The Clone Wars series might be over for good this time, but there is another. Disney Gallery/Star Wars: The Mandalorian is a documentary series that breaks down various aspects of the production of The Mandalorian. It airs one episode a week on Disney+, with the latest covering the practical effects that go into creating a Star Wars story. Naturally, that included a section on the creation of The Child, better known as Baby Yoda.
According to showrunner Jon Favreau, he had this initial imagery in his head of big ears and big eyes. This bled into the creation of Baby Yoda, who of course had to have big ears to match his predecessor. Favereau wanted the puppet to be able to express emotion and be endearing without the need for facial expression, placing that duty on how the eyes and ears moved.
As things go with production, several concept drawings of Baby Yoda were drawn up before the puppet was made. Favreau says that “some of them were too cute, some of them were too ugly, and some of them were the wrong proportions.” As he said this, several pieces of concept art flashed on the screen.
Viewers were probably spared the worst of the concepts, as there’s one real head-scratcher. That would be the one at the top of this article. Still, the show gives a decent glimpse at some of the Baby Yodas that could have been. It also gives a sense of just how much work went into making Disney’s latest merchandising machine.
Eventually a concept was decided on, but that wasn’t the end. Favreau goes on to describe the difficulty in translating the adorable drawing into a working puppet. “Once we had that, then they started to do maquettes of that,” he said. “But the maquette wasn’t cute… That’s when the people from Legacy came in. That’s really when it became the baby.”
After that, we see the puppet in action on set. We also learn that the Legacy team spent about three months finalizing the puppet. We also see just how complex it is, requiring about four puppeteers to be fully functional. This includes separate controllers dedicated to just mouth, ears, eyes, and hands.
All the time and work seems to have paid off, however, as Baby Yoda was a sensation upon Mandalorian’s season one run. The actors also loved him, with many noting that they felt their performance was more authentic because they felt as though they were interacting with a real creature. Now all we can do is wait for a second helping of the little guy when The Mandalorian comes back in October for season 2.
Source: Disney, IGN
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