Fictional character in Star Wars
Fictional character
Watto
|
---|
|
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c1/Watto_EPI_TPM.png/220px-Watto_EPI_TPM.png) Watto as he appears in
Star Wars: Episode I ? The Phantom Menace
.
|
First appearance
| The Phantom Menace
(1999)
|
---|
Created by
| George Lucas
|
---|
Voiced by
| |
---|
|
Species
| Toydarian
|
---|
Gender
| Male
|
---|
Occupation
| Junk store proprietor
|
---|
Homeworld
| Toydaria
|
---|
Watto
is a fictional character in the
Star Wars
franchise
, featured in the films
The Phantom Menace
and
Attack of the Clones
. He is
computer-generated
and is voiced by
voice actor
Andy Secombe
. He is a mean-tempered, greedy
Toydarian
, and owner of a second-hand goods store in Mos Espa on the planet
Tatooine
. Among Watto's belongings are the
slaves
Shmi Skywalker
and her son,
Anakin
. He acquires them after winning a
podracing
bet with Gardulla the Hutt, and he puts them both to work in his store. Anakin demonstrates an incredible aptitude for equipment repair, and Watto decides to profit from it by having the boy fix various broken equipment in the store. He eventually loses Anakin in a podracing bet with
Qui-Gon Jinn
when he bets on a competitor,
Sebulba
, who is defeated by Anakin.
Concept and creation
[
edit
]
George Lucas
was specific with the
concept art
team about what features he envisioned for Watto. Design director
Doug Chiang
described the character's design as "this conglomeration of odd things that really didn't fit, but that in the end gave him a very unique and powerful personality".
[1]
Lucas dismissed concepts including a pudgy parrot by
Terryl Whitlatch
(though Whitlatch recalls one of her designs influencing the direction for the character)
[2]
and a four-armed beast with a cigar by Iain Craig.
[1]
Chiang repurposed the head from one of his early
Neimoidian
designs, featuring a hooked trunk and crooked teeth,
[3]
and added
hummingbird
wings, meeting Lucas's approval. Additionally, Chiang gave Watto a vest and a tool belt, only asking for webbed feet and pants. Modeling supervisor Geoff Campell was skeptical of having a chubby alien with wings, so it was imagined that the Toydarians are filled with gas, with the wings propelling them instead of supporting their weight. Animation supervisor
Rob Coleman
realized that the alien's teeth would need some modification, as the craggy teeth made lip-syncing difficult. To solve the problem, Coleman broke off one of Watto's incisors, giving him a "corner-of-the-mouth" vernacular. His expressions were based on video footage of voice actor
Andy Secombe
, photographs of Coleman imitating the character, and modeler Steve Alpin saying Watto's lines to a mirror.
[1]
Alec Guinness
performing as
Fagin
in
Oliver Twist
was used as an influence in the character's development.
[4]
The sound of his wings flapping is a looped recording of sound designer
Ben Burtt
opening and closing an
umbrella
.
Appearances
[
edit
]
Watto first appears in
Star Wars: Episode I ? The Phantom Menace
, the first title chronologically in the
Star Wars
series. He has both an ability for haggling and a resistance to the "Jedi mind trick", a technique used to persuade people. He is both a junk dealer and slave owner on the planet
Tatooine
, possessing both
Shmi Skywalker
and her son
Anakin
. When challenged to a bet for Anakin's freedom by
Qui-Gon Jinn
, Watto agrees. After Anakin beats
Sebulba
(whom Watto bets on), a competing racer that he challenged throughout the race he participated in, he was let go. However, Watto (who believes Qui-Gon cheated on him) considers calling off the bet, but gives in when Qui-Gon threatens to have him talk things over with the Hutt Clan. Watto makes a final appearance in the sequel
Episode II ? Attack of the Clones
, which takes place 10 years after
The Phantom Menace
. The now-adult Anakin returns to Tatooine to find his mother. Searching Mos Espa, he finds Watto sitting outside the shop at a small stall. They reunite on somewhat amicable terms and Watto tells Anakin that he sold Shmi some years ago to a moisture farmer named
Cliegg Lars
, who freed and married her. Watto then takes Anakin and
Padme
to look through his records to find her.
Watto makes multiple further appearances in the
Star Wars
Expanded Universe
; one such appearance details his time on his home planet before he came to Tatooine during a war. It also tells how he sustained his broken tusk and disabled leg. He later learns his business savvy from the
Jawas
, native to the planet Tatooine. In the
non-canonical
Star Wars
comic book
Star Wars: Visionaries
, Watto is shown to have been killed by
Darth Maul
(whose appearance here predates the canonical revelation of his survival of the events of
The Phantom Menace
) during Maul's process of tracking down his nemesis
Obi-Wan Kenobi
, to gain vengeance for his defeat during the Battle of Naboo.
His son Blatto makes an appearance in the non-canonical television special
Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars
.
There has been an uncommon amount of Watto merchandise made over the years since 1999. In 2019, the Watto
Funko Pop
was first realized at the 2019 Galactic Con as an Exclusive. Watto has also been produced as a
Lego
figure and featured in the
Lego
Star Wars
video games, in addition to numerous other appearances in the form of collectibles and other merchandising.
Reception
[
edit
]
Editors for
IGN
ranked Watto 78th in their list of Top 100
Star Wars
characters. They wrote that he was "one of the most confusing scientific anomalies" due to "the idea that a creature so potbellied is able to stay afloat for so long". They added that he was "no prince" for his unscrupulous deals.
[5]
In the book
The Holy Family and Its Legacy
, author Albrecht Koschorke discusses the presence of "The Holy Family" in
The Phantom Menace
, stating that while there was no "solicitous guardian watching over the mother and the holy child," Watto acts in a similar position as a "man who possesses
patriarchal
powers without being the father."
[6]
Allegations of antisemitism
[
edit
]
It has been suggested that the character is offensive because of his perceived similarities to a
stereotypical Jew
, having a large hooked nose, beady eyes, unkempt facial hair, speaking in a gravelly voice, and being portrayed as greedy and covetous.
J. Hoberman
of
The Village Voice
called him "the most blatant ethnic stereotype" due to his hooked nose.
[7]
Bruce Gottlieb of
Slate magazine
criticized him as well, comparing his character to the
antisemitic
notion that the Jewish race is "behind the slave trade".
[8]
Patricia J. Williams
of
The Nation
stated that Watto was also described as a
stereotype of Arabs
, but that he was "more comprehensively anti-Semitic?both anti-Arab and anti-Jew."
[9]
She added that Watto reminded her of an "anti-Semitic caricature published in
Vienna
at the turn of the 20th century."
[6]
Jane Prettyman of
American Review
noted that after leaving the theater, she heard two young boys describe him as "that weird little Jew guy with wings". Prettyman described his depiction as "not at all subtle", and said that "it can be counted on to flush out already-formed Jew-haters among young audiences and give them permission to continue their hatred out loud."
[10]
Others have disagreed with this interpretation.
[11]
Andrew Howe states that Watto's "nose seems less a cultural referent to Shylock or Fagin than to an elephant's trunk".
[12]
Others have described Watto's accent as Italian, and not Jewish.
[13]
[14]
Appearances in other media
[
edit
]
Crazy Watto
is a two-minute-long
fan film
that made its debut on the
Internet
in 2000. The film is a
spoof
of used car deal
ads
shown on
television
,
[15]
featuring Watto. He offers up for sale familiar objects such as an
X-wing
.
[16]
The film played at the
2005 Cannes Film Festival
,
[17]
and is a popular fan film at many
science fiction conventions
. The film was originally hosted by
TheForce.Net
,
[18]
but is now part of
The Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards
on
AtomFilms
.
Actor
Griffin Newman
portrays a version of the character as the co-host on
The George Lucas Talk Show
, where he is the cantankerous, somewhat prankish sidekick to
Connor Ratliff
’s
George Lucas
. Newman has performed the character onstage and over numerous streaming performances, often clad in a tight blue rubber costume.
[
citation needed
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"Watto's Character Development ? From Concept to CG"
. StarWars.com. June 17, 1999. Archived from
the original
on November 12, 2007
. Retrieved
April 5,
2009
.
- ^
Bouzereau, Laurent
; Duncan, Jody (1999).
Star Wars: The Making of Episode I ? The Phantom Menace
. New York: Ballantine. p. 17.
ISBN
978-0-345-43119-6
.
- ^
Bresman, Jonathan (1999).
The Art of Star Wars: Episode I ? The Phantom Menace
. New York: Del Rey. p. 155.
ISBN
978-0-345-43108-0
.
- ^
Silberman, Steve (May 1999).
"G Force: George Lucas fires up the next generation of Star Warriors"
.
Wired
. Vol. 7, no. 5.
Archived
from the original on April 10, 2014
. Retrieved
July 12,
2009
.
- ^
"Watto"
.
IGN Entertainment, Inc.
Archived from
the original
on 15 August 2010
. Retrieved
18 May
2011
.
- ^
a
b
Koschorke, Albrecht (2003).
The Holy Family and Its Legacy: Religious Imagination from the Gospels to Star Wars
. Translated by Dunlap, Thomas.
Columbia University Press
. p. 183.
ISBN
9780231127561
. Retrieved
27 February
2015
.
- ^
Hoberman, J. (May 19?25, 1999).
"All Droid Up"
.
The Village Voice
. Archived from
the original
on 9 July 2016
. Retrieved
25 February
2016
.
- ^
Gottlieb, Bruce (May 27, 1999).
"The Merchant of Menace"
.
Slate
.
Archived
from the original on 30 October 2005
. Retrieved
11 June
2006
.
- ^
Williams, Patricia J. (June 17, 1999).
"Racial Ventriloquism"
.
The Nation
. Retrieved
July 26,
2016
.
- ^
Prettyman, Jane (June 3, 1999).
"George Lucas serves up anti-Semitic stereotype in Star Wars Episode I"
.
American Review
. Archived from
the original
on May 12, 2006
. Retrieved
11 June
2006
.
- ^
Kempshall, Chris (2022).
The History and Politics of Star Wars Death Stars and Democracy
. Taylor & Francis.
- ^
Douglas Brode and Leah Deyneka, Sex, Politics, and Religion in Star Wars: An Anthology , Lanham, Scarecrow Press, 2012, p.20
- ^
Cocca, Carolyn (2018).
Superwomen Gender, Power, and Representation
.
Bloomsbury Publishing
. p. 119.
- ^
Canepari, Michela (2022).
A New Paradigm for Translators of Literary and Non-Literary Texts
. Brill. p. 85.
- ^
Pickle, Betsy (May 16, 2005).
"
'Crazy Watto' striking deals at Cannes"
.
Knoxville News Sentinel
. Archived from
the original
on August 28, 2010
. Retrieved
July 9,
2019
.
- ^
"
"CRAZY WATTO" review"
.
RunLeiaRun.com
. February 23, 2003
. Retrieved
July 9,
2019
.
- ^
Ball, Ryan (May 12, 2005).
"Star Wars Fans to Play Cannes"
.
Animation Magazine
. Retrieved
July 9,
2019
.
- ^
"TFN FanFilms - Short Films - Crazy Watto"
.
TheForce.Net
. Retrieved
July 9,
2019
.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Films
| |
---|
Series
| |
---|
Characters
| |
---|
Novelizations
| |
---|
Soundtracks
| |
---|
Video games
| Episode I
| |
---|
Episode II
| |
---|
Episode III
| |
---|
Clone Wars
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|
|
---|
Other
| |
---|