Boga

For other uses, see Boga.

"Good girl, Boga."

Boga was a female varactyl native to Utapau. Like all members of her species, she was a large reptilian quadruped with a beaked maw and feathers splaying from her scaled skin.

Biography[]

Kenobiandboga — Boga and Obi-wan plummet down the ravine.

Boga was one of the fastest varactyl to be tamed by the Utai beast tamers. She was thirty-nine hands tall at her shoulder, fifteen meters in length, and possessed a magnificent crest of blue, purple and green feathers.

During his search for General Grievous on Utapau, Obi-Wan Kenobi chose Boga as his mount. Astride Boga, Obi-Wan reached the tenth level of Tion Medon's Pau City in record time. Boga proved a worthy match for General Grievous in his wheel bike, chasing the cyborg general through the city and using her clawed feet to climb the sinkhole walls in pursuit. Along the way, she proved valuable to Obi-Wan, disabling Grievous's shuttle and picking off several droids. With Boga's help, Obi-Wan confronted and destroyed the General.

Unfortunately for Boga, the clone troopers turned against her Jedi rider on the orders of Palpatine. Boga and Obi-Wan were caught in an explosion caused by an AT-TE, sending both plummeting into the water at the bottom of the sinkhole. Obi-Wan had assumed that Boga died, but she actually survived the fall slinking off to recover from her wounds and rejoined her stable mates long after the battle was over.

Behind the scenes[]

Boga concept — An early concept of Boga.

The creation of Boga proved to be one of the most daunting animation challenges of Episode III, as an active, agile digital creature had to be married to relatively static live action footage of Ewan McGregor atop a practical saddle. Originally, Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll had hoped the Boga sequences would be pushed to later in the schedule, to the 2004 pick-up photography, allowing time to develop a system where digital animation would drive the practical rig ridden by McGregor. Lucas, however, insisted on shooting McGregor's lizard-riding action during the 2003 principal photography window. Animation Director Rob Coleman worked with the Animatics Department to refine Boga's run cycle, studying nature footage of various running lizards as inspiration to the shooting crew. When it came time to shoot the live action elements of the Utapau chase in September of '03, a blue-painted barrel-shaped hydraulic rig stood in for Boga. The gimbal rig controlled by the Special Effects Department under the supervision of Dave Young could rock and buck at a good speed, but it wasn't set to precisely mimic the swaying run cycle of the animatic Boga. This created the need for extensive repositioning and massaging of the live action element of Obi-Wan when it was composited atop the striding beast. In cases where Boga's movements were very extreme, Obi-Wan was entirely computer-generated as no live action element could ever properly match Boga's agility. Aside from getting a live action Obi-Wan to realistically serve as jockey to Boga, the creature's size and speed proved a challenge as well. With its long neck and tail fully unfurled, the creature's length spanned about fifty feet, yet it had to be fleet-footed enough to run with Grievous' wheel bike.^[4]

In the Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith novelization, Obi-Wan believed Boga had died, and took a moment to reflect on her believed sacrifice.

However unknown to Obi-wan Boga did survived the fall took some time to recover before rejoining her stable.

The sound of Boga was created from the sounds of a dog, a Skywalker Ranch coyote and a Tasmanian Devil (which was originally recorded for Willow).^[5]

It is shown in the novelization that Boga took the brunt of the clone trooper's blast, protecting Kenobi, but in the comic it is the opposite, showing Kenobi blocking laser fire, attempting to protect Boga.

Some fans believe that the reason Obi-Wan's yell to ward off the Sand People in A New Hope was changed in the DVD version was to make it seem that Obi-Wan was copying Boga's yelp.

"Boga" was the name of a soft drink found in Tunisia that the crew became familiar with during the filming of A New Hope, and it was after this that the varactyl Boga, as well as the beverage Boga noga, was named (see also Tunisia for other Tunisian-inspired names).

During Pre-Production for Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas had originally chosen Boga to be Anakin Skywalker's mount.^[6] However, it was soon dropped by the rough draft.^[6]

In the Star Wars: Head-to-Head book, it is proven by experts that, in a case of Boga vs. the Acklay, Boga wins because she is smarter, more loyal, and able to outmaneuver the fast acklay.