Yoda
From Muppet Wiki
Yoda is a character from the Star Wars franchise, performed by Frank Oz. The character debuted as a puppet in the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back, with Oz as voice and lead puppeteer and Kathryn Mullen assisting. In the more recent films, the character has been realized using computer animation, based on Oz's pre-recorded tracks.
A popular misconception is that Yoda is a Muppet, based on the involvement of Oz, the character's existence as a puppet, vocal similarity to Grover, and a false assumption that The Jim Henson Company (or even Jim Henson himself) built the character. However, had he been built by Henson, the more realistic Yoda would technically qualify as a creature rather than a Muppet. The Yoda puppet was originally designed and built by Stuart Freeborn for LucasFilm and Industrial Light & Magic.
The creation of Yoda arose entirely independent of Henson, the only real connections being the loan of Oz and one or two other designers/assistants, and a slightly similar technology. Oz explained the character's creation in detail, during a 2000 interview with IGN FilmForce:
| ...Jim [Henson] came to me and said Gary Kurtz, who was co-producer of The Empire Strikes Back, had a character and I think they asked Jim first – but with running a company and everything he couldn't do it, so he recommended me....
From then on, I was the one who kind of put all the elements of Yoda together, and although Jim didn't make Yoda, George [Lucas] and he had an understanding that they would exchange technology information. George would give to Jim and Jim would give some of his people to George to help. Wendy Froud helped out a little bit with the character and two other people from Jim's company worked the cables for me. | 
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Beginning in 2002 with Attack of the Clones, Yoda became a CGI character, the concepts of which Oz was consulted on. The documentary, From Puppets to Pixels features behind-the-scenes footage of George Lucas providing direction to his team of animators regarding how Yoda should move in a fight scene. Having already referred to Yoda as frog-like, Lucas remarks that Yoda is "actually the illegitimate child of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy."
 Frank Oz performing Yoda with assistants Kathy Mullen and Wendy Froud |
 Baby Animal as Yoda |
References
- Baby Animal appears as Yoda in an episode of Muppet Babies, "Muppet Babies: The Next Generation."
- In a Movie Mania segment, various Muppets audition for the role of Yoda.
- He was also spoofed with a Yoda Muppet in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie.
- Crichton refers to Yoda in the "I, E.T." episode of Farscape when the planet the crew lands on reminds him of Dagobah, Yoda's home planet in The Empire Strikes Back.
- In an episode of From the Balcony, Bobo auditions for the part of Yoda in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.
- When asked which classic cinema character he'd like to play in an interview hosted on Amazon.com, Kermit answers that he's suited to play Yoda since he's already small and green.
External Links
- FilmForce Interview with Frank Oz
- Yoda on Wookieepedia, the Star Wars wiki
