30 Years of RETURN OF THE JEDI - Part 5

Picking up where we left off yesterday, here are more of the thugs, mercenaries, henchmen, bounty hunters, guards, droids, and entertainers to be found in Jabba's Palace.

Yoxgit, an ugnaught

Worrt and its prey

Wortt's prey

Gamorrean guard

Gamorrean guard

Tanus Spijek, an elom

Lando Calrissian in skiff guard disguise

Lando's costume

Salacious Crumb, a Kowakian monkey-lizard

J'Quille, a whiphid

Two Nikto guards, a human guard, Dengar, another human guard, C-3PO, Fozec, Jabba, Salacious Crumb, Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker, a Gamorrean guard, Boba Fett, Lando Calrissian, Bib Fortuna, a human guard. 

Ephant Mon and Salacious Crumb

An Ishi Tib

Yarna d'al' Gargan

8D8

Two images of a B'Omarr monk 

Hermi Odle

Saelt Marae and Ree Yees

A nikto guard, Boba Fett, Bib Fortuna and C-3PO beneath Wol Cabasshite, a ghoel

Oola

Ardon Crell, Boba Fett, and Nysad, a nikto guard. (Note that the frame is flopped here, and in the movie, with Boba Fett's targeting rangefinder appearing on the wrong side of his helmet)

Bossk, a Trandoshan bounty hunter who appeared in The Empire Strikes Back

Crowd of thugs surrounding Lando and Leia

Leia disguised as Boushh, an Ubese bounty hunter. Behind her is Melina Carniss and a Mosep

Hermi Odle, Amanaman, two human guards, Wooof, Boba Fett, and Tessek

Fozec

Leslomy Tacema, a Duros

Sic-Six

Loje Nella

Tomorrow will focus on the Max Rebo Band

30 Years of RETURN OF THE JEDI - part 4

The scenes in Jabba's palace are Return of the Jedi's cantina scene, filled with all manner of alien creatures, and unlike the cantina, droids are allowed. Here's a look at some of the creatures who hang out in Jabba's palace and environs. 

Tessek, a Quarren

Jabba's major domo, Bib Fortuna, a Twi'lek

Beedo, a Rodian with a Jawa

Aaaghaah, a Yuzzum 

A Rock Wart

Ephant Mon, a Chevin, along with a H'nemthe, and an Aqualish 

Cane Adiss

Saelt Marae, a Yarkora

Garon Nas Tal, a Saurin

Yarna d'al' Gargan, an Askajian 

Tanus Spijek, Shasa Teil, Wooof, Geezum, Klaatu, a Nysad

Amanaman, an Amanin

Arica, a human

J'Quille, a Whiphid

Harc Seff, an Ishi Tibb

Bane Malar

EV-9D9

Beedo, Saelt Marae, a Gamorrean Guard, Ree Yees, J'Quille, a Mosep, Melina Carniss, a Jawa, and Bubo

Hermi Odle, a Baraguin

Ree Yees, a Gran with C-3PO

Geezum, a Snivvian

Oola, a Twi'lek

Bubo 

A Gamorrean guard, Tanus Spijek, Tessek, another Gamorrean guard, and Bossk

Wortt (the label claims its "Rock Wart" which is another creature shown near the beginning of this post)

Loje Nella

Shasa Teil, an Ishi Tib

BG - J38

Attark, an Hoover

Leia disguised as Boushh, an Ubese bounty hunter

Two Gamorrean guards, Yarna d'al' Gargan, Tessek, Beedo, Luke Skywalker, Tanus Spijek, Shasa Teil, and Wooof

Tomorrow will continue looking at the denizens of Jabba's Palace.

30 Years of RETURN OF THE JEDI - Part 3

I've written about Jabba the Hutt previously, but never really in the context of Return of the Jedi and since he is such a large component in this movie, I thought I should revisit him. 

As most everyone knows, Jabba's cinematic adventures began as a human actor in the first Star Wars movie who was meant to be replaced by a stop motion creature. this footage was never completed -- until it was revisited and altered for the Star Wars Special Edition in the 1990s so that Jabba became a CGI version of the slug-like creature we were familiar with from Return of the Jedi. Above is a storyboard frame depicting the actor portraying Jabba along with a superimposed creature version of him that would appear in the finished film. Despite being a bipedal creature, Jabba surprisingly doesn't look all that different from how he finally ended up looking in Return of the Jedi. Note also the lemur-like creature next to him, which corresponds with Jabba's pet/court jester, Salacious Crumb in Return of the Jedi. George Lucas was fond of lemurs and kept trying to work into the Star Wars movies an alien species that was based on them. This would finally happen in the Clone Wars television series. 

Given how close the image of Jabba in the above storyboard would represent his final, approved look for Return of the Jedi, it's surprising that that storyboard image was not the starting point for Jabba's design, work that would be tackled by artists Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston, Nilo Rodis-Jamero, and Phil Tippett who worked from George Lucas's instruction that Jabba have a sluglike body. 

Nilo Rodis-Jamero thought of Jabba as being like a queen bee who is physically helpless, but is waited on and cared for, while exerting tremendous power over those in her hive. Jabba began to achieve his final look when Joe Johnston took Ralph McQuarrie's saggy fleshed heads and gave them a more cunning and sinister expression as shown below. 

Stop motion animator took the drawings and sculpted a number of small maquettes including this one. 

The schematic above shows how the enormous full size puppet of Jabba would be operated by a crew of puppeteers stashed within, without, and beneath Jabba's massive body. 

Above are the operators (minus the little person who worked the tail) who provided Jabba with a wonderful, nuanced performance which must have required quite a bit of coordination on their part.