Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi: Early Care Bears Inspired Ewok Design Sketches W/Reference Photos
Name/Title
Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi: Early Care Bears Inspired Ewok Design Sketches W/Reference PhotosEntry/Object ID
AWJ8Description
29 sheets, primarily of onion paper, featuring original pencil drawings of Ewok character designs for Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (20th Century Fox, 1983). The Ewoks depicted in these drawings are strikingly cuter than how they ultimately appeared in the film. These designs were drawn by Joe Johnston and Rio Phior after George Lucas specifically directed them to re-design the Ewoks to be "cuter," and more like the Care Bears. Photocopy reference photos of the Care Bears and other "cute" animal mascot characters from SeaWorld, such as Pete & Penny Penguin, Dolly Dolphin, and Virgil Pelican, are also included. In the second episode of the second season of the Disney+ docuseries Light & Magic about ILM, Johnston interviews Lucas and Lucas reminds him of this very direction. Lucas says: "You came to me and you gave me your design for the Ewok. And I said, 'No, no, no, no... Dare to be cute. Make them cuter. Make them little teddy bears.' And you went, 'Ugh,' and you rolled your eyes and sort of slumped out of the office. Y'know, I'm trying to appeal to a very large group and the group really consists primarily of 12-year-olds." Other documents included are four copies of storyboard pages for Ewok sequences in the film and an internal Lucasfilm memo regarding the presentation specs for the Ewok designs. Some of the original onion paper drawings have been cut out and pasted on regular-sized sheets of paper.Type of Print
Work on PaperArtwork Details
Medium
PrintSubject
Star WarsCategory
Art