Word: detoo
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...Artoo Detoo's faithful robot friend, Threepio, is supposed to look vaguely human, somewhat like the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. A plaster cast was made of British Actor Anthony Daniels, who was to be the man inside. From that cast Barry constructed a golden figure of plastic, rubber, fiber glass, steel and aluminum. Threepio fairly glistened and shone when he was unveiled on the Tunisian set-but that was part of the trouble. It was so hot inside the robot body that Daniels nearly expired, and the machine's plastic and rubber joints were...
...robots performed perfectly. It never happened again. Strange radio signals seemed to emanate from the Tunisian sand, and the remote-controlled Artoos ran wild, as if their oil had come from Vat 69. Says Barry: "I was incredibly grateful each time an Artoo actually worked right." Even Artoo Detoo, with Baker inside, seemed out of control. Baker could scarcely see where he was going through Artoo's headlights, and he bumped into the unwieldy Threepio, sending him tumbling. Daniels could not see much better through Threepio's eyes, covered with real gold to prevent corrosion, but thereafter...
...Artoo Detoo, on the other hand, is a manly little machine. He responds to Threepio's complaints with a variety of impatient beeps and whistles and when busy, chirps and burbles like a mobile Mr. Coffee machine. When he gets zapped by Darth Vader, it is almost as traumatic for kids as that awful moment in Bambi when the little fawn's mother is slain by hunters. Fortunately for Artoo Detoo, however, not to mention the youngsters, there are replacement parts back in the shop...
...Chewbacca (he doesn't), the 8-ft.-tall wookie. A lithe and elegant simian, Chewie is co-pilot of the Millennium Falcon, the souped-up space freighter that takes the intrepid rebels to their battle with the dread Death Star. Like Artoo Detoo, Chewie is voluble without actually being able to talk. In a voice that is somewhere between a hoarse lion's roar and the braying of an outraged donkey, he bullies little Artoo or retreats, in moments of danger, to a position of forthright cowardice. Inside the fur is Peter Mayhew, a porter at London...
...real wonder of Star Wars, however, is not the robots or the monsters, good as they are. It is rather the wizardry special effects, many of them never attempted or never possible before. Artoo Detoo, for instance, routinely delivers his message from Princess Leia by beaming a foot-high holographic projection of her, moving and talking in 3-D, right into the room. Later, in one of the movie's funniest scenes, Artoo and the wookie play a variant of chess with holographic figures. Instead of a bishop capturing a knight, a little dinosaur jumps a small, ectoplasmic...