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How Yoda Became an Action Star
fexter writes: "This article at Entertainment Weekly talks about Yoda's transformation from a puppet to a completely-CG character, and talks about the animators' horror at Lucas' transformation of Yoda: 'When Coleman and crew first saw them, they were appalled. They thought it was unseemly and undignified for Yoda to bounce through the fight like a Superball loose in a toy store.'"
Finally, you understand that Yoda, although frail physically, has the ability to channel the Force in ways that no other Jedi can, at least as far as we have seen.
I don't think that the fight was in any way a detriment to the character, it actually just enhances his mystique. Besides, the irony of him finishing up bouncing off the walls, only to pick up his cane and hobble around again was priceless.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
In TPM and ATC the jedi fight like samuri. Back with the original trilogy the jedi seemed to me to fight like duelers (mukateers or something), and even then their movements were slower, as if each jedi put a lot of thought into each single move. Watch the new ones, it's a bunch of flashing light and people jumping up and down. The Yoda thing is just the epitome of that. I saw ATM via a download, so maybe someone could clear this up. Did Yoda give Dookie that "bring it on" hand gesture that Neo did in the Matrix? Looked like it to me. It was sad.
His lightsabre is shorter, so Yoda *has* to be four times faster.
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That's the feeling I left with at least. Makes you realize how the destruction
of the Jedi Council must have left him old and alone.
(Dagobah Yoda) vs. His top of his form Council Leader persona.
...when it gets down to fundamentals, do what you have to do and shed no tears. Dr. Matson in Tunnel in the Sky
This Start Wars CG stuff is crap. Did you see some of those graphics? Taking a bite of CG fruit from 3 inches way? Gimme a break.
I say bring back scale models! Watch the old movies. See how the X-Wings look real? That's because they are! How about that AT-AT or "Chicken-Walker"? They looked great, too. They're just small, but hell, WE can't tell.
Yoda as a CG didn't look as real (shaddows and debth looked off), the vehicles, cities, characters, monsters, animals... everything CG looked horrible, except maybe for the light-sabers and lasers.
Wait, I take it back: R2-D2 and C3P0 looked good... oh yeah, they were real! My bad.
I would love it if Lucus, for Epesode III, tossed the CG and brought back the models, rubber masks, and puppets.
If Slashdot is where the spelling-challenged go when they die, I'm in heaven.
Uhm, don't you think that being 4x faster than your opponent is skill?
I'd rather fight someone who is fighting "upright, and parr[ying] and feint[ing] like a madman" than a cracked out superball spinning around like a guided battle-axe. Just the opinion of an old tournament fighter, though. What Yoda did, takes more skill. Period. You can spin around all you want, and a lot of amatuer fighters do it. The trick is to be able to do it well and make it hard to defend. If done well, and fast, it throws your opponent off to defend and if they fail to defend, you get more power. Assuming you aren't doing focused strikes.. which is a whole different story.
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
I see the Yoda scene as an expedient solution to problem. I knew Yoda was going to "throw-down" in AOTC, and I wondered how they'd do it. No matter what I pictured in my head it didn't look right, and the animators had to do it on the screen. The solution Lucas came up with seems to be: make him move so fast you can't look at him while he's fighting. Part of me wants to call it it a cop out, but personally I think it works.
It also sort of bothers me when adults complain about Jar-Jar and now CG Yoda. We all saw the original trilogy for the first time when we were younger than we are now. I don't know about you, but I accepted the Ewoks then, and in subsequent viewings I've accepted them (for better or worse) as part of Star Wars package. Attempting impartiality, I don't think they are any better than Jar Jar or CG Yoda.
George Lucas himself, confronted by the fact that the Death Star explosion (and other explosions in a vacuum) shouldn't make a boom said something like: "A lot of people have a lot of money invested in this movie, and when something blows up they expect there to be a boom, so I give them a boom."
Science fiction can be heavy on the science or heavy on the fiction. I think it's clear which side of that fence George Lucas has chosen: you can either go to the show, suspend your disbelief, and be entertained. Or you stay home. But I don't think anyone should expect the prequel movies to become to them now, what the original trilogy was to them starting nearly 25 years ago.
This was the most interesting part of the article for me:
At first, anxious to demonstrate CG's full photorealistic power, the animators took Yoda far beyond his crude former self, having his mouth form full phonemes and moving his body around faster. They also ironed out all the wrinkles: No more jiggly ears or shaky arms or broadly pantomimed walks. But these initial results ''looked creepy,'' says Coleman. ''It looked like a little green man. It wasn't Yoda.''
So they ''dirtied up'' the animation, aping all of Yoda's limitations. When original puppeteer (and voicer) Frank Oz saw the footage, he freaked. ''He said, 'You're even matching my mistakes! Those ear wiggles -- you've got to get those out!''' But Coleman, and especially Lucas, vetoed Oz's request, arguing that the evident puppet-ness of Yoda is in fact what audiences remember best about him, and they still expect it.
They were right. I was impressed by the fact that Yoda still moved like he used to, and didn't suddenly have overarticulated lips. I also noticed his ears trembling occasionally as his head moved. This was essential to selling us on the CGI.
I much prefer the more organic look of puppetry and stop-motion to some of the poorly done CGI in the last couple SW movies (and the "Special Edition" of the 1st trilogy). Two examples: In Star Wars: SE there was a lot of crap that was supposed to "enhance" Mos Eisley, including a Stormtrooper (I think) falling off of a beast he was riding. It looked stupid and fake. In ATC, there was the Sound of Music scene where CGI Anakin fell off of his giant snail, or whatever the hell that thing was. Also incredibly fake. Clue to Lucas: put REAL people on horses, or even on big stuffed models of the creatures you're portraying (like the Taun-Tauns in Empire), and film them falling off. Looks much better.
"the crew... thought it was unseemly and undignified for Yoda to bounce through the fight like a Superball loose in a toy store. ''They thought, My God, this is never going to work."
I admit I thought the same the first time i saw Pat Morita playing ol' Miyagi, but he turned out all right too.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Its alot harder to move Jedi/Sith around with the force than it is mundane objects.
And saying that size doesnt matter is relative: the amount of effort yoda had to put into stopping the attack is commesurate with the amount of energy that dooku put into it, perhaps compounded with the possible death of the jedi beneath it- he was being careful: and perhaps precient:
He may have wanted to let tyrannous get away, knowing that the master was his true quarry, and that dooku was not the master...
Might be the first "scientically accurate" sound fx in the entire Star Wars universe. ;-)
I can't be the only one who remembers Yoda beating R2D2 with a stick and stealing Luke's candybar. I can think of many reasons that the recent Star Wars movies are no good, but this one doesn't fly.
I think he was straining because Dooku was at that point trying to slam it down. Once Dooku turns and leaves, Yoda just heaves it aside. The problem I have is that none of them use the Force to DO anything. Like in the first movie, at the beginning. Oooh, droids with shields. PICK THEM UP AND POINT THEM AT ONE ANOTHER!
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In that case, you have no dark Jedi, but you still have guys running around with weapons with destructive power enough to destroy entire planets. It seems to me that the balance of power is radically in favor of the light-side Jedi. Force powers have only a marginal impact on one's ability to seize power, or destroy order. Drone armies and Death Stars are really a lot more useful than the ability to choke someone with your mind when you're trying to keep a galactic empire under your heel. On the other hand, true Jedis have an enormous impact, because without them to pull off miraculous stuff like hitting that exhaust port, the forces of evil would clobber the forces of good, because good is dumb.
The truth is that Lucas needed her to have a different job in Episode II so that she could fly around from planet to planet and people could try to kill her and Anakin would be forced to protect her and the two of them could have their cheezy dysfunctional romance.
Lucas made a big deal in Episode II about Amidala being the "former Queen" of Naboo. He rubbed our noses in the fact that she "served her term and then the new queen appointed her to be a senator". No mention of this weird system of government was ever made in Episode I.
Lucas had however received quite a bit of criticism about the morality of the Star Wars universe after Episode I came out. Episode I made things look like the universe was one in which the only way to be great was to be born great. Young girls were born into monarchy and being given authority based on their royal birth alone (not just "Queen Amidala" but also "Princess Leia"). The Jedi were all genetically superior (high midiclorian counts). The Force was only strong for Luke Skywalker because he was the son of Darth Vader, not because he was our lonely hero. And the annoying kid Anakin was born by some kind of Immaculate Conception. Lucas altered things in Episode II deliberately to change those perceptions.
This is all despite the fact that the word "queen" in the English language by definition means a woman who marries a king or a woman who is the daughter of the previous king and inherits the throne.
My other first post is car post.
As a martial artist, I think there is more than a little truth in this; if anything what is inaccurate is to say that the students do this half-consciously. Nobody wants to see a venerated old teacher hurt. You don't gain face by slamming a small elderly man to the mat, because it doesn't prove anything except that you have execrable manners.
On the other hand, if you are participating in a demonstration, you can only challenge such a teacher if you are willing to get seriously hurt. If a renowned teacher is publicly demonstrating a joint lock on you, and you have a counter, you had better be damned sure its going to work because it's generally accepted that the teacher is justified by responding to such a challenge by breaking your wrist. Rank hath its privileges. So, if you are getting joint locked, you go to the mat the fastest way you can, and if that is jumping headfirst into a somersault, that's what you do. The alternative is to get hurt (which is bad) or to hurt the venerable teacher (which is worse).
The public gets a little deceived, I guess, but they really aren't ready to understand the art. In reality, most flashy demonstrations are much less impressive than they appear. When real skill is shown, it is either to fast, too subtle or to strange to be comprehensible.
There are also cases where teachers have essentially hypnotized students. Demonstrations of Kong Jing -- which is supposed to be a lot like The Force -- fall into this category. The Aikido examples aren't like this; they're just the students doing what they are supposed to be doing in the course of a demonstration.
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