The Story of the Faithful Wookiee, an animated tale, originally appeared as a part of the 1978 TV movie, The Star Wars Holiday Special. Nelvana handled the production, and it holds significance as the debut of Boba Fett, and featured the voices of almost all of the original Star Wars actors playing their iconic roles.
Within the Holiday Special, the young Wookiee, Lumpawarrump, views the cartoon on his video book while anticipating the arrival of his father, Chewbacca, who is due home for Life Day. The cartoon depicts a mysterious individual, Boba Fett, befriending Luke and his comrades. However, it soon becomes clear that Boba is in league with Darth Vader and the Empire. Chewbacca, discerning the truth, comments (through C-3PO's interpretation) that the bounty hunter "didn't smell right."
The quality of the animation and visuals is generally regarded as impressive for its time (1978). Nevertheless, Nelvana presented a distinctive interpretation of the Star Wars universe. For instance, R2-D2 exhibits remarkable flexibility for a droid, and Han Solo bears little resemblance to his usual self. The animation approach, along with some of these character designs, resurfaced nearly a decade later in the animated series Star Wars: Droids, which functioned as a spin-off of sorts to the segment. The Ewoks animated series also incorporated these techniques.
Han Solo and Chewbacca have been on a quest to retrieve a mystical Talisman believed to be a potent artifact. Chewbacca emerges from Hyperspace nearly colliding with the Rebel base, displaying strange internal visuals with Solo suspended upside-down and seemingly unconscious. Luke, R2-D2, and C-3PO follow in a Y-wing to investigate.
When Chewbacca eventually lands on Panna, Luke, in pursuit, crashes on the planet's surface and narrowly escapes being devoured by a Panna dragon, thanks to the intervention of Boba Fett. They discover the Falcon with Han, likely incapacitated by the talisman, and Chewbacca, who carelessly discards the Talisman down the garbage chute. Luke then collapses due to the talisman and R2-D2 informs them that he was infected by a sleeping virus that only affects humans.
Boba Fett and Chewbacca then set out to obtain the serum for that virus, located on Panna City to cure Luke and Han. Upon entering the city, which is under Imperial occupation, Boba instructs Chewbacca to wait while he retrieves the cure. Meanwhile, back on the Falcon, C-3PO tends to Han and Luke, employing the upside-down positioning as a treatment method to slow the progression of the disease. While they are doing that, R2 intercepts a transmission between Darth Vader and Boba Fett: Once away from Chewbacca, Boba contacts Darth Vader to inform him of the situation. He reveals that he and Vader are in a plan to reveal the location of the Rebels so that Vader can stop them, like he tried and failed.
Upon their return, the two humans recover, and everyone learns about Boba's true intentions. Boba activates his jet pack and departs, vowing to meet them again. Chewbacca then expresses (through C-3PO's translation) his earlier suspicions, stating that "the bounty hunter didn't smell right."
During the production of The Star Wars Holiday Special, director David Acomba showed George Lucas the 1976 Nelvana film A Cosmic Christmas. He decided to hire them for the project because he wanted a unique style of animation. Lucas then met with Nelvana and provided them with a story outline, which Clive A. Smith and Frank Nissen turned into storyboards. After approving their work, Lucas proceeded to work with Smith on streamlining the story.. The project was developed within a relatively tight timeframe, with the animators drawing inspiration from the video of the Joe Johnston/Ben Burtt costume test. The color scheme was chosen to ensure visibility on black-and-white televisions, which were still prevalent at the time.
A brief segment from the cartoon appeared in the Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones "Bucket Head" web documentary (which debuted on StarWars.com), and was subsequently included on the Attack of the Clones DVD. Within the documentary, Jeremy Bulloch, who donned the Fett costume in Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, points out that Fett's initial appearance was in the holiday special segment. Boba Fett wields a Sacros K-11 blaster, which bears a strong resemblance to the WESTAR-34 blaster pistols used by his father Jango in Attack of the Clones.
The complete segment was eventually made available in an official capacity as an Easter egg concealed within the Blu-Ray edition of the Complete Star Wars Saga. Luke dons the same jacket he wears at the end of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. Although Nelvana later contributed to the Star Wars Droids and Ewoks animated series, Ken Stephenson, the uncredited animation director for the animated segment, was the only Holiday Special crew member who returned to work on those two shows—of which he directed several episodes.
It was announced on March 16, 2021, via Disney's D23.com website, that the segment would be accessible on Disney+ starting April 2.
While the precise placement of this story within the timeline remains unclear, it can be inferred that it occurs after the events of the Star Wars: Rebel Force book series, but before the events of the Holiday Special. Within this cartoon, Boba pronounces his name as Boe-ba. This is how Kaminoan Taun We says it as well. Jango Fett pronounces it as Bob-a. When animating C-3PO for his Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series in 2003, Genndy Tartakovsky paid homage to Nelvana's animation style by making C-3PO's eyes move as Nelvana did. The planet Nelvaan is also an homage to Nelvana. The band Unkle sampled several of Boba Fett's lines from the short for their songs Bloodstain and Unreal, which were on their debut album Psyence Fiction.
In January 2022, Golden Books released an adaptation of the story.