The Mandalorian and Grogu REVIEW | Star Wars | NON-SPOILER

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:10]This is the way.

[00:00:13]>> [music] >> The Mandalorian and Grogu, my friend Tim and I were fortunate enough to see an IMAX screening early to check out what the next chapter is going to be in the story of Din Djarin and little baby Grogu himself. Going into it, I was expecting it to kind of be a sequel of sorts to Dave Filoni's Clone Wars movie.

[00:00:35]If you haven't seen the Clone Wars, you really should. This movie is pretty much that. It is its own sliver of storytelling. Almost knocked the child over here. It's not a big scope in terms of what they're trying to cover in this world of Star Wars. We've been covering the crime syndicates for a while in Star Wars. Outlander, Outsider, Outlaws, is that what it was? I love that game.

[00:00:56]Apparently not enough to remember what it's called, but I did enjoy getting to see a little bit more of the inner workings of the syndicates. One of those being the Hutts. Now, with this movie, you are covering pretty much just the Hutts, Din Djarin, a little bit of the Rebel Alliance. Sorry, the Republic. Led now by the amazing Sigourney Weaver.

[00:01:15]However, obviously this probably was a role that was for Carl Weathers, unfortunately passing away. RIP. But, I got to say, with this movie, we kicked it off with a bang. Now, I understand why they were putting the beginning of this movie out so people could check it out. This whole opening sequence with Din Djarin, it all felt like an episode of The Mandalorian. Now, specifically episode of one of The Mandalorian that came out and just showcased how badass the stranger, the Mandalorian, you know, this bounty hunter of sorts out on, you know, the galactic frontier trying to hunt down these nefarious characters who are essentially taking over the townsfolk people. And you've got that, you know, the handsome stranger coming in to come and uh shake things up a little bit. With the western side of things, absolutely. I think they did keep that consistent throughout the movie. Maybe not so on the music front.

[00:02:08]If you are a fan of Vangelis or what Kevin Kiner and Ludwig Göransson have been doing for a while in the world of Star Wars music, it is like a western crossed with Blade Runner. A lot of Vangelis in that music and I love that.

[00:02:22]If you are expecting John Williams type cinematic scoring, you aren't going to get that with this movie. We have kind of shifted over and if you have watched the last few seasons of The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, hell, I even believe that Darth Maul has some Kevin Kiner in there, so I would expect it to show up there. Synth Synth and electronic integrated with the scoring is now a big part of Star Wars and for those that aren't looking for that, this movie is full of it and I loved it. Now, with that opening sequence, you get amazing shots. There's a one take. The one take is fairly simple of a one take. There's been better one takes in other movies.

[00:03:01]However, a one take taking you into an area that you know about Star Wars, but haven't been into that area to give you a one take, holy crap, I lost my mind when that ended up taking place. So, getting to see some badass action moments and shot beautifully on a scope that is just so cinematic versus what we would get in the TV series. I loved it and I want to see more of that when it comes to taking us to places in the world of Star Wars or vehicles in the world of Star Wars and actually showing us quite a bit more and having badass action sequences in those vehicles, even better. Baby Grogu is adorable. Every 5 minutes it feels like Baby Grogu is doing something so damn cute. Just existing is pretty damn cute. Look at him, I love him. He's the best. Baby Grogu and the Anzellans, I believe, the Babu Frik, which I got them back there.

[00:03:55]Hey, hey! The Anzellans are, uh, you know, a fun little addition to the movie, and we saw them in the last season of The Mandalorian, so obviously they know what people like. They're going to give you more of that. For some people, that could feel like shoehorning in some characters just for the hell of it, kind of like Baby Grogu here. He didn't need to be in the show anymore.

[00:04:12]You kind of let him go, and we could have come back to him down the road. Not the case. So, there is a point where we kind of reach the halfway point of the movie, and it does kind of shift into a more enemy mine type, which does slow things down, but it's still cute as hell. If you love Baby Grogu and the Anzellans, it is a very charming, uh, moment uh, that goes on for a little while, but, uh, for those that are expecting a much bigger galactic impacting, uh, story, this is this is not what this is. This is essentially Baby Grogu and Din Djarin going through and, uh, trying to get out of a pickle and stop the bad guys. Very western. Westerns where you do have these gangsters that are kind of taking over and running the show and being dicks to the main character and being dicks to the little kid that the main character hangs out with. We've seen it before in other movies, but it is stuff that has been done before. Now, something that has been done before that this movie does, it blew my mind when I saw it, stop-motion animation. There is a scene that utilizes stop-motion animation, and it's janky, okay? It looks janky, but my god, it worked in my opinion. It's shuttery. It isn't perfect. It is the charm that was these movies of the '70s and '80s and the Harryhausen's and I love seeing it here.

[00:05:31]From what I understand, Phil Tippett's team, or at least his people, came and did, uh, the work in this movie, and I do feel like people are going to [ __ ] on that. They're going to look at it and say, "Oh my god, that CG is garbage."

[00:05:43]Uh, no, man, that is RoboCop, Clash of the Titans, Star Wars, good old classic stop-motion animation. Uh it's not for the whole movie, it is only in this one scene from what I could tell, but I loved it. It fit those characters so well. Ludwig's music came in clutch, very similar to when you saw Luke Skywalker destroy them robots in uh season 2 of The Mandalorian. But I was very happy to see that in this uh movie, as well as all the other practical effects. We know those little robots that are walking around Galaxy's Edge are in this movie a couple times. They are scenery dressing in the back.

[00:06:17]They're physical things in the scenes, you know, no longer are they really beholden to the volume. It feels like we do have these very massive sets. Yes, there is some questionable CG when it comes to the Hutts. The Hutts are giant, but we saw this already with the special edition of A New Hope. Once you take a Hutt out of practicality and you move them into uh a movie as action-oriented and requiring a lot of movement like this, it's not going to look the best because these are giant heavy slugs, and I don't feel like you can't convey that using CG. Rota? Loved Rota. But if you're a fan again of Dave Filoni's Clone Wars, it's definitely a continuation for you, and I love that. Do you need that information before seeing this? No, not at all. But for those that did go and watch The Clone Wars animated movie by Filoni, it feels like a full circle moment, man.

[00:07:11]That was the original child. It is a full circle moment, especially seeing Rota and Baby Grogu together, the child.

[00:07:21]But I do love that they took this time to give us this fun continuation of The Mandalorian story. Did we need it? No.

[00:07:30]Did I love it? Yes, I loved it because I had a lot of fun. My face so many times I I just felt myself grinning during certain moments. Homages. There's homages to other movies, there's homages to certain specific shots if you can pick them out. They are very similar. Uh but it doesn't feel like a total tack on. It doesn't feel like a member berry moment. It feels like, you know what?

[00:07:54]Yeah, you should do this shot in that moment because it makes sense. It is something that many of us do remember from A New Hope and they do it in here on a much bigger scale. I think that if you are a fan of Baby Grogu, you got to go see it. Baby Grogu is amazing. Now, when it comes to Pedro Pascal, yeah, you know, it's more about his stunt actors uh which do get top three billing with Pedro uh in the credits of this movie.

[00:08:18]So, I love that for them because they're doing all the work and Pedro, you know, he's doing VO which is a lot of work, but uh he doesn't do a whole lot and he doesn't have to because the characters with the masks are typically the ones that people remember most. Darth Vader, everyone still loves him, but it wasn't James Earl Jones behind that mask. Uh it was David Prowse. So, when it comes to Star Wars, I do feel like Baby Grogu is very important. I do feel like this is a nice little uh page out of Baby Grogu's very long story that they are going to keep telling for a while. I do think that if you are even a little bit of a fan of these adventures when it comes to Din Djarin, Grogu, the Hutts, and the gangsters and you don't need to go back into the world of the Galactic Empire, this is a good fun way to do it uh without massive stakes for the universe, for the galaxy, but pretty big stakes for Din Djarin and the child as well.

[00:09:15]Also, if you watch the movie in IMAX, you're going to get a very special opening for the countdown which was exciting. Not too many movies do that.

[00:09:22]Either way, are you checking out The Mandalorian and Grogu? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. You can also like and subscribe. Do the thing on our Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram where you can check out Vanessa's adventures at EDC. Hence why she wasn't at the screening. Now, it's time to say goodbye, and this party is over. Bye.