Mason Blake
The iconic Wookiee sound was created by Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt. The sound was made using recordings of four bears, a badger, a lion, a seal, and a walrus from Long Beach. Burtt spent time with a young bear, using bread to coax the desired sounds from the animal. He then extracted little grunts, moans, and purring sounds from the recordings, categorizing them by their emotional tone. These sounds were then cut together to create the impression of speech.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Sounds created by | Ben Burtt |
| Animals used | Four bears, a badger, a lion, a seal, and a walrus |
| Sounds | Grunts, moans, purring sounds |
| Emotional tones | Affectionate, angry |
| Techniques | Trills, blowing air while tensing mouth muscles |
| Tools | Mono Nagra tape recorder |
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What You'll Learn
The Wookiee species presented challenges for sound design
Sound designer Ben Burtt was responsible for creating Chewbacca's iconic voice and the sounds for Wookiees in general. He approached this challenge by looking for animals that vocalize from the backs of their throats, similar to the limitations of Chewbacca's mouth. Burtt recorded a variety of animals, including bears, a badger, a lion, a seal, and a walrus. These recordings captured a range of emotional sounds, such as grunts, moans, and purring noises.
One particular bear, a four-month-old Cinnamon bear, provided a significant amount of the material used for Chewbacca's voice. Burtt also spent time with a young bear and used bread to coax specific sounds from the animal. By collecting and categorizing these animal sounds based on their emotional tones, Burtt was able to create a range of expressions for Chewbacca.
The versatility and expressive power of Chewbacca's sounds have left a lasting impact on popular culture. People often imitate his noises to express emotions such as disappointment, happiness, defiance, or danger. The sounds have become so iconic that there is even a community of YouTube tutorial creators dedicated to teaching others how to vocalize like Chewbacca.
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Ben Burtt recorded bears, a badger, a lion, a seal, and a walrus
The sound designer who gave a voice to Chewbacca, the iconic Wookiee from the Star Wars franchise, was Ben Burtt. Burtt was a sound-obsessed student at USC's film school when Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz enlisted him. Burtt embarked on a year-long quest to record sounds in the field that he could cut together into the movie's audio design.
Chewbacca—and the imaginary species to which he belonged, the Wookiee—presented particular challenges. "He didn't have articulated lips," Burtt recalled. "He could basically open and close his mouth. So you also needed to create a sound that would be believable coming from a mouth that was operated like his."
Bears were an obvious candidate. They, too, vocalize from the back of their throats, so it works with the limitations of the Chewbacca mouth. So, Burtt went around recording bears with a mono Nagra tape recorder. A four-month-old Cinnamon bear provided much of the material, but there are also mentions of three other bears, a badger, a lion, a seal, and a walrus from Long Beach.
"One time I went to Marineland down in Long Beach, CA, to record a walrus for a possible Wookiee effect," Burtt said in another interview. "Its pool had been drained for cleaning—the walrus was stranded at the bottom, moaning—and that was the sound!" Burtt combined these recordings in varying ratios to produce different voices for different situations. Once he had all the raw recordings, he coded them for emotional value. "Out of all these recordings you could extract little bits of sound, little grunts, moans, and ughs and arghs and purring sounds, whatever it might be," he said in a Star Wars production video. "You play this sound and it sounded affectionate. You play this other sound and it sounded angry. In that manner, I had these categories of little sounds that each had an emotional tone associated with it. I began cutting those together to get a sense of speech out of Chewy."
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Burtt extracted grunts, moans, and purring sounds
The Wookiee talk or the Chewbacca sounds are challenging to create because the imaginary species do not have articulated lips. They can basically open and close their mouths. Sound designer Ben Burtt, who created the voices of Chewbacca and Wookiees, revealed that the secret ingredient in the creation of the Wookiee's roar and purr was bread. He coaxed the sounds from a young bear using bread. Burtt recorded four bears, a badger, a lion, a seal, and a walrus from Long Beach.
Out of all these recordings, Burtt extracted grunts, moans, and purring sounds. He collected and put all these sounds with emotional feelings associated with them on one tape. He categorized the sounds based on the emotions they conveyed. Some sounds sounded affectionate, while others sounded angry. Burtt then began cutting them together to get a sense of speech.
Burtt also mentioned that it is possible to make out individual words and sentences in Wookiee speech by slowing it down and fiddling with the pitch. Humans who are used to hearing the Wookiee tongue can probably make out the individual sounds without technology.
Chewbacca sounds have tremendous expressive power and versatility. In modern society, they are frequently used to express disappointment, happiness, defiance, and danger. Some parents even use gentle Chewbacca sounds to help their babies sleep at night.
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These sounds were categorised by their emotional tone
The Wookiee sounds in Star Wars were created by sound designer Ben Burtt. The sounds were made using recordings of four bears, a badger, a lion, a seal, and a walrus from Long Beach. Burtt travelled around recording these animals with a mono Nagra tape recorder.
These sounds were then categorised by their emotional tone. Burtt explained in a Star Wars production video:
> Out of all these recordings you could extract little bits of sound, little grunts, moans, and ughs and arghs and purring sounds, whatever it might be. I collected and put all on one tape all these sounds that had emotional feelings associated with them... You play this sound and it sounded affectionate. You play this other sound and it sounded angry. In that manner, I had these categories of little sounds that each had an emotional tone associated with it. I began cutting those together to get a sense of speech out of Chewy.
Chewbacca's sounds have tremendous expressive power and versatility. They are frequently used in modern society to express a range of emotions, including disappointment, happiness, defiance, and danger.
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The final step was cutting the sounds together
The final step in creating the Wookiee sound was cutting the various animal sounds together. Sound designer Ben Burtt recorded the sounds of four bears, a badger, a lion, a seal, and a walrus from Long Beach, California. He then extracted little grunts, moans, and purring sounds from these recordings, categorizing them based on their emotional tones.
Burtt described this process in a Star Wars production video: "You play this sound and it sounded affectionate. You play this other sound and it sounded angry. In that manner, I had these categories of little sounds that each had an emotional tone associated with it. I began cutting those together to get a sense of speech out of Chewy."
The Wookiee sound was further developed by spending time with a young bear and using bread to coax specific sounds from the animal. This was revealed in the documentary "Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound," which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019.
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Frequently asked questions
The Wookiee sound was created by Ben Burtt, a sound designer. He recorded the sounds of four bears, a badger, a lion, a seal, and a walrus from Long Beach. He then extracted little grunts, moans, and purring sounds from these recordings and categorised them based on their emotional tone. These categories of sounds with emotional tones were then combined to form a sense of speech.
The sound designer, Ben Burtt, spent time with a young bear and used bread to coax the desired sounds from the animal.
To make a Wookiee sound, you need to focus on the trills represented by the symbols ʙ, r, and ʀ. These sounds are made by blowing air while tensing the right parts of your mouth and throat to produce a vibration.
