Believe it or not I only realised this year that Yoda had the same voice as Miss Piggy! Digging further I discovered that the voice artist for both was the super-talented Frank Oz, who besides his Muppet duties, also voiced the Cookie Monster and Bert from Sesame Street, firm family favourites of ours. Sesame Street was simply beautiful children's TV and I can remember the Muppets being one of those rare TV programmes, which everyone stayed in for on Sunday evenings.
Voices, like fragrances, can travel though time with you. I can can quite clearly hear Frank Oz's dulcet tones in John Landis's American Werewolf in London, one of my all time fave films. Oz plays a flustered US embassy attache, who attempts to calm the 'Kessler boy' in hospital without any success!
Reading about Oz, I read about his friend and Muppets creator, the late great Jim Henson, who were both working together with puppets way back in the early Sixties. This got me thinking as to whether they ever saw any Gerry Anderson puppet shows in the States? Wonder what they thought?
Much confusion in you, I sense. Miss Piggy it is not! Speak like Fozzie Bear, Yoda does. Yesss.
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, yes, same voice artist as for the gorgeous Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. But if you listen carefully, you will hear Yoda has more in common with Fozzie's voice mannerisms than with the cute karate Lady.
And if Yoda is a Muppet, he's a kick-ass Muppet!
But LOL - you really didn't notice until now? First with the Thunderbirds-NF2, and now this!
Should have gone to specsavers! Apart from those bloody teddy bears in Jedi, the rubber Yoda with Fozzie Bears voice was the lowest point of Lucas first trilogy. Thank god cgi gave the Whill more than two expressions in the later trilogy!
ReplyDeleteThe Dark Side of the Fozzie! hee hee. I'm surprised the Muppets never did a Star Wars sketch [maybe they did?]. Kermit would have been Luke naturally. Fozzie - Obi Wan, Miss Piggy - Leia, Animal [or maybe Fozzie] - Chewbacca. Yoda - himself. But what about Han and Darth Vader?
ReplyDeleteAs for not noticing - I'm a late developer. Like axolotls, which fail to undergo adult metamorphosis! A mere numpty compared to a Toad! I shall return to my sandy tank and eat some worms.
ReplyDeleteI remember Mark Hamill appeared as both himself and Luke in an episode of the Muppets with Miss Piggy and Princess Leia and Gonzo as Darth Vader. About the time they were filming Empire I suppose, as he was in that beige outfit he wears on Dagobah and Cloud City. Think they would be filming at the same studio as the Muppets - Pinewood?
ReplyDeleteHello, I wanted to chime in on this. The wiki page for Pinewood productions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pinewood_Studios_productions doesn't list any of the Muppet films, nor the television series.
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall seeing at least one episode of the Muppet Babies cartoons incorporated a dogfight with TIE Fighters, and seeing Gonzo dressed as Darth Vader, but that was about mid-late 80s that I saw the show.
Gordon Long