It's not the worst, but it's certainly close. I bought the Double Feature DVD, and... to my horror... It was one of the worst movies I have ever seen(yes... even Direct to TV movies).
It is very slowly paced, which only degrades the storytelling because it is a good story once you RETELL it in another medium, this slow pacing makes the movie seem to have almost no noticeable conflict in objectives and obstacles, it has vague character definition and you barely get involved with the characters, acting is as bad as it can get: When Cindel faints in a scene it seems like she just turned her head down so the director could yell cut; in another scene, Mace yells at some of the Ewoks, he screams at them, but the camera keeps rolling for seconds with the ewoks standing there doing nothing, which made him look less menacing (also badly paced).
The casting was surely to blame for the bad acting performances. With the exception of wicket (Warwick Davis).
The only upside may be the visual effects of 1985, which were not cheap, but not too expensive either. I checked out the DVD on my 27" TV and my PC monitor... the transfer is so incredibly pristine, it looks even sharper than other recent PAN&SCAN titles (and I mean recent). I'm guessing some enhancement was done, but not any I could notice (again, this is just a guess). The compression of the DVD is also the best I've ever seen (Attack of the Clones being in first place, Jurassic Park pan&scan being the last).
On the Other hand, the sound is strangely low, you have to turn up the volume various times during the movie, I do not know why, but I doubt it's from the source.
The technical aspects of the movie are very respectable, but the pacing and acting were completely overlooked at the time of production. The story is good (it would make a great kid's book), but the magic of film editing didn't do it's magic here.
It is very slowly paced, which only degrades the storytelling because it is a good story once you RETELL it in another medium, this slow pacing makes the movie seem to have almost no noticeable conflict in objectives and obstacles, it has vague character definition and you barely get involved with the characters, acting is as bad as it can get: When Cindel faints in a scene it seems like she just turned her head down so the director could yell cut; in another scene, Mace yells at some of the Ewoks, he screams at them, but the camera keeps rolling for seconds with the ewoks standing there doing nothing, which made him look less menacing (also badly paced).
The casting was surely to blame for the bad acting performances. With the exception of wicket (Warwick Davis).
The only upside may be the visual effects of 1985, which were not cheap, but not too expensive either. I checked out the DVD on my 27" TV and my PC monitor... the transfer is so incredibly pristine, it looks even sharper than other recent PAN&SCAN titles (and I mean recent). I'm guessing some enhancement was done, but not any I could notice (again, this is just a guess). The compression of the DVD is also the best I've ever seen (Attack of the Clones being in first place, Jurassic Park pan&scan being the last).
On the Other hand, the sound is strangely low, you have to turn up the volume various times during the movie, I do not know why, but I doubt it's from the source.
The technical aspects of the movie are very respectable, but the pacing and acting were completely overlooked at the time of production. The story is good (it would make a great kid's book), but the magic of film editing didn't do it's magic here.