Remember Baby Yoda? I do. Even though there hasn’t been a new episode of The Mandalorian since December (or as a corny dad would say, “Last decade”), I think about him about every day. His big ol’ eyes, his love of that shiny ball thing, and his penchant for sipping from his little cup in the most meme-able way possible. Everything about Baby Yoda is great, except for the noises he makes. The cooing is cute and fine, whatever, but why does he sound like a human when he’s giggling? It’s unsettling, like a baby wearing Baby Yoda’s skin instead of a puppet that George Lucas now treats as one of his own.
But according to Oscar-nominated sound editors David Acord and Matthew Wood, who worked on both The Mandalorian and The Rise of Skywalker, Baby Yoda was originally going to sound more animal-like, until creator Jon Favreau decided otherwise.
“I was recording animals at this wildlife rescue outside of San Diego. Two of the animals I recorded had this really cute, almost childlike quality to them. One was a bat-eared fox and one is a kinkajou,” Acord told the Hollywood Reporter about coming up with Baby Yoda’s vocalization. “Then Jon Favreau thought that they needed to be more human-sounding or something a little more relatable. We dialed way back on the animal part, and now that’s just there for little grunts and coos and purring. We used some real baby vocals for when [Baby Yoda] gets really fussy and that kind of thing.”
Oh well, at least we still have the Tusken Raiders sounding like donkeys.
(Via the Hollywood Reporter)
