Yesterday we passed along
this news that the animated
Star Wars: Ewoks series was officially announced for DVD release on
11/23, with a price of $14.98 SRP.
At the time, we told you that we didn't know yet what the contents would be, but that with a price that low it was fairly certain not to contain all 35 episodes from both seasons. Well, we were more right than we knew!
Not only is this release not going to be a season set, it's merely a pair of "features" that are made up of various episodes of the show. Here are selected portions of the press release:
...DVD includes two feature-length titles, which include "THE HAUNTED VILLAGE," "TALES FROM THE ENDOR WOODS"...
"STAR WARS ANIMATED ADVENTURES: EWOKS" -- Two animated Ewok features recount the years before the Battle of Endor. Here Wicket is a young Ewok struggling to achieve maturity in his community. This leads to a series of adventures with his friends: Princess Kneessa, heir to the chieftain, Latara, the aspiring musician, and Teebo, the animal empath. Together, they help the adults protect the village from their enemies like Morag the Tulga Witch and their rival species, the Duloks.
The combined running time on this DVD is 177 minutes. The VHS release of
Ewoks: The Haunted Village ran 90 minutes, and consisted of the first few episodes of the series, so we expect that portion of the DVD to reproduce the 1997 VHS effort. The story was written by none other than Paul Dini, now famous for his work on
Batman: The Animated Series among others. In these episodes, a witch named Morag threatened the Ewoks and their friends the Firefolk elves. "The Haunted Village" is actually the name of the second episode of the series, and part of an arc of stories that Dini wrote to kick of the show. Dini continued to be heavily involved throughout the run of the series.
"Tales From Endor Woods" seems to be based on another VHS release that ran about 87 minutes, and seemed to also be made up of a group of episodes. Fox hasn't released enough information for us to know which precise episodes are represented on the DVD. Expect around 7 episodes - give or take - to contribute to this release.
Here's the cover art again, for anyone who missed it:
