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The Mandalorian & Grogu | Movie Review

I went for the first of what will be many viewings of The Mandalorian & Grogu on Thursday night. This is such a fun movie. If you like The Mandalorian TV show… or Dad Movies, you’re going to enjoy this movie. What I’m saying is that this is A Star Wars Dad Movie™. Spoilers ahead…

While Mando was expectedly awesome, this movie was about Grogu really choosing who he wants to be.

When I saw the first 30 minutes of The Mandalorian & Grogu, I knew that it was going to be a great action movie. That first half hour of Din just mowing through those B-rate Imperials was exciting to watch, but I knew from the various interviews in the lead-up to the release that Grogu was going to get his time to shine.

Boy, did he.

There’s been a lot of complaining in some of the early reviews that there’s no “character arc” or “moving the Star Wars story forward” arc in the movie, but I wholeheartedly disagree.

The second half of this movie is about Grogu choosing who he wants to be. Sure, he chose to go back with Din in that episode of The Book of Boba Fett. This movie, however, is about Grogu deciding that he’s not just a scared little boy hanging out with his Mandalorian dad. Grogu is a fighter and a warrior. He very clearly chooses that path in this movie and it was so much fun to see. Our baby boy is growing up.

I think being a dad has made me appreciate bonds between dads and their kids and movies and shows a lot more these days. I never really had a fear that Din was going to die in this movie, but everything Grogu does while he’s incapacitated was adorable.

As a lore whore…

While the movie didn’t expound upon the Empire very much beyond a few really cool things, that did spend time building the underworld and Outer Rim.

One of the things I was quite excited about was that the Droid Gotra played such a large role in the movie. I thought it was a very cool concept and it was created for publishing, and it’s really great to see that come over into live action (animation would have been cool, too).

I can’t wait to see where the Gotra pop up again. A criminal syndicate that is full of only droids who are hardcore supporters of droid rights? Give me more.

They let the artists cook.

The puppetry and stop-motion animation in this movie were so fantastic. There were times where I was stunned at how great Grogu and some of the Anzellans were. You can tell they spent time perfecting the movements for these characters and it really made them feel more alive in this movie than any of the episodes of the show before this. will say that some of the CGI did look a little off. Specifically, some of the CGI characters looked a little off in the daylight as expected. That’s been a problem for CGI for a long time now, and to me it really affected Zeb and Rotta in different scenes.

On the other hand, I will say that some of the CGI did look a little off. Specifically, some of the CGI characters looked a little off in the daylight as expected. That’s been a problem for CGI for a long time now, and to me it really affected Zeb and Rotta in different scenes.

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