Last weekend the Emmys were broadcasted in a creative way through a semi – virtual ceremony. For those who are not familiar with the Emmys, it is a reward show that focuses and recognizes excellence in the television industry. There was no red carpet entrance, no pre-show, and no live audience, and that’s okay! The show included plenty of quarantine jokes and included the most important part, the nominations and winners for this year. Out of all the nominations mentioned, the one that stood out the most was the one and only child, also known as Baby Yoda. The Child became super popular at the end of the year 2019 and continued into 2020.
The Big Win!
The Mandalorian had 15 nominations and took home 7 awards. In the category of Outstanding Special Visual Effects, there were 6 nominations including the Mandalorian! The contenders were, Lost In Space, Stranger Things, Watchmen, Westworld. The little guy takes home a win for Disney +. Hopefully, in the second season, there will be more screen time for him. Baby Yoda is just one of those characters that easily brighten my day.
About the Child
Baby Yoda is first introduced as wanted by a client to be captured dead or alive. The job was handed to a bounty hunter known as “the Mandalorian”. However, there was an assassin bot that was dispatched to kill Baby Yoda. When his face was revealed he had a small green body, with a big head and ears, and big dark coloured eyes. Needless to say, he was adorable. Believe it or not, you would not guess his age, but he is 50 years old. Fortunately, the Mandalorian doesn’t have the heart to eliminate the child but instead wants the best for it and to protect it. He develops feelings of care and love towards Baby Yoda and tries to give him up for a normal life at a village but realizes it was unsafe. The child eventually unleashes some of his potential powers that include telekinesis. However, due to his young age, he is limited in his power and can easily be worn out. Overall, there is a lot of backstory of the Child to unravel: where did he come from and what species is he? We know he looks like the original Yoda but we know that there are not many of Yoda’s species out there.
Jon Favreau is an executive producer on the show and he mentions that he was inspired by George Lucas for the lone wolf and cub theme. He didn’t want to be exactly like the past Star Wars films so he drew ideas from samurai movies.
What’s the Big Craze?
When Baby Yoda first debuted at the end of 2019, he drew many people towards the show. Even people, like myself, were drawn to the cuteness of Baby Yoda. Viewers who watched the show all had one thing in common, everyone loved the child. He took social media by storm and it’s all thanks to his cuteness. Individuals were drawn to almost anything it, he did, from when he ate a frog, to drinking bone broth, to playing around in the ship. They already believe that the Child would be a huge hit, and that prevented the creators from making merchandise to prevent the leak of the big reveal. It took months and fans waited patiently for the merchandise to be released. In Canada, Build – a – Bear had a contract with Disney and was able to produce The Child stuffed toy and it was sold out within seconds. I would know because I was on the website to purchase one myself. However, with the shipping and the exchange rate, the entire product ended up costing an arm and a leg. So I decided against it. Despite its cost, it was very cute. There are many artists that are drawing The Child or recreating it in some way. Memes floated all over the web and they still do to this day. The crew of the Mandalorian truly captured the child in such a wonderful light and a lot of work was put into it in order to do so. 
How Was Baby Yoda Created?
An actor on the Mandalorian, Werner Herzog, who plays The Client reveals that Baby Yoda is an animatronic puppet and is operated by five technicians. Jon Favreau wanted most of the expressions to come from his eyes and ears, as it is one of the bigger portions of his body. Might I mention he costs $5 million dollars, so if I were the guy who hit the puppet in one of the episodes, I would have been very nervous. However, the actor explained himself as excited to punch the creature, and when he did the first initial punch the entire crew gasped and went silent. Favreau calls cut and tells the actor to not do that again because it is very expensive. What created such an expensive animatronic? To ensure that The Child would carry emotions with his eyes and ears, they worked with a creature special effects company for three months attempting to bring Baby Yoda to life, with the help of the concept art of Christian Alzmann. Each technician specialized in a specific aspect of The Child which allowed his movement and expression to come to life. They all had individual controllers to move the head, the eyes, and other parts of the body. Favreau fell in love with the baby himself and eventually gave him acting cues as if he were a real being.
Many fans are awaiting Baby Yoda’s return this fall on Disney +. Hopefully, they won’t do the one episode per week release because I want to binge watch the show and finish it. The series is set to be released on October 30th and if you can’t wait there is a trailer that has been released to get some previews. Perhaps the Mandalorian may receive more Emmys this following year and let’s hope the following season will reveal more about the truth behind The Child.