Watto

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• Homeworld:
  Toydaria

• Species:
  Toydarian

• Gender:
  Male

• Size:
  1.37 meters

• Affiliation:
  Commercial

• 

From the Movies

A shrewd and gruff proprietor of a junk shop in Mos Espa, Watto is a crabby, unshaven Toydarian with a love of credits and gambling. Although considered one of the smaller shops of Mos Espa, Watto's junkyard was nonetheless a treasure trove of discarded machinery and spare parts.

Among Watto's possessions were the slaves Anakin and Shmi Skywalker. Having won them from Gardulla the Hutt in a Podracing bet, Watto put them both to work in his shop. Young Anakin showed an incredible talent for machinery repair, and Watto took a shine to the boy. Even though he was unscrupulous enough to keep a slave, Watto was a fair master. It most probably had to do with the fact that the boy was a prime source of income for Watto, not only in keeping his machinery running, but also actually competing for Watto in the Podraces.

Anakin was an incredible pilot, the only human known to compete in the dangerous high-speed sport of Podracing. But in races where Anakin would compete against the shifty Dug Sebulba, Watto would always bet on the latter because, as Watto says, "he always wins!"

Watto's greed and gambling got the better of him one day when a mysterious outlander came to his shop to barter a deal for starship parts. The Toydarian ended up not only betting all his money away, but also Anakin's freedom. Sebulba failed to finish the Boonta Eve Classic, and Anakin came in first. Watto lost everything.

Desperate to recoup some of his losses, Watto eventually sold Shmi Skywalker to a moisture farmer named Cliegg Lars. The down-on-his-luck trader reported as much to a grown Anakin Skywalker. The young Jedi had returned to Tatooine a decade after his departure in search of his mother.

Watto is a stout, blue-skinned Toydarian, with rapidly flapping wings that keep him hovering at about a meter off the ground. The craggy-toothed merchant not only has a knack for haggling, but also cannot be affected by Jedi mind tricks.

From the Expanded Universe

Before ending up on Tatooine, a young Watto fought in the seasonal wars of his home planet of Toydaria. As part of the Ossiki Confederacy Army, Watto sustained injuries that left him with a broken tusk and a lame leg.

On the desert world, Watto learned the do's and don'ts of haggling and trading from the unscrupulous Jawas. His preferred methodology targets outlanders -- whom he considers easy marks -- for swindling. Though Watto's shop is one of Mos Espa's smaller ones, he carries such a wide array of machinery that it is often frequented. It would turn a tidy profit if Watto didn't constantly gamble away his earnings.

Behind the Scenes

Watto's initial designs were more avian in origin than his final, complete with plumage and even a beak. Later incarnations would boast tentacles and a cigar. The look of Watto's face, however, was cemented in an early Neimoidian painting that Doug Chiang had done. The hooked trunk and crooked teeth were carried over to the Toydarian design.

When it came to digitally realize Watto, animation supervisor Rob Coleman realized that the alien's dental work would need some modification. Watto always talks (usually to complain), and the craggy teeth made lip-sync very difficult. As such, Coleman chipped away some of Watto's incisors and gave the junk-dealer his distinctive, 'corner-of-the-mouth' speech pattern.