How Yoda Became an Action Star 769
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.'"
Well ... (Score:1, Insightful)
I was dissapointed that he didn't just kill dooku on the spot...A tie is not a win. Oh well.
why is this so difficult. (Score:3, Insightful)
Everyone knows he used the force
evryone I know who watched the movie enjoyed that scene the most. Just to see him spiraling through the air. then pick up his walking stick and limp away. To be honest I think the transformation was reasonable. There is always that cartoony effect that you get with CGI. that you dont get by using a puppet. Real hair real shadows, real intigration with the scene.
Still should have been better (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, having Yoda kick ass was cool.
But he didn't have to do it by spinning around at 3600RPM.
Yoda is supposed to be relaxed and smug. He should have overwhelmed Dooku with -skill- instead of just being four times faster, with no moment of inertia. That scene would have been twice as good if the big Y had stayed upright, and parried and feinted like a madman. No need for backflips.
You've got the right vision... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Lucas, Lucas... (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, i have to agree with that, Lucas is a complete moron. Always was and always will be.
He completely disregarded all the background the fans had created for the various characters in the movie ( for example Boba Fetts story ) and managed to ruin things once again.
Not to mention the whole film was PACKED with CG. I mean, ok, sure, CG are nice and helpfull, but for god's sake, do use some real actors and scenert at some point. Every signle thing in the movie was CG'ed. I dont know, it just didnt feel like the StarWars people loved and respected anymore.
As for the duel scene, it was a complete disaster IMHO. Many people in the theatre laughed and laughed after it, when Yoda grabbed his stick to help him walk. Sure, Yoda uses the force blah blah blah, but dont make the duel act as a comic relief.
We await for Episode III - Lucas Epic Disaster.
Sadly Undignified (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Still should have been better (Score:5, Insightful)
And don't get me started on how Yoda should have simply force-shoved Kenobi and Skywalker out of the way of that pillar, rather than stop the pillar itself. Soooo lame.
Speaking of Vader, am I the only one who was really let down by the 30-second battle between Anakin and Dooku? I mean, this kid is destined to be the Jedi, yet this scene lacked any real tension. Even the last Darth Maul fight in E-1 was better!
Re: Sadly Undignified (Score:2, Insightful)
> Anyway - that's how Yoda should have fought. He should have been slow, graceful and easily dispatched his enemies using only the force.
Yeah, but how many action figures would he sell that way?
> Lastly, the reason Yoda and Boba Fett were awesome characters in the original trilogy was because they were mysterious - unknown pasts, unknown barely hinted-at abilities under the surface. Lucas destroyed their mystique by making them full fleshed-out characters in AOTC.
Kind of like his inspiring "explanation" of The Force in E1, eh?
The Jedi are an order of knights... (Score:3, Insightful)
That said, Yoda is more in touch with the light side of the force than all of them. When he is a peace it flows through him and he can do wonders. I personally thought that he should just have "relaxed" and start tossing Doku around like a rag doll when he wipped out the light saber. It is peace that has always been Yoda's ally not violence. I think the Yoda we see in AOTC is more rash and youthful himself. He is arrogant and still has a lesson to learn.
Where's the hero's journey? (Score:2, Insightful)
It's only fair to note that the article concludes that it was cool for Yoda to do this, after all:
But, boy, were they wrong: The scene has played like gangbusters, and Yoda is by far the most popular character in the new film (as a recent EW.com poll confirms). He even became the star of the ads, which dropped romantic-lead costars Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen for him.
But I think this points out the bigger flaw with the movie: that a mentor character becomes, with ease, more popular than the supposed heroes.
I think the writing and direction were the root cause of this.
This article:
http://nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/st
was really spot on. All about the missing rogue character.
Lucas talks all about Joseph Campbell's mythology structure, which focuses on the hero's journey. But somehow, in the last two movies, Lucas has managed to avoid giving us any heroes we could enjoy watching.
Sure, he has given us a couple characters who we at least like, but that doesn't mean they're heroes who we root for all the way along, and who we grow *with*. The most recent two movies are more of a series of events than heroes' journeys.
fexter, ashintaro.com [ashintaro.com]
i hope this isnt redundant but... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Appalled? (Score:4, Insightful)
Damn straight. Imagine him fighting with an economy of motion and energy. Defeating enemies by using their movement against them; parrying their attack by using their attack against them; using the subtlest shift in weight to completely alter a situation to his advantage.
It'd have been a thing of beauty.
Re:Dignity? (Score:2, Insightful)
Suspension of disbelief (Score:5, Insightful)
One nice touch I noticed is that Yoda grabs his cane afterward and we are left to ponder the fact that this guy just moved like lightning in his fight, but has difficultly with the act of walking. It strikes you that he was exerting the Force on himself to move himself through the air and engage in battle. It makes a definitive statement about his ability.
I didn't have trouble with this. I feel sorry for those who couldn't enter that world and experience it full-force. Pity.
--Rick
Re:Credibility lost (Score:3, Insightful)
You didn't notice that Natalie Portman had a twin nipple-on in the cockpit scene on Tatoonie. Who'd have thought it was that cold in the desert? :)
(No, I wasn't deliberately looking out for it, but it was one of those things that once you'd noticed it, you couldn't stop noticing it.)
So, Episode II would have been better if... (Score:5, Insightful)
During this battle, there is much groaning, pantomiming, and grimacing (except for Yoda, who has only two expressions: "furrow brows" and "lower ears." That's okay though, because PUPPETS GOOD.) Then, at the end, when there is a big flash of light (all done with squibs), Dooku says "You never could beat me, Egg Shen."
Yeah, that totally would have been worth my five bucks.
(Oh, and bring back Mr. Perfect, Irvin "Empire Strikes Back, Robocop II, SeaQuest DSV" Kershner to direct, because that man can do no wrong. Just watch that Amazing Stories episode "Hell Toupee.")
Please, take off the rose-colored glasses. The special effects technology of Star Wars has always, always, always been a work in progress. Watch the difference in space battles, and the lightsaber battles, between Episodes IV-VI. They make a quantum leap in sophistication, complexity, and speed.
That's because FX technology was, and is, always developing. This expectation that CG is somehow infallibe, and all its imagery should somehow be perfect and consistent, is rubbish. There's probably a very good reason there wasn't a CGI Yoda in Episode I -- and he will probably look much better in Episode III -- just like everything else.
Star Wars has always been about pushing the technological envelope as far as it will go. Sometimes it works. Sometimes they drop the ball. This has not changed since 1977. Look at any of the movies and you will find places where the special effects are truly great, and places where they stink on ice. Why all of a sudden this warrants another "George Lucas sucks" troll of a story is beyond me.
Star wars fans now == trekkies (Score:5, Insightful)
I am reminded of a Saturday Night Live sketch starring William Shatner, in which he is pelted with inane questions from feverish trekkies about "What was the combination to the lock in Episode 17?" Shatner tries to explain that it was just a prop, and there wasn't really a lock and therefore no combination at all, and the trekkies just stare without comprehension.
You are those fuckwits now. And yes, that means you too, you butt-munch, who are even now preparing a reply that goes something like "But Ep1 and Ep2 really were betrayals." Yes, you are the fuckwits.
Re:Suspension of disbelief (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Appalled? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, sort of. The Chinese concept of chi is a fairly internal one, whereas the idea of the force is very external. Chi powers have more to do with manipulating energy in one's body, and force powers have more to do with manipulating energy outside of one's body (not that the force isn't inside of people as well, but it's by virtue of being all-pervasive).
Well, this isn't so idiotic. There are chinese styles that are very, very jumping-heavy. From what I understand, there are some northern styles where a fighting person spends more time in the air then on the ground. (This is supposed to be derived from fighting on ice, where the air is actually a more stable place than the ground is.)
That being said, I heard a story (from someone who witnessed it) about a 60-something year old black dragon gung fu practicioner who drank gin from the bottle, smoked cigars about 1" in diameter, had a pot belly the side of some people's bodies, and waddled around. Some students insulted him (laughed at how fat he was, I believe) and by way of demonstration, after informing them of what he was going to do, he jumped upso that his waste was around the height of their shoulders or heads, kicked one in the shoulder and before he hit the ground had spun around and kicked the other one in the side of the leg. The students both hit the ground at approximately the same time.
So maybe there's more to the idea of a master jumping around at really high speeds than you realize. :-)
Well, I thought that (1) it wasn't his energy - it was the force, so that there was an unlimited supply of it and (2) he was moving around to attack from different positions. After all, it's not like he jumped up and waited to land again before attacking. His saber was spinning around saw-tooth fashion while he was jumping, and I recall Dooku having to block it more than once while yoda's feet were not on the ground.
Given that Yoda probably couldn't even reach Dooku's chest with his light saber, how did you want him to fight? By constantly attacking Dooku's ankles? Do remember that in traditional sword fighting a longer reach count's for quite a lot - and Dooku's arms were something like twice as long as Yoda's, if not more. Yoda would have been severely outmatched just by that, had he stayed relatively motionless on the ground. By jumping around, Yoda was able to attack Dooku near his head.
That being said, he didn't seem to be doing much in the way of deflecting Dooku's saber and attacking a more vulnerable spot, which happens a lot in real fencing. That was a bit dissapointing. That and yoda not winning. It's not like Dooku wasn't expendible.
Re:Best scene? Not saying much... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, I really do believe that a large part of the reason that yoda was jumping around so much was that his opponent was so damn tall in comparison to him. After all, he had to jump several feet to be at the same height as dooku's shoulders. I doubt that it would have been a wonderfully effective strategy to launch an all-out attack on dooku's shins.
Not to mention that if yoda stands still, all of his attacks are coming from roughly the same place because of how small he is. The only way that he can meaningfully attack from different places is by moving.
Here, try this thought experiment. Pantomine fighting someone who is slightly taller than your knee for about 30 seconds. Now do the same thing in reverse - pantomime fighitng someone whose knee is only a little lower than your head (for about 30 seconds). Now do 30 seconds as the tall guy again.
Have you noticed that no matter what attack you tried as the small guy, as the big guy you could block it mostly by waving your sword back and forth (occasionally lifting horizontally to block a downward slash)? Notice that it doesn't take much movement and is entirely within your range of easy (and hence fast and strong) movements?
How do you want yoda to beat someone when he can't get them into a weak position? Especially considering that Dooku probably had force-strength as well, so sheer overpowering him probably wouldn't be successful?
Re:I believe its called democratic republic... (Score:3, Insightful)
That's the kind of thing that makes me want to scream! It all happened "a long time ago"---It's supposed to be a fairy tale! And why is it moraly wrong to have a universe in which it is necessary to be born great to be great? I'll tell you why: Because it contradicts the American Dream. And that's the reason that I want to scream out loud. I am NOT american, and to anyone like me it feels like an assault of the mind to be made to believe that americans have seen the light and everyone else has not! (I will now go and eat som fruit to raise my bloodsugar).
/Adam Lett
Re:I believe its called democratic republic... (Score:2, Insightful)
If people cannot even suspend their disbelief
for a FICTIONAL STORY, and allow for the fact
that people a LONG TIME AGO in a FAR-AWAY galaxy
could have different belief systems, one wonders
if tolerance of cultural differences is at
all possible in our world.