George Lucas campaigned for one particular performance in The empire strikes back To be nominated for an Academy Award, but unfortunately it was not meant to be. The empire strikes back is widely regarded as the best installment of the original Star Wars trilogy, if not the entire Skywalker saga. It picked up the ground-breaking storytelling and cinematic techniques pioneered by the first Star Wars Film – Later repeated A new hope – and changed everything we thought we knew about Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa and, most of all, the Force.
One integral new character introduced in The empire strikes back was the green alien Yoda. Now an icon Star Wars Figure – One whose life experiences have influenced multiple generations of Jedi and Star Wars Narrative – Yoda trained Luke in the ways of the Force after Obi-Wan Kenobi’s death, giving Luke the tools he needed to eventually defeat Emperor Palpatine and bring his father back from the brink of darkness. Although Yoda later appeared on screen as a CGI character in the Star Wars preckles, The elder Jedi was first introduced as a puppet, played and voiced by legendary puppeteer Frank Oz.
George Lucas believed that Frank Oz deserved an Oscar for Yoda
George Lucas, who handed over directing duties to Irwin Kershner for the Star Wars sequel, believed that Frank Oz deserves an Oscar for his performance as Yoda. in The Making of Episode I The Phantom MenaceGeorge Lucas said:
“After Frank Oz was Empire, I tried to get him nominated for an Academy Award, but we heard back that puppetry is not an art… I think it is an art – and Yoda represents the highest level of that art. Acting Is acting. , whether it is a human actor, a CG character, or a puppet, most people think of Yoda as real, because he is the height of puppetry.
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Lucas was right, of course – Yoda was believable as a character, because the doll, and Oz’s performance, made him feel smart, a little funny, but most of all, tactile. Yoda felt real to us because he was really there. He was a real figure on the screen, someone Mark Hamill’s Luke could look at, talk to, and pick up when necessary. Oz’s performance made what could have easily become a character to laugh at into someone integral to the plot and Star Wars Study.
Lucas’ campaign foreshadowed an ongoing issue with the Oscars
The difficulty of filmmaking, especially in the sci-fi and fantasy genres, is to make what’s on the screen, no matter how outlandish, feel believable, real, and authentic. A speculative filmmaker needs to give the audience a reason to suspend their disbelief, and Oz’s performance as Yoda made that so much easier. Luke’s training on Dagobah would have felt much less pivotal without this doll. Unfortunately, the Academy finds it difficult to recognize and reward fantasy and sci-fi films; The most notable exception is Peter Jackson The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
The empire strikes backFor example, was nominated for only three awards – Art Direction, Sound and Original Score – and only won for Sound. Lucas’ campaign for Frank Oz was understandable. Without that performance, the film wouldn’t have worked nearly as well or been as highly regarded. Acting is acting – it shouldn’t matter if a character is human or not, but sadly, even now, in an age where CGI characters reign supreme, the Oscars still often ignore fantastic creature performances.
Acting is acting – it shouldn’t matter if a character is human or not, but sadly, even now, in an age where CGI characters reign supreme, the Oscars still often ignore fantastic creature performances.
Andy Serkis’ many Oscars snubs, for example, prove that the Academy’s attitude to the performances still needs work. Serkis was never nominated for his performances as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings Films or like Caesar in the new Planet of the Apes films, though none of those films would have worked half as well without him, and he essentially pioneered acting with motion-capture technology. Do you believe Frank Oz deserves an Oscar nomination for The empire strikes back It’s subjective, of course, but it’s clear that the Academy still needs to examine its definition of “art.”