15. The Lead Singer Of Toto Wrote Lyrics For Ewok Songs
Actually, its not as odd as that sounds. The lead singer of Toto is in fact called Joseph Williams, as in composer John Williams son. Of course, genetics. Joseph collaborated on part of the score as well as writing the lyrics for the Ewoks songs. Many of the Ewoks line are in Filipino, but most of their lines are inspired by the Tibetan language and the Kalmuck language spoken by nomadic tribes living in Central China. The Ewoks werent shown blinking until the 2011 Blu-Ray release where it was finally edited in. They were supposed to be able to originally but the mechanism broke. Probably explains why they were so unsettling.
14. Ben Burtts Ingenious Sound Effects!
The lightsaber sound effect is a mix of the hum of an idling 35mm film projector and the feedback made by passing a stripped microphone cable by a television, though actors still try to simulate it as Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen reportedly did during the prequels. Chewies voice is a whole menagerie of sounds to compliment his many emotions. Its a mix of walruses, lions, camels, bears, rabbits, tigers, badgers with a bit of Peter Mayhew mixed in there for good measure. The sound of Darth Vaders shuttle door opening in Empire Strikes Back is the sound of a whole block of Alcatraz cell doors. Chilling. Sound designer Ben Burtt deservedly won a Special Achievement Oscar for his innovative work.
Recently graduated from University of Hertfordshire with a Film & Television Production degree. Usually found watching films, listening to music, writing for whatculture and writing reviews for awardscircuit.com and my blog.
