Is This the Way?

Nearly seven years after The Mandalorian helped launch the Disney+ streaming service, Mando and his sidekick, Grogu (aka Baby Yoda), hit the big screen in Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu. 

The result is pretty much exactly what you’d expect: an extended episode of the show with bigger explosions, some fan service, and just enough heart to keep you engaged for more than two hours.

The film follows Din Djarin (voiced, once again, by Pedro Pascal) and Grogu as they get pulled into another galaxy-spanning mission — this time, involving the son of Jabba the Hutt (yes, Chef, he’s voiced by The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White). Along the way, familiar faces and voices pop up, including Sigourney Weaver as Colonel Ward, a senior New Republic officer, and Martin Scorsese (of all people) as an alien food vendor. 

The good news is you don’t need to have watched the three seasons of The Mandalorian, or the one season of The Book of Boba Fett, or be heavily invested in Star Wars lore, to enjoy this film. It’s pretty much a self-contained adventure that doesn’t heavily reference previous plot lines. On the other hand, knowledge of Jabba the Hutt is important — though, if you don’t know who Jabba the Hutt is, you’re not the target audience for the film, anyway.

While The Mandalorian always had more big-screen ambition than the average TV show, The Mandalorian and Grogu definitely has TV DNA pumping through its veins. The structure is episodic to a fault; the characters bounce from chase sequence to action sequence to exposition scene like someone stitched together a few particularly expensive streaming episodes. You can practically hear the Disney+ “Next Episode” button begging to appear in the corner of the screen every so often. Some emotional moments don’t fully land, and more than one performance feels weirdly stiff. 

I also thought most of the aliens here were uglier than any of the creatures in the most recent Jurassic World movies. There’s one scene in particular where multiple Hutts fight each other that almost turned my stomach.

But you know what? I still generally enjoyed the film.

Director and co-writer Jon Favreau clearly understands that the appeal of The Mandalorian was never high art; it was watching a cool space dad and his Force-powered toddler fly around the galaxy, getting into and out of trouble. It’s really just that simple. The movie sticks to that formula hard, with enough aw-shucks comic relief peppered throughout.

(If Grogu doesn’t do it for you, the four tiny Anzellan mechanics definitely will. And if neither of them do it for you, there’s also Stephen McKinley Henderson, who voices a kind, swamp-dwelling alien late in the film.)

So, fine, this isn’t top-tier Star Wars. But it’s mostly good fun anyway. Fans of the series will probably eat it up. Longtime, obsessive Star Wars fans may shrug. Either way, The Mandalorian and Grogu is a decent one-off adventure with enough blaster fire and Grogu cuteness to justify the ticket price.

After all, not every Star Wars story needs to reinvent the galaxy.

I’m giving The Mandalorian and Grogu a B.