Famous Robots and Cyborgs by Dan Roberts

Author:Dan Roberts
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781628739275
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2011-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Moral guidance: Non-violent, assigned to serve droid’s ‘master’.

Notability: (Artoo and Threepio define the robot memories of an entire generation.)

Databank

• In the original Star Wars, Artoo is pivotal to the way the plot develops. He carries Princess Leia’s secret hologram message which Luke sees, and he also takes the vital plans of the Death Star back to the rebels.

• Despite his lack of actual dialogue, there are distinct signs of Artoo’s quirky ‘personality’ in the films, notably in his interactions with C-3PO. He comes across as brave, loyal, perhaps foolhardy and a little eccentric.

• Artoo is played in all six films by actor Kenny Baker, whose height is 1m 12cms. Kenny also plays an Ewok in Return of the Jedi, and his other film credits include Time Bandits.

• The name R2-D2 comes from a description of a reel of tape. Walter Murch, sound editor on George Lucas’s American Graffiti, said the term out loud in Lucas’s hearing, and Lucas immediately appropriated it as a name for a robot.

• The Artoo unit itself was designed by special effects designer John Stears (1934-1999) and built by Petric Engineering and C&L Developments.

• The droid’s squat appearance is said to be partly inspired by the Silent Running trio Huey, Dewey and Louie.

• Sound designer Ben Burtt created the beeping, whistling noise of Artoo’s ‘voice’—along with other classic, iconic Star Wars sound effects such as the hum of the light-sabres and the stentorian breathing of Darth Vader. He also famously created the sounds for Wall-E. In 2009, Burtt received the prestigious Charles S. Swartz award for contributions to film post-production.

• Burtt would come up with English words for what R2-D2’s dialogue might be, and play with ARP 2600 synthesiser sounds while reading these out loud, to try to match the noises he came up with to Artoo’s ‘lines’. For the more recent Star Wars films, he used the hi-tech Kyma sound design environment developed by Symbolic Sound and recreated the sounds of his old synth.

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