Like Vader, Yoda is one of the most popular characters in cinematic history.
But despite this, very little is actually known about him…
If he’s even a ‘he’…
At some point, everyone’s tried and failed to impersonate Yoda…
In this video, we are going to take a brief look at Yoda’s creation, the character’s
history, as well as other interesting facts…
So let’s begin…
1.
FREEBORN BASED YODA ON HIS OWN APPEARANCE A popular misconception is that Yoda is a
Muppet, based on the involvement of Frank Oz, but he was actually designed by Stuart
Freeborn.
When Freeborn was handed the task of designing Yoda, he started by looking in the mirror.
According to Freeborn, the only part of Yoda that wasn’t based on himself was the upper
lip.
For this part, Freeborn studied pictures of Albert Einstein, without a moustache.
The addition of this detail was meant to trigger a subconscious association with Einstein’s
intelligence and wisdom, thus making Yoda appear wise before he even spoke a word in
his lovable, broken English.
It’s a good thing that Yoda ended up with green skin, because the pink version looks
like this…
“SCREAM” 2.
HE’S ONE OF STAR WARS’ GREATEST MYSTERIES Yoda is an incredibly popular character, so
it’s hard to believe that very little is known about his backstory.
Even Lucas himself has said in the past that he doesn’t know much about Yoda, and that
he intends to keep it like that, as a way of protecting the mystery.
No one even knows what species he belongs to or what planet he originally came from.
Still, we don’t know what plans Disney may have for Yoda, now that Lucas is out of the
picture.
Finally, we do know that Yaddle, the female version of Yoda seen in the Phantom Menace,
is of the same species as Yoda.
It’s shame they never hooked up… 3.
GEORGE LUCAS COULDN’T DECIDE ON HIS NAME Did you know that this video could have been
called 10 interesting facts about Buffy?
It seems blasphemous and silly now, and no doubt Weird Al Yankovich’s song “Yoda”
would have made less sense, but George Lucas originally intended to go with Buffy, instead
of Yoda, for a name.
That is, until The Empire Strikes Back screenwriter, Leigh Brackett, changed the name to Minch
Yoda in her first draft, which was thankfully, again, changed, this time dropping the “Minch,”,
which is a name more fitting for some high school loser in a movie, rather than an ancient
and wise Jedi Master.
4.
EARTHLY EQUIVALENT YODA’S SPEECH HAS You would be forgiven for thinking that Yoda’s
broken speech was due to him spending too much time drinking ale in the cantina.
Well, that might explain why he looks like a career alcoholic.
But did you know that Yoda’s strange language has an earthly counterpart…
Scientists believe that Object Subject Verb languages, such as the one that Yoda employs,
are what all human languages evolved from, some 50,000 years ago.
According to researches, Object Subject Verb order is the way that kids learn to talk,
and is actually prevalent in more than half of the 2,000 modern languages here on Earth.
Like Yoda, the reason why languages end up switching the object subject order, is a mystery.
5.
GEORGE LUCAS REALLY DIDN’T WANT FRANK OZ AS YODA
Like David Prowse who played Vader, Lucas never actually intended to use Frank Oz’s
voice in the final movie.
When Oz sent Lucas a tape of his planned voice for Yoda, Lucas rejected it, going so far
as to reportedly audition other actors…
But eventually, George Lucas came around and let Oz perform the voice.
Once Oz’s voice was locked, Lucas did a complete 180, claiming that Oz’s performance
was so good that it deserved an Oscar.
Despite spending thousands of dollars on an Oscar campaign to get Oz nominated for Best
Supporting Actor, the Academy didn’t go along with it, as they felt that the puppeteer
was technically not an actor.
“Mmm..assholes they are!”
6.
YODA WAS ONLY MEANT TO APPEAR IN THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
George Lucas has definitely had some bad ideas when it comes to Star Wars.
One of these was that he initially wanted Yoda to train Luke, and then disappear into
the Dagobah fog, never to be seen again.
Those plans changed during the pre-production of Return of the Jedi when a child psychologist
advised Lucas that it needed to be clearer that Vader was Luke’s father; otherwise
audience members under the age of 12 would think that he was lying.
So basically Yoda came back in Return of the Jedi to confirm the truth.
7.
YODA WAS EXACTLY 900 YEARS OLD WHEN HE DIED You’d think that George Lucas would want
to make Yoda’s age at the time of his death, a less even number, like 891?
Maybe they initially put down 900 as a placeholder, to be revised in the future, but it somehow
crept its way into canon.
You see, Yoda was born in 896 BBY (before the battle of Yavin, that is) and died in
4 ABY, making him exactly 900 years old when he died.
Too bad Yoda, you were just 100 years off a millennium…
8.
YODA WAS ALMOST A SMURF…
AND A MONKEY
Original concept art of Yoda shows him as a blue man with pointy feet, a white beard,
and a silly hat.
Though thankfully Yoda never turned out like this in the movies, in The Empire Strikes
Back novelization, as well as the Marvel Comics adaptation of the movie, Yoda is depicted
as being blue.
Whether the writers never got the memo that he was being changed to green, or whether
they just ran out of green ink remains unclear.
But the alternative was even worse….
George Lucas intended Yoda to be played by an actual monkey with a cane, wearing a latex
mask.
Lucas went as far as to bring the monkey and the trainer on set.
Monkey Yoda basically would have been an early Jar Jar Binks.
Thankfully, those involved in the film realized that monkey Yoda was a terrible idea, and
Frank Oz and Muppet Yoda were brought in.
9.
YODA ALMOST DELAYED THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY George Lucas has stated that Yoda is one of
the reasons why he originally put off making the first trilogy.
According to Lucas, he didn’t believe that there was any way to make Yoda realistic without
using CGI.
Luckily that problem was eventually solved with an animatronic muppet and some clever
camera work...
And while Star Wars forever revolutionized cinema, as well as special effects, Lucas
has always maintained that he has never been happy with the puppet version of Yoda.
“Cheer up George”
10.
YODA EMBRACED HIS DARK SIDE You would think that Yoda was the most faraway
thing from the dark side of the Force.
But Just like Luke, Yoda too was put to the test in the cave.
In the Clone Wars, Yoda confronts his personal dark side in the form of a vile little imp,
not too different from Tolkien’s Gollum.
Like Luke, Yoda chooses to battle his doppelganger, but quickly learns that he cannot defeat it
with the force of strength or will.
Instead Yoda chooses to embrace his dark side nature.
Note that embrace does not mean he used the dark side…
Anyway, by accepting his dark side Yoda heals and transforms it.
So that’s it, those are 10 facts about our little green friend.
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