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Baby Yoda's cute voice created by kinkajous and big-eared foxes

Lucasfilm sound designers reveal how The Mandalorian star's voice gets made.

Bonnie Burton
Journalist Bonnie Burton writes about movies, TV shows, comics, science and robots. She is the author of the books Live or Die: Survival Hacks, Wizarding World: Movie Magic Amazing Artifacts, The Star Wars Craft Book, Girls Against Girls, Draw Star Wars, Planets in Peril and more! E-mail Bonnie.
Bonnie Burton
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This might be the cutest Star Wars character from The Mandalorian on Disney Plus. 

Video screenshot by Bonnie Burton/CNET

The Mandalorian's Baby Yoda, officially called The Child, is downright adorable, with a cute voice to match. But how did Lucasfilm create that voice?

When Twitter user CarlosCrits tweeted the question, "Who should they pick to do the voice of baby Yoda?"  Star Wars fans responded with their favorite picks: Christopher Walken, Danny DeVito, Fran Drescher, Gilbert Gottfried and Pee-wee Herman

But the real answer of how Lucasfilm created Baby Yoda's voice is even more fun. 

"Baby Yoda is voiced by a combination of baby samples, bat-eared foxes and kinkajous," according to a tweet from Lucasfilm sound designer Matt Wood.

Wood said fellow Lucasfilm sound designer Dave Acord also contributed to Baby Yoda's voice. Acord also voiced Jabba the Hutt's baby Rotta the Huttlet for Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Acord got in on the Twitter discussion about Baby Yoda's voice. "As Matt Wood has noted, the animal component to The Mandalorian Baby Yoda's voice is part kinkajou," Acord tweeted

kinkajou is a furry tropical rainforest mammal with a prehensile (gripping) tail it uses much like another arm. While kinkajous might behave a bit like monkeys, they are actually related to raccoons. 

"The other animal component to the Baby Yoda voice is a bat-eared fox," Acord tweeted. A bat-eared fox is a small African fox known for its enormous ears, which can grow to be over 5 inches (13 centimeters) tall.

It's good to know cute animals voiced Baby Yoda, but I'd still love to see Pee-wee Herman take a shot.

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