where as with the " Ewoks " they had lots of emotion , happy , sad , surprised , angry , the whole range . " During production , the American animation team would often play games during down time , and would regularly play practical jokes on each other . For the second season , Lucasfilm moved a majority of the production to their own studios , and thus exherted more direct control over producing the series than Nelvana . Production started on season two in late 1985 . The new executive producers — Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser — suggested making a few changes to the series . Most of the new episodes were shorter in length , and now focused on the core characters of Wicket , Tebbo , Kneesa and Latara , with the other characters either playing lesser roles or written out entirely . Changes were made to better distinguish the Ewoks from one another and to make them more distinctive . Other changes included different voice actors , new music and a new opening which utilized CGI . Denny Delk ( who voiced Wicket in the second season ) commented on the actors ' recording schedule : " We usually completed a story in about an hour and a half , unless there was something especially tricky . We ' d do two or three stories in a day , and record every week or so . " According to Jim Henshaw ( who voiced Wicket in the first season ) , the cast had access to a list of Ewokese words and phrases that they would consult to invigorate their dialogue ; " When there were long speeches of exposition , to get a story rolling or something , we ' d stick in a few more choice phrases – and all of a sudden , we would sound like we really did come from another planet ! " As the episodes were being worked on , rough cuts were screened for Lucas . The first season ' s musical score was created by Patricia Cullen , David Greene and David Shaw , with an opening song by . The second season ' s music was composed by , and had a different opening song in which the Ewoks sing about friendship . The series was under strict broadcast standards , and there were limitations — set by ABC ' s Standards and Practices Board — as to what could be shown or dealt with in the episodes . Dini commented on this in a 2004 interview : " . . . we were dealing with a regime at the network that just wanted safe children ' s programming . Every time we wanted to stretch it a little bit , they would kick up a fuss over it " ; ABC rejected an episode Dini had written called " The Starman " because it was " too Star Warsy " . At one point , Lucasfilm considered making an animated " Ewoks " special in the vein of " The Great Heep " , but opted instead to make " " . Release . " Ewoks " debuted on September 7 , 1985 , and ran against " " and " " . Despite frequent schedule changes and generally low ratings , the series was renewed for a second season in late 1985 . However , ratings did not improve and the series was canceled in 1986 . Writer / producer Paul Dini speculated that , had the series been renewed for a third season , it would have featured more stories about Malani , Asha and the woklings . In the mid 1990s , beginning in 1994 , the ran episodes of the series , along with those of its counterpart , " Droids " , on its " " and " " blocks of programming . Merchandising . In 1984 , Joe Johnston wrote and illustrated " " , an Ewok storybook that introduced many of the elements that would later appear in the series . Also that year , Random House began publishing a series of children ' s books with the subtitle " An Ewok Adventure , " which were meant to tie into both the series and " " . In 1985 , Kenner produced a toy line based on the series , including action figures , ship models , and other items . Also that year , Star Comics , an imprint of Marvel Comics , published a bimonthly " Ewoks " comic , which was based on the animated series . The comic ran for two years , ending with . Like the TV series , this was aimed towards a younger audience . It was produced along with the " " comic , which was based on the " Droids " animated series . Star Comics ' " " was a crossover with " " . An and a were released of the French theme song by Dorothée . After the series finished production , Nelvana sent the majority of pre - production materials to Lucasfilm , who later partnered with the former company Royal Animated Art to sell these materials to private owners . Some were bought by a California business , and some were later given out as part of the . In 2010 , StarWars . com celebrated the 25th anniversary of both " Droids " and " Ewoks " by featuring a series of articles about the collectibles available from each series . The 2013 one - shot comic " " was designed to tie together all the various aspects of Ewok lore . Home video . The series received its first home video release in 1990 when J2 Communications released " The Star Wars Trilogy Animated Collection " . The collection consisted of three VHS tapes ; one tape contained one episode , while the other two tapes contained two episodes each — with one of those repeating the episode from the single - episode tape . Each tape began with a " Star Wars Animated Classics " trailer promoting the " Special Double Length Edition " volumes . However , for the single volume tapes , the white box covers were shown , but differing content was advertised . also released the complete series on Region 2 VHS in the UK . On June 26 , 2002 , prequel trilogy producer Rick McCallum responded to a question about a complete DVD release on StarWars . com ' s now - defunct " Ask the Jedi Council " feature , in which he said " I hope so . Definitely . At some point after we ' re finished with Episode III , we ' d really like to make all of that material available to our fans on DVD . Unfortunately , we won ' t be even thinking of making any firm plans until we ' re finished with this trilogy . " He also expressed this privately to Paul Ens . According to Pablo Hidalgo , a full series release was considered as an alternative to the " " DVDs : " I don ' t know what numbers are run in the mysterious background that decides to say ' You know what ? That doesn ' t look like a product that we can move . ' " At 2005 ' s Celebration III , McCallum and Lucasfilm ' s Vice President of marketing Jim Ward dodged questions about a complete DVD release of the series . At the Celebration VI " StarWars . com and Beyond " panel , it was mentioned that both " Droids " and " Ewoks " may be streamed on StarWars . com in the future . Continuity . The Ewoks in the series speak mostly Basic , mixed with occasional words or phrases of Ewokese . Although this break from continuity is clearly for the convenience of an - based audience , no official in - universe explanation has been provided . It does not appear that Ewok dialogue is translated from Ewokese for viewers , as the episode " Battle for the Sunstar " shows Ewoks communicating with Doctor Raygar and Imperial droids without a translator . In " " , pressing Alt - V and then typing " ovres " will turn on theatre mode , where R2 - D2 , Darth Vader and C - 3PO watch the cutscenes and comment - style . At one point , they imitate Rookie One , saying , " Let ' s see what ' s on the telly . It ' s the Ewoks / Droids cartoon hour ! I loved that show ! Especially that episode where R2 joined that cult . . . and began talking like a hippie . . . " The novel " " also contains a reference to the show : Ben Skywalker takes a deep breath of Dorin ' s helium - rich atmosphere and sings , his voice " as high and ridiculous as that of an animated Ewok in a children ' s broadcast . " The developers of " Star Wars Galaxies " watched the entirety of the " Ewoks " series to prepare for creating Endor in the game .