Today is the 2nd Annual World Ewok Appreciation Day. Founded in 2013 by Steve Nixon (UK Reporter for Star Wars Action News), the holiday is a celebration of those furry little fellas that helped the Rebel Alliance throw off the shackles of the Galactic Empire once and for all. Sure, Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian and Nien Freaking Nunb had something to do with it, but without the Ewoks helping out on Endor, none of that would have mattered.
It’s become fashionable among geeks to dismiss the Ewoks, saying they’re the “beginning of the end,” as George Lucas took his formerly super legitimate and grown-up story and kiddified it. To that, I say banthashit. Either looking at it as Star Wars always having been family-friendly, or as the Ewoks as bloodthirsty, armor-cracking cannibals, that argument is invalid.
More importantly, there are a lot of us out there who were alive and watching movies in 1983 who still fricking love the Ewoks. I’m one of them. I got the Kenner Ewok Village for Christmas that year, and it was really the last time I was excited about getting a toy before entering the dark ages of adolescence. I played with it out in the wilds of my backyard among the trees. Going hiking in lush forests, I still think of Wicket and Chief Chirpa and Teebo and Logray and Paploo and all my other Ewok pals. There’s something about the Ewoks that made me suspend disbelief more than Greedo or Jabba or other alien characters in the classic trilogy, and something more real and tangible about them than the entirely CGI aliens of the prequels. I love the Ewoks.
There are several ways to celebrate World Ewok Appreciation Day: you can worship a golden protocol droid, you can spit-roast a smuggler, you could built elaborate boobytraps out of logs. For me, I built a small LEGO scene, and I’m planning on watching “Return of the Jedi” with my kids later tonight. I’ve been following Steve Nixon’s Twitter feed, and the hashtag #YubNub. He’s live-tweeting “Return of the Jedi” right now, and looking back through his timeline is a celebration of the recently maligned, but fondly remembered little furballs that have been part of Star Wars for three decades.
In case you needed one more reminder of why so many of us love the Ewoks? Look at that little guy. He loves you. Happy World Ewok Appreciation to all, and to all a good yub nub.