Star Wars: Creatures of the Naboo Swamp

Congratulations on finding your way through the Naboo swamps. No doubt you noticed a few unusual creatures living among the trees and vines. The turkey-like Nuna and the beautiful blue Peko Peko are just two of a menagerie of creatures that will appear in Star Wars: Episode I.

"In creating these creatures we had a lot of freedom because George simply asked us to create realistic swamp creatures like none he'd seen before," says Doug Chiang, who heads the art department. "The swamp creatures are present for a very short time in the film itself, but they're very well thought out." he says.

Artist Terryl Whitlatch developed 50 unique designs that were eventually narrowed to six swamp creatures that will appear in the film. "George is really good at defining the guidelines of fantastic versus realistic," Doug says.

Terryl described how the creatures she designs are derived from naturally occurring species. Terryl has a background in vertebrate zoology which has proven invaluable in creating realistic yet amazing creatures. Once final designs are approved she does detailed colored paintings and skeletal drawings to help ILM bring the creatures to life on the big screen.

Terryl says a key to creating realistic creatures is to think about how they would actually survive in their environment. Are they herbivores or carnivores? How often do they produce offspring? What characteristics do they need to survive life in an Episode I swamp? She says she designs the creatures so that they could potentially survive in our world. "Star Wars is reality made into fantasy by just tweaking reality a bit," Terryl says.

Terryl is currently helping to extend the Naboo swamp habitat with the Lucas Learning team (who rendered the creature animations for this feature) for an upcoming release.

She describes the Nuna and the Peko Peko in detail: "The Nuna is a funny flightless bird with no neck, but it has long legs so it can crouch down to drink. It runs, or rather waddles, like a turkey. It has short pin features and scales along its back. It eats primarily swamp plants but enjoys the occasional frog and has been known to scavenge. The Nuna has a high reproductive rate which is essential for its survival, as it's a rather tasty bird and is hunted heavily."

"The Peko Peko is eight feet long from the tip of its beak to the end of its long, beautiful tail. It flies gracefully but has difficulty walking on its short legs. Its look and coloring are developed from the peacock and the hyacinth macaw. I had to think carefully about its diet in order to design its beak, so I designed the Peko Peko with a very powerful jaw with which it cracks large coconut-size nuts. It also has claws on its wings, like the South American hoatzin, which helps the bird to move around in trees."

Terryl says she's a little sad when her favorite creatures aren't chosen for stardom but finds that George is a very good and encouraging editor. Terryl says, "He's consistent in some strange and interesting way as though all of Star Wars had one designer - it's like variations on a theme."