Yeah, I think 'Battle For Endor' (2nd Ewok film) was aimed at older kids than in Caravan Of Courage - especially given what happens in the first few minutes in BFE!
The Ewok cartoon? Seemed a bit too 'Care Bears' for me.
Was more of a 'Star Wars: Droids' man myself
Plus it had Boba Fett in an episode, Kybo Ren!, music by Stewart Copeland, and people from Star Wars like Ben Burtt & Joe Johnston worked on it.
It also had R2D2 playing the guitar...
Is it at all possible that the 1980s post-RotJ Star Wars content for kids was just low-effort cash grabs?
Just putting the thought out there. After all, Star Wars fandom dropped off pretty quickly after the movies until it was rekindled with novels, computer games and Lego in the early-mid 90s.
Yeah, you're probably right mate. IIRC the Ewok films were meant to be a dry run for Willow - there was at one point meant to be a third Ewok film, but they were seemingly getting more expensive to make... and George apparently thought he was ready for Willow after BFE.
The two animated series helped shift a lot of merch and toys at the time too - which is something George was prioritising / focusing on a little more after Empire Strikes Back.
The 2003 Clone Wars happened because George liked Genndy Tartakovsky style and content in his other work - and was looking into ways of building upon the whole Star Wars series a little more (which we got with the later Clone Wars film, series and then Rebels etc).
Until the news of the 1997 Special Editions and news of the Prequels... fandom was making do with games and EU content like Shadows Of The Empire, Dark Empire and Thrawn books, as you say.
It's cool that fans get to see this out-of-print content again
(and that it cuts off the rip-off merchants on ebay etc) - though a little shame Lucasfilm didn't put more effort into them now. HD is ok, but the Ewok films could've easily be shown in 4K - or from a new scan from the prints. Both the mid-80's animated series were produced by Nelvana on film - so the quality could have been a lot better here too. 'The Story of the Faithful Wookiee' content is in the same quality as it was as a hidden easter egg on the 2011 blu ray - though as it was the only part of the Holiday Special shot on film... could have been in better quality on Disney+ as well.
(I think that's enough moaning on from me)
