‘The Mandalorian And Grogu’ Review: Star Wars Returns To The Big Screen With A Delightful Family Adventure

There’s a lot riding on Disney and Lucasfilm’s The Mandalorian and Grogu, the first theatrically released Star Wars movie since the critical failure of The Rise of Skywalker back in 2019. Add in that the film is coming off three seasons of The Mandalorian TV show on Disney+ and the first big release in a new era of management at Lucasfilm, and there’s a lot of pressure on a movie that, frankly, doesn’t deserve it. Because rather than your now requisite “everything changes forever!!” franchise entry, the new film goes in the opposite direction, offering a pleasing family adventure with rousing, non-stop spectacle, more akin to earnest, done-in-one fantasy films like The Dark Crystal and Willow than any of the previous theatrical entries in the franchise.

Picking up after the end of The Mandalorian Season 3, it’s all credit to director Jon Favreau and co-writers Favreau, Dave Filoni (50% of the new leads of Lucasfilm), and Noah Floor that you have to watch exactly zero TV shows or movies to understand what’s happening here. All you really need to know is that the titular Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) is a silver-helmeted bounty hunter with a young green ward popularly known as Baby Yoda, though his actual name is Grogu. There’s no Mandalorian lore in the film, or big revelations about Grogu’s origin or connection to the mystical Force. Even the inclusion of Zeb Orrelios (Steve Blum) from the animated Star Wars: Rebels requires no prior knowledge: he’s the pilot who gets Mando and Grogu to their next mission. That’s the whole deal.

Also in the mix are Sigourney Weaver as Ward, a leader in the New Republic who is employing The Mandalorian to take out Imperial Warlords still grasping onto power after the fall of the Empire. So okay, fine, maybe it’s helpful to have watched Return of the Jedi, though not required reading. That particular threequel is also helpful in understanding the other main antagonists of the movie beyond the warlords: the Hutts. Specifically, the Twins, seemingly conjoined brother and sister slug aliens who have taken control of the crime syndicate previously run by the terrifying Jabba The Hutt. They’re employing The Mandalorian – via the New Republic – to find their lost cousin, Rotta The Hutt (Jeremy Allen White), who has gone missing; and in exchange the Twins will give The Mandalorian information on the mysterious Commander Coin, a devious warlord the New Republic desperately wants to take into custody.

All of this is a thin excuse to send the title characters speeding off to various planets and getting in – and out – of various messes, from the Blade Runner-esque Shakari to the swampy Nal Hutta, home of the Hutts, to a snow planet, and other locations throughout the galaxy (though thankfully not Tatooine, the backwater planet that thus far has been home to some of the biggest events in the franchise). Particularly in the first half of the 132 minute movie, things clip along at a brisk pace that seems akin to a kid describing a Star Wars movie, hepped up on too much candy after the show (“and then they went to an ice planet and then a swamp planet and everybody was pew pew pew”), which eventually begins to get a little exhausting… Particularly in light of the general lack of real emotional stakes.

Thankfully, that’s about the time the movie turns into an puppet extravaganza, and becomes utterly delightful again, thanks to a team-up between Grogu and the caustic, tiny droidsmith aliens the Anzellans. While there’s clearly a fair amount of digital trickery going on there (I don’t think Grogu can climb a cliff all by himself), the movie immediately perks up when it swerves from CGI characters like Zeb and Rotta to goofy puppets doing goofy puppet stuff. In fact, that extended section, as well as a point when the movie calms down enough to let Grogu spend some time wandering a jungle on his own are so good, it makes a solid argument for an all-puppet Star Wars movie (see above re: Dark Crystal).

It’s a stark contrast between the janky but endearing puppetry and throwback effects – for example, a massive pair of droids who attack our heroes late in the movie move look like stop motion creatures, and call to mind a similar mechanical monstrosity from the closing battle in Labyrinth – versus the slick but by contrast unbelievable effects to generate Rotta and other characters. Not necessarily helping that is the decision to have Rotta, in particular, be a heavily muscled gladiator Hutt who speaks English (or, I guess, Galactic Basic) with a Brooklyn accent. Or the fact that Rotta’s emotional arc in relation to his father doesn’t really connect to the Mandalorian and Grogu’s “father/son” relationship, other than fathers and sons being present in both cases.

But this visual disconnect is true across the board: the should-be-less-believable puppets feel more real and more exciting than the should-be-more-believable digital characters. This is present from the cold open on, as Grogu’s herky-jerky, hilarious little toddler walk contrasts with Zeb’s digital shuffle as they walk on either side of The Mandalorian, during an opening credit strut taken straight from Top Gun. Star Wars has always pushed technology forward, but there’s something to be said for returning to its prosthetic and puppet roots, over the digital directions the franchise has leaned in. The one exception? Martin Scorsese as a multi-limbed shopkeeper The Mandalorian interrogates, which is allowable merely because hearing the legendary director’s voice coming out of an alien serving up space-shwarma is so weird it works.

Also against the movie is the breakneck pace, which almost explicitly seems to be a full season of The Mandalorian at 1.5 times speed. The streaming series drew applause initially for presenting a movie scope and visuals on the small screen, while taking its time with minimal, focused stories each episode akin to mini-Westerns. Now a movie, the visuals are still good in The Mandalorian and Grogu, but it’s only that “Grogu Alone” vignette that doesn’t feel like a race to get a 30-40 minute long episode done in half the time. The script brings everything together nicely, but the final act feels more like a season finale, without any of the emotional heft brought to bear by the long, lingering moments the TV series revels in.

But despite all that… It’s still a fun time at the movie theater. In short? The Mandalorian and Grogu is the perfect accompaniment to popcorn and soda, a big summer action adventure that often will leave you feeling utterly delighted – and occasionally exhausted. This may not be the Star Wars theatrical epic you were looking for, but speaking for myself, I would very much like to see the baby… Get a sequel.

The Mandalorian and Grogu hits theaters on May 22, 2026.

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