People doing their best Chewbacca impression is just flat out funny. Some of them are pretty good while others seem kind of timid and sound like their rolling their tongue trying to get the right pitch. Others just sound like anemic ghosts or in some cases like, well, let’s just say mid-coitus and have you figure it out. In other words a lot of people sound like they’ve never watched a Star Wars film before or, barring that, just can’t bring forth a good Chewbacca growl or roar. It’s not easy and a lot of folks just can’t do it so it’s easily forgivable even as you have to laugh.
Peter Mayhew didn’t even do the voice. It was a composite of different animals roaring that made up Chewbacca’s signature growls and roars throughout the films and that’s partly why it’s so difficult to replicate. The human voice box is capable of making similar sounds but it’s far more likely that all the phlegm-filled, tongue-rolling growls in the world won’t come close enough to match the fearsome wookie that’s been a part of the franchise for so long.
Chewbacca is an icon and has been since the first episode. He didn’t really get introduced until the movie was well underway but when he did it was hard not to kind of like him right away. His look is one of a big shaggy bear-dog but when he bares his teeth and gets violent he’s anything but cute. There are so many things not shown in the movie pertaining to Chewbacca that many people don’t know that it bears talking about them now.
As some of you might know he hails from the planet Kashyyyk, which is a largely forested world where the wookies come from. It was featured in episode 3, and Chewbacca was shown for just a few moments. The wookie homeworld is a massive and very dangerous place even for the wookies at times, as there are creatures that live deep in the forests that can give wookies a great deal of trouble, which is hard to imagine. After episode 3 when the Galactic Empire was formed he became a smuggler and eventually ended up with Han Solo thanks to a life debt that he ended up owing to Han.
Chewie was always a very handy person to have around since he could fix pretty much anything and was a fierce warrior that didn’t bow down to anyone. But he was a lot more intelligent than people gave him credit for since he knew when to fight and when to run. He was still honorbound like his fellow wookies but as a smuggler he learned how to be practical as well.
Other things that you might not know about Chewie is that like all wookies he has long claws on his hand and feet that can retract. These are used for climbing the wroshyr trees on his homeworld. He also had a mate and a son that he left behind on his home world. He’s seen them both throughout the years but was bound by his life debt to go with Han no matter how much the smuggler told him to stay with his family.
Wookies take their life debts seriously after all.
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