Mr. GROGU's Wild Ride
I'm unable to describe The Mandalorian and Grogu as anything other than an extended cinematic Star Wars manifestation of an all-time favorite Disneyland attraction of mine. It's meandering, zany, carefree and slightly unhinged. A joyride fueled by mania. A bombastically quaint escapade. It is Return of the Jedi meets "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride."
There is mayhem in a mansion and hiding out in swamps. There are outrageous motorcar chases in darkened city streets, bar fights, hellish caverns inhabited by fearsome monsters and more gratuitously discharged explosives than one can count. And in the end, it may not all make complete sense. But that was never really the point.
This is an unburdened film that delivers just as advertised, no more, no less. As Mando's boss Sigourney Weaver puts it, the movie is "Messy. Very messy." But it embraces the eccentricity of the galaxy far, far away in the best possible ways. Jon Favreau has broken loose from the fighting pit and made something bizarre in a manner I've come to expect and eagerly anticipate.
The Goldeneye-adjacent cold open and overtly Top Gun-esque "conventional" opening titles on Adelphi Base immediately calibrate this as a big screen experience, with the latter being a stylistic shift I appreciated (though I wish it wasn't the apparent tradeoff for losing the show's signature concept art end credits). On the topic of concept art, the legacy of Ralph McQuarrie continues to breath life into contemporary stories. For those that recognize the visual nods, it's a nice homage. For the rest of the unfamiliar audience, it's simply realizing unused ideas that have remained good ones for decades.
Composer Ludwig Göransson's imprint with The Mandalorian was instantly generational. Hearing his Mando work fully elevated in a moviegoing environment was the element I might’ve been the most excited for and the score is unsurprisingly phenomenal. Like the show, The Mandalorian and Grogu's classic Star Wars callbacks are rarely from a musical standpoint, leaving room for a wholly original orchestral soundscape that fittingly references and enriches cues from its own strong small screen repertoire. Ludwig's thumping percussion and uniquely otherworldly tones, be they organic or electronic, are dialed to 11. "Shakari" and "Rotta" (with its touch of underlying Rocky Balboa brass) are repeatable vibe-setting standouts with excellent story-serving reprises in "The Pit Fight" and "Do We Run? Or Do We Fight?" Perfectly menacing is "Embo," while rhythmic diegetic sounds are inventively interwoven with the Imperial alarms in "This Is the Way" and "The Pit Fight" crowd chants. "Go Kid" and "Grogu's World" are responsible for an immense portion of the heavy lifting in the emotional core sequence. A truly iconic effort.
Rotta the Hutt is a marvel that carries on the Mandoverse tradition of leaving no Star Wars source untapped. Having loved The Bear for years, I simply could not believe what I was witnessing when Jabba's son first spoke as his post-match massage droids did their work. It's outrageous, but his character and Jeremy Allen White's performance are somehow what kept me grounded. Well, Rotta and his creature co-stars, that is. The Anzellans and their Jetsons-sounding mini-speeder bring the dopamine to balance Grogu's serotonin infusion.
Unconventional expressions of affection have become a running trait with The Mandalorian and its father-son framework of a stoic, semi-permanently masked warrior and a nonverbal, froglike infant mystic. As much as it pains me to say, I'm coming to terms with the notion that the emotional wallop I've been yearning for since the face-to-face ending of "The Rescue" may just be out of reach at this stage. That said, Grogu's touching caretaking interlude and instinctual hut building hit much, much harder on a second viewing and always will now.
My fatherhood essentially beginning simultaneously with Din's onscreen and watching my child grow and connect with these characters has added an undeniable layer of sentimentality for this weird corner of the universe. It's been "our" shared Star Wars the past near-seven years and feels fated to have been my daughter's first new theatrical journey. Like "Mr. Toad," The Mandalorian and Grogu won't suit all tastes but certainly has its place.
Strap in, take a Razorcrest to nowhere in particular and enjoy the ride.
