The Mandalorian sound designer on creating Baby Yoda’s voice

A sound designer for The Mandalorian has revealed how the adorable voice for Baby Yoda was created.

While the great action scenes, cool Star Wars lore, and visual splendour of The Mandalorian were all winning attributes, there is no denying that Baby Yoda stole the show during season one.

The world fell in love with the character, including his adorable voice. But how did the vocal performance for the puppet come about? Well, speaking to THR, the show’s sound designer broke down what was involved.

Sound editor David Accord said: “I was recording animals at this wildlife rescue outside of San Diego. Two of the animals I recorded had this really cute, almost childlike quality to them. One was a bat-eared fox and one is a kinkajou. Baby Yoda’s initial vocal was made up of only those two creatures.

“Then Jon Favreau thought that they needed to be more human-sounding or something a little more relatable. We dialed way back on the animal part, and now that’s just there for little grunts and coos and purring. We used some real baby vocals for when [The Child] gets really fussy and that kind of thing. Then I have some of my own vocal in there, too, for more of the articulated vocalizations, pitched way up. So it’s a combination of things.”

SEE ALSO: George Lucas meets The Mandalorian’s Baby Yoda

It’s always interesting to pull back the curtain on these production details but whatever they did, it certainly worked! Hopefully, Baby Yoda has just a big of a presence in season two this autumn.