SPACE PUFFINS
December 20, 2017 12:20 PM   Subscribe

So it turns out that porgs, Star Wars: The Last Jedi's answers to tribbles, were created because the filming location for Ahch-To,Skellig Micheal island, is completely overrun by puffins. Digitally removing them would've been a pain, so they got remade into merchandising gold instead. (via).
posted by MartinWisse (65 comments total) 33 users marked this as a favorite
 
For people wanting to discuss the movie, also check out the very active Fanfare thread about The Last Jedi.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:22 PM on December 20, 2017 [3 favorites]


When life gives you puffins, make puffinade!
posted by Guy Smiley at 12:25 PM on December 20, 2017 [35 favorites]


Semi-possible minor spoiler: I was under the impression that wookiees were vegetarian or something like that. And that may have come from the Christmas special or some other highly non-canon source? (And there's no way in hell I'm watching that drek again for homework.)

Because I lost it so hard at the scene I'm alluding to.
posted by loquacious at 12:28 PM on December 20, 2017 [5 favorites]


Oh, I'm gonna sound so smart to my kids later! At dinner after the movie, I said they pretty much had to put porgs into the picture, because they had to explain why every scenic shot of the island has so many birds flying and tottering about. (Unless they CGI'd all those birds into the panoramas, in which case, holy cow that's a lot of dedication to detail.)
posted by martin q blank at 12:33 PM on December 20, 2017


Chewie got trapped on Endor by falling for a trap baited with some kind of meat, so no, he does not appear to have been a vegetarian.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:35 PM on December 20, 2017 [15 favorites]


I'd love to read a technical explanation of why it would be easier to digitally alter all the puffins into porgs than to digitally erase them from the footage.
posted by tdismukes at 12:41 PM on December 20, 2017 [12 favorites]


How is covering the real puffins up with animated characters less work than digitally removing them?

(on preview: what tdismukes said.)
posted by dnash at 12:43 PM on December 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


It's easier to draw a space creature on top of a puffin than convincingly to draw whatever was behind the puffin.
posted by The Gaffer at 12:43 PM on December 20, 2017 [57 favorites]


I loved the movie, but the insistence on having one cute CG animal per setting felt like it was trolling the audience a little.
posted by selfnoise at 12:46 PM on December 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Er, to clarify, to make a porg you have to use your porg model. To remove the puffin you have to make sure whatever you draw whatever was behind it, even as the camera and light move.

Experts call* this the Ecce Homo problem.




*They do not.
posted by The Gaffer at 12:46 PM on December 20, 2017 [28 favorites]


Ecce Porgo
posted by tobascodagama at 12:52 PM on December 20, 2017 [36 favorites]


Extra points for making porg hatchlings fluffy. SO FLUFFY!
posted by Mchelly at 12:52 PM on December 20, 2017 [7 favorites]


I think the other advantage to painting over puffins with porgs is that you don't have to do anything at all about all the little critters in the distance. You just do the ones that are close enough to the camera to read specific identifying details, and then the audience will assume all the indistinct ones are the same critter.
posted by tobascodagama at 12:54 PM on December 20, 2017 [25 favorites]


This is so adorable.

Also I literally cannot wait for the fanfic writers who'll do deep dives on puffin behavior and biology in order to create more fully realized space puffin epics.
posted by nicebookrack at 1:03 PM on December 20, 2017 [12 favorites]


speaking of fanfic
me @ rian johnson, over a bad phone-line connection: make poe/finn canon
rian johnson: YOU WANT CANON PUFFINS?

— 🌈DUBIOUS THE VERY QUEER & TIRED🌈 (@DubiousCA) December 20, 2017
posted by nicebookrack at 1:06 PM on December 20, 2017 [38 favorites]


I really dug the Caretakers on the island. Vote Caretaker over Porg, the same way you'd vote Wookiee over Ewok.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:14 PM on December 20, 2017 [6 favorites]



I surprised myself by not hating these things. I actually smiled. Possibly had a chuckle or two


I feel like they got the right balance. They were cute, but generally not in the way, and good for a laugh. But they didn't become the center of the movie, like the Ewoks, or create implicit questions (if the Empire can be beaten by teddy bears, why is the Rebellion struggling). They generally stayed animal-like in behavior (give or take the sad porg eyes).

We got a cute, fun new mascot, without getting a Jar Jar.
posted by MrGuilt at 1:15 PM on December 20, 2017 [14 favorites]




I suppose overlaying the porgs onto real puffins gives completely natural patterns of movement that would be very hard to imitate.

Puffins are pretty cute themselves, and their offspring are called pufflings, which is lovely.
posted by Fuchsoid at 1:24 PM on December 20, 2017 [9 favorites]


Thus baby porgs are porglings!
posted by nicebookrack at 1:26 PM on December 20, 2017 [11 favorites]


I'd snorgle a porg. I'm a porgsnorgler.

I bet Korg would snorgle a porg. But not the Borg.
posted by middleclasstool at 1:30 PM on December 20, 2017 [29 favorites]


I liked the fish people who tended to the island. They were like something from a Medieval illuminated book.
posted by maxsparber at 1:46 PM on December 20, 2017 [14 favorites]


I thought the fish-nuns looked like Brian Froud-style Muppet creatures, a la the Dark Crystal or Labyrinth.
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:51 PM on December 20, 2017 [30 favorites]


How is covering the real puffins up with animated characters less work than digitally removing them?

I think what happened wasn't that they went in and made every puffin into a porg, so much as they knew the puffins would be in the distant background in certain shots. Far enough in the background to be recognizable as birds, but not specifically as puffins. By creating porgs, the filmmakers now give viewers the understanding of what those birds are in the background without having to remove them digitally.
posted by Atreides at 1:51 PM on December 20, 2017 [6 favorites]


The porgs are almost literally the only thing about the movie I could recall after I stepped out into the sunlight. Indeed cute, though. I described them as comic relief anime for a movie that desperately needed them. The rest poured over me like a thin, flavorless gruel warmed over from the previous seven episodes. But that's just me and I'm old...
posted by jim in austin at 1:58 PM on December 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'm removing this thread from my activity immediately after posting this so I don't get spoiled before I finally see TLJ on Sunday, but this is amazing.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:06 PM on December 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'd love to read a technical explanation of why it would be easier to digitally alter all the puffins into porgs than to digitally erase them from the footage.
posted by tdismukes

I've made a number of amateur pixels in Photoshop and I'd guess that inserting a new object into a scene to cover up something you don't want is easier than removing it... because now you have a hole in the background you need to exactly match to its surroundings without looking weird since your eye can detect the slight texture / color gradient / pattern boundary around the object you removed and filled in. Whereas slapping a new object on it, will have a different position / angle to the surroundings so your eye can accept some differences in color.
posted by xdvesper at 2:10 PM on December 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Someone alert the Puffin Boffin!
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 2:20 PM on December 20, 2017 [11 favorites]




If it was keeping you awake at night, the racing animals are Fathiers and the crystal foxes are Vulptices
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:36 PM on December 20, 2017 [7 favorites]


What I like is that, the minute I saw the porgs, I went "Oh, I bet that's because it'd be a pain in the ass to get rid of all those puffins."

VINDICATION TASTES LIKE A DELICIOUS ROASTED PORG.
posted by Katemonkey at 2:49 PM on December 20, 2017 [29 favorites]


Yes, it's probably easier to draw porgs than erase puffins, but it's also gotta be much more fun.

And vulptices for the frozen foxes is maybe my favorite goofy obvious Star Wars name ever.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:56 PM on December 20, 2017 [3 favorites]


Recipe: Porg in milk sauce.

If porg is not available, puffin may be substituted.
posted by me3dia at 3:20 PM on December 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Now that they're making standalone Star Wars movies I want one about the xenobiologists of the SW universe, trying to save endangered great horned porgs from war-torn planets. A heartwarming action-comedy about the loose interstellar collective of zoos and hobby breeders trying to preserve the last fluffy subspecies from Alderaan.
posted by nicebookrack at 3:24 PM on December 20, 2017 [15 favorites]


Also, I've decided that I didn't really want to find out where blue milk came from. I could have lived without that knowledge.
posted by loquacious at 3:25 PM on December 20, 2017 [5 favorites]


I loooove the porgs! I have seen zero of these movies but I was almost going to get a porg plush until my partner vetoed it.

They look like rabbits with ears slicked back.
posted by batter_my_heart at 3:30 PM on December 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


And vulptices for the frozen foxes is maybe my favorite goofy obvious Star Wars name ever.

From the "fathier" link on Wookiepedia, I learned about bassa hounds, which would definitely be my pick in this category.
posted by tobascodagama at 3:34 PM on December 20, 2017


I knew about the puffins, so I figured this was the reason. I THOUGHT I saw a non-CG-ed puffin in one scene when Luke was walking up some stairs. There was a little orange beak on a bird on the right of the stairs. I watched it on an Imax-sized screen though, so it may have been more clear.
posted by threeturtles at 3:40 PM on December 20, 2017


Also, I've decided that I didn't really want to find out where blue milk came from.

I had a cool Star Wars activity book when I was a kid and it had stuff like how to make a pair of binoculars like Luke used and recipes for snacks. It also talked about various things and I have long remembered that Blue Milk is Bantha Milk. So that scene was very WTF.
posted by P.o.B. at 3:47 PM on December 20, 2017 [1 favorite]




Recipe: Porg in milk sauce.

If porg is not available, puffin may be substituted.
posted by me3dia at 5:20 PM on December 20


Surely I'm not the only one that figured that was just going to be a "recipe" for a bowl of Barbara's.
posted by Ufez Jones at 4:02 PM on December 20, 2017 [3 favorites]


#TeamPorg
posted by RakDaddy at 4:07 PM on December 20, 2017 [3 favorites]


SPOILERS!
posted by Splunge at 4:08 PM on December 20, 2017


I may or may not have spent the end of my Black Friday shopfest wandering around Target with a plush porg tucked under one arm.

My review: A++ cuddling form, solid but squishy for best hugging capacity, gently ovoid in shape for snuggling versatility with no scratchy whiskers or ears to catch at skin. I look forward to seeing Baby's First Porg plushes sold for the rest of my life.
posted by nicebookrack at 4:40 PM on December 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


I'm very impatiently waiting for someone to take the /r/incorgnito concept of pics of adorable corgi mixes and create an inporgnito subreddit that's all photoshopped porg/pupper mixes.
posted by jason_steakums at 4:48 PM on December 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


Now I kind of like the idea of not owning a porg plush, but just borrowing them at Target while shopping. Can this be a thing? Just stores that are all "hi welcome; want to hold a porg while you shop?" Because all stores should have that option.
posted by zachlipton at 4:48 PM on December 20, 2017 [11 favorites]


And vulptices for the frozen foxes is maybe my favorite goofy obvious Star Wars name ever.

and that's my favorite guided by voices record
posted by entropicamericana at 4:53 PM on December 20, 2017 [16 favorites]


RE: Wookie vegetarianism.
Mala is clearly making bantha rump stew in the Christmas special. Whisk, stir, pound!

And I was hoping for a Lumpy cameo. Is that too much to ask!?
posted by misterpatrick at 4:57 PM on December 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


and I have long remembered that Blue Milk is Bantha Milk. So that scene was very WTF.

From what I remember of my showing, it looked more blue-green in TLJ than the blue from ANH.
posted by radwolf76 at 5:08 PM on December 20, 2017 [4 favorites]


So that scene was very WTF

The film was carefully designed to have everything that was necessary; spectacular backdrops, cute critters (though without the excesses of Jar Jar or the Planet of the Teddy Bears), weird snouty things, weird snouty things that are also people, identifiable heroes, nefarious villains, mortal peril, and, by no means least, one thing sufficiently bizarre and disturbing to stick in the audience's minds for a long time to come.
posted by acb at 5:29 PM on December 20, 2017 [7 favorites]


I am not a licensed character person, usually, but the porgs really got to me. I am very, very close to getting a plush one with suction cup-tipped wings for the back window of our car.

Also: this exists.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 5:36 PM on December 20, 2017 [7 favorites]


I hate this.
posted by aspersioncast at 5:42 PM on December 20, 2017


I saw the film with some friends in an IMAX cinema in a shopping mall, and one friend wanted to get a hamsterbird porg, but discovered that the only ones they had were ones which cost about US$70 and made (digitally recorded) noises. Presumably they would also have been reasonably large.
posted by acb at 5:42 PM on December 20, 2017


Katie Cook drew a Poerg!!!
posted by nicebookrack at 5:53 PM on December 20, 2017 [5 favorites]


Luke's a farm boy; he'll milk anything that stands still long enough.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:32 PM on December 20, 2017 [17 favorites]


The moment I realized this movie was going to have a bunch of bird-things hopping around was one special delight among many, because birdwatchers gotta birdwatch. Even during science fiction movies.
Related: a field guide to the birds of Star Wars: A Force Awakens
posted by sacchan at 7:43 PM on December 20, 2017 [5 favorites]


Oh, oh, so this thread set me into looking at porgs (and then reading about puffins, which are also cute) at work for like half an hour.

Giant porg!
Giant porg that kind of looks like a walrus!
posted by batter_my_heart at 9:30 PM on December 20, 2017


I can't prove that the caretakers on the island are based on the owners of the B&Bs where the crew were staying, but from personal experience they're very obvious expys of a certain kind of Kerrywoman, who is just barely putting up with your shit.
posted by Zeinab Badawi's Twenty Hotels at 9:32 PM on December 20, 2017 [4 favorites]


I wonder what the Ewoks were covering in the Endor scenes filmed in Redwood National Park in Return of the Jedi?
posted by fairmettle at 9:35 PM on December 20, 2017 [6 favorites]


I didn't realize until now how small puffins are-- I had assumed they were duck-sized instead of large-pigeon-sized.
posted by Pyry at 1:36 AM on December 21, 2017


I wonder what the Ewoks were covering

Metal bands shooting their album covers
posted by cmfletcher at 4:31 AM on December 21, 2017 [10 favorites]


Thus baby porgs are porglings!

In that case it's probably best they stay in the Falcon and out of the X-Wings.

(RIP "Porkins" ("Tubbs?" Really?) once again in the first 10 minutes. How many times has your awesome, fat, bearded ass died in a fire?)
posted by The Bellman at 5:58 AM on December 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


I love this comment from ecologist Andrew Thaler in his Porg Twitter thread. (edited for formatting)
I'm ending the great Puffin/Porg thread on one final note:

My argument is not that we should use consumerism to drive conservation.

My argument is that wild places can inspire in ways we don't even know how to anticipate. Protecting these places safeguards our human potential.

Did porgs bring you joy when you saw them in Star Wars? That's wonderful. A small green island on the other side of the world impacted your life even if you'll never set foot on it.

It's Skellig Michael. It's ANWR. It's the Mariana Trench.
posted by nicebookrack at 10:16 PM on December 21, 2017 [4 favorites]


Metal bands shooting their album covers

Albums featuring cover songs?
posted by fairmettle at 12:36 AM on December 22, 2017


From Twitter: Porgs as a D&D monster and a three-page adventure Attack of the Porgs! Both are great!
posted by JHarris at 3:45 AM on December 22, 2017 [1 favorite]


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