Unless you’re a hardcore Star Wars devotee, it might be a little difficult to remember what it was like when The Mandalorian debuted on Disney+. That was, after all, a whole seven years ago, at a time when this sort of franchise extension was, if not unheard of, definitely not par for the course. But the show dropped like a thermal detonator, bringing a fresh and surprising look and tone to the universe at a time when that new perspective (remember, too, that Rise of Skywalker debuted a mere month later) was sorely needed. Since then, though, thanks to the increasingly mixed reception to the three seasons of The Mandalorian, the generally mixed-negative reaction to The Book of Boba Fett, and the less-than-desired reception to The Mandalorian and Grogu in theaters, well, seven years later The Mandalorian needs some fresh eyes on it, as well.
Thank goodness, then, for the 45ish minute animated special LEGO Star Wars: The Mandalorian, which will remind you why you love Star Wars — and The Mandalorian, in particular.
Less LEGO focused than, say, the Rebuild the Galaxy series (though don’t worry, there are some building sequences and a focus on cooperative play that is core to the brand), LEGO Star Wars: The Mandalorian is a joyful celebration of the highlights of the father/son story between Din Djarin, aka The Mandalorian of the title (Pedro Pascal in live action, here voiced by Gavin Hammon) and Grogu. It’s framed around a surprise party for Mando thrown by playful mechanic Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris) attended by all their friends and allies, proving over the course of the runtime that Mando isn’t quite the lone wolf he says he is. And as they all party and bond, various characters recount the major beats of seasons of the series (and a quick tip of the hat to the movie), with plenty of roasting going on at the same time.
It’s a tricky tone to walk that these LEGO specials hit surprisingly often: paying loving tribute to a property, while also skewering it at the same time. There’s a bit of naughtiness around the special building up the myth of Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison), for example, only to make The Book of Boba Fett into an actual book and then everyone demands they skip the less interesting chapters. Or the same with, er, most of Season 3 of the series, instead jumping straight to the highlights of the battle between Mando and Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito). Heck, there’s even a “Baby Yoda” joke in the special that made me laugh out loud.
But more than that, it’s the initial stories from Peli recounting Season 1 that reminded me: oh right, Mandalorian was really, really good. And more than that, a cultural monolith that even with its simplistic storylines dominated conversation for weeks at a time, from everyone suddenly becoming obsessed with a frog husband and frog wife, to repeated catchphrases like “This is the way” and “I have spoken” (how they ever got Nick Nolte to lay down his voice for this special, I would have loved to be a fly on the wall for that phone call). It’s certainly not hurt by the LEGO special utilizing Ludwig Göransson’s now iconic score for the runtime (and at one point, an extremely well deployed bit of John Williams’s score from the sequel trilogy as a joke punctuation), which also helps balance the rapid “best of” pace navigate from non-stop jokes to scenes that are actually pretty majestic in their scale.
I mentioned Nolte, and it’s also wild how many of the live-action actors contribute to this. Bill Burr is back as Migs Mayfield, Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan, Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand, Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, Taika Waititi as IG-11/IG-12 (providing some of the funniest bits of the special)… Even Timothy Olyphant as Cobb Vanth. And some of the subs are pretty great, including Carl Lumbly playing Greef Karga, picking up from Carl Weathers, who sadly passed in 2024, Flula Borg instead of Werner Herzog as The Client, and while Mark Hamill doesn’t return as Luke Skywalker the all purpose Eric Bauza provides the next best thing.
In fact, there are so many all-star voices in here, it’s a little surprising that Pedro Pascal was absent as The Mandalorian. Perhaps, given there’s a recurrent joke about how much work he actually does on the show as the helmeted main character, him not providing a voice for this project is a joke, as well? That’s nothing against Hammon, by the way, who does a great job here of aping Pascal’s voice and cadence. But coupled with the fact that the design of LEGO Grogu is curiously nowhere near as adorable as “live-action” Grogu, and if there’s a knock on the special it’s that the main duo are really the only thing making this feel like direct-to-Disney+ instead of a bonus episode of the series.
But that aside, at a time when there are a lot of questions about the future of Star Wars as a franchise, and a general uneasiness about where it goes next, at least between the continuity free Star Wars: Visions – The Ninth Jedi and the absolute blast of nostalgic fun (can one be nostalgic for a time less than a decade past? I guess so!) of LEGO Star Wars: The Mandalorian, the franchise is in safe minifigure hands going forward. This is the way.
LEGO Star Wars: The Mandalorian is now streaming on Disney+.
Comic Book Club Live Info:
Share this:
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.