How does a droid in the Star Wars franchise know when he has truly made it in show business and captured the hearts of fans everywhere? Back in 2001, during the gap between The Phantom Menace and Attack Of The Clones, R2-D2 was honored with his own mockumentary, R2-D2: Beneath The Dome, which is a pretty good indication of the rotund robot’s enduring popularity. Now the new droid on the block, BB-8, has found himself similarly honored with a Behind The Music-style YouTube video entitled “BB-8: Behind The Circuits.” Created by Leigh Lahav and Oren Mendez, “Behind The Circuits” largely relies on animation to tell the surprisingly involved and complicated story of BB-8’s dramatic, controversy-plagued rise to power and prominence. This droid is no overnight sensation or flash in the pan, the video insists. While incapable of bleeding, sweating, or crying, BB-8 has nevertheless invested plenty of blood, sweat, and tears into his career.
Narrated by an ersatz Sir Patrick Stewart, who just wants to get this gig over with and enjoy some delicious cronuts, “Behind The Circuits” begins with BB-8’s youth in Winchester, Hampshire, before moving on to his collegiate days with Jude Law and his epic run on Doctor Who, where the droid demonstrated remarkable versatility and played a wide range of parts. Trouble befell the little round guy in Hollywood, however, when he felt typecast as a robot and had a meltdown on the set of WALL-E. Being labeled as “difficult” can be a death sentence for many actors, but BB-8 received valuable inspiration from the tight-knit Hollywood robot community, including Rosie from The Jetsons. The roly-poly droid became an advocate for robots everywhere, thus giving him the confidence he needed to tackle an assignment like The Force Awakens. “I finally started wearing my circuits with honor,” a reflective BB-8 testifies. And now, of course, he rolls on to unprecedented glory on movie screens everywhere.