The Mandalorian and Grogu Review: Yoda Man!

A basic, standalone Star Wars action movie IS what you wanted, right?

This is insanely specific, but if you are old enough to have wondered who the hell Amanaman was when his action figure came out and was the coolest thing ever in the original Star Wars toy line, The Mandalorian and Grogu was made for you.

If that means less than nothing to you, you’ll still be okay. The Mandalorian and Grogu is a straightforward, straight-ahead action-adventure quest movie in the Star Wars universe, without any deeper themes or lore ties. [“The old protect the young. The young protect the old,” presetned as a theme in the trailers, is actually just a throwaway line in the final product.] Sure, if you know purple-skinned Zeb from Rebels and his Mandalorian cameos, his presence may mean more, and if you watched The Book of Boba Fett, you’ve seen the Hutt Twins before. What counts, though, is which side they’re on, and that’s pretty quickly apparent in every case.

I’m old enough to remember when Clerks came out and derided Return of the Jedi as “just a bunch of muppets.” I was just out of college when the Star Wars Special Editions came out, and CGI Jabba the Hutt ruined our childhood. In that light, it takes a hell of a lot of chutzpah for a guy about my age to make a Star Wars movie that is almost ENTIRELY muppets and CGI Jabbas. Plus one guy in full body armor who is occasionally played by Pedro Pascal.

Then again, The Mandalorian is the show that cast Ahmed “Jar Jar Binks” Best as the Jedi master who saved young Grogu from the Jedi Temple massacre of the prequels. Redemption of things fans think they hate is kind of the Mandalorian’s business.

If you were a kid my age, even if the movie Return of the Jedi disappointed slightly, the toys did not. The action figures that came out in advance of the movie were the most bizarre aliens of the saga – our disappointment in the movie was that they were mostly all crammed into group scenes and didn’t actually get much to do. I know I share that feeling with Mandalorian director Jon Favreau and new Lucasfilm head Dave Filoni, because they’ve set out to give justice and screen time to versions of all those aliens, over the course of their tenures on Star Wars stuff.

For me, the generic human figures were never as interesting as the creatures; in The Mandalorian and Grogu, it’s like Favreau grabbed all the coolest action figures of the wildest aliens, and made a story about them. No boring, plain people allowed, unless they wear weaponized full body armor. Or are Sigourney Weaver showing up for maybe a week, to mostly do dialogue scenes in one location. As in Predator: Badlands, aliens can be violently dispatched while keeping a PG-13 rating intact.

Predator did it better, because they got to make up new lore, but Mando and Baby Yodey, as they’re known informally in my house and possibly yours too, do just fine in their own extended, enlarged TV episode. It’s shot for Imax, which is a mixed blessing – spaceflight scenes are great, but the fights, which are mostly shot in closeup, TV style, might benefit from a smaller-screen look. Familiar sets like the Razor Crest, and CG aliens like Hutts, also look a little more fake when enlarged to super-size, but at this point you’re either bought in to the universe or your aren’t.

Don’t worry about spoilers with this movie, as there’s little to spoil. The Mandalorian Din Djarin, space bounty hunter for the good guys in his weaponized armored suit, and with a 50+ year-old baby Jedi in tow, goes on a mission to grab a target. It proceeds like a video game: clear one stage, go to the next. Get new information that recontextualizes things? Then it’s time to revisit an older level and do different things there. Rinse, repeat until you get to fight the final boss. There’s even an interlude where the player, er, the viewer, gets to see a level played out through the secondary protagonist, as a side quest.

When various entertainment journalists did a set visit, Favreau told them that the name of one villain would sound very familiar. He wasn’t lying, exactly...but let’s just say it has nothing to do with pre-existing legacy characters.

This might be the most violent live-action Star Wars movie yet; it’s also the most plot-light, sticking to its Lone Wolf and Cub roots. Jeremy Allen White, so terrible in The Iron Claw as Kerry Von Erich, a professional fighter and son of a famous SOB, redeems himself here playing Rotta the Hutt, basically the same role, but as a giant mocap space slug. Indeed, he justifies the use of CG Hutts here, as we actually see him fight in ways that would be unfeasible for large puppets. Elsewhere, George Lucas’ fetish for small aliens (think Jawas, Ugnaughts, Ewoks) is realized in puppet form via the Anzellans, Babu Frik’s race of little droidsmiths. Babu was one aspect of The Rise of Skywalker that everyone actually seemed to like; his brethren drew laughs at my screening, at least.

And then there’s Grogu. We’ve seen him out in public so much that it feels like maybe he’s been overexposed, and some of the mystery spoiled, but back in his own element, and on a feature budget, he gets a lot more done. No longer is he just a cute thing tagging along – he’s an intelligent fighter and healer now, though he still doesn’t talk. I’m certain some of his traits have been digitally enhanced, but wonders are worked here with puppetry, and if you ever believed in him before, you will again.

Consider this movie the anti-Andor: it’s not about anything much, fascism or otherwise, but it’s also mostly lacking in boring humans (Stormtroopers barely count as humans). It also has actual fun music that sounds like it could be in-universe pop; Ludwig Goransson gets to be a bit creative here; if you stay through the credits, the only reward is to hear him having some fun with the familiar TV theme.

If Din Djarin and Grogu stepped into Andor, they could probably single-handedly overthrow the Coruscant government. This is the kind of story conceived on a living room floor with Kenner figures and vehicles, and I’m a sucker for that sort of thing when it’s toys I remember having. Neither the best nor worst Star Wars, it’s refreshingly unpretentious in its desire to just kick ass while throwing in a couple of your favorite vintage vehicles (look out for one of the classic mini-rigs finally getting a scene!).

For better and worse, incidentally, I’d venture to say this is a story that’s almost impossible to classify as “woke” or “too political.” And believe me, I know certain segments of Star Wars fandom will try really hard. But if you’re gonna try to come at Pedro Pascal and Sigourney Weaver as DEI, good effin’ luck with that.

The Mandalorian and Grogu opens in theaters Friday. All images courtesy of Lucasfilm.

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