24/05/2026
The Mandalorian And Grogu (2026) – Review by Matt Fox (May The Toys Be With You)
CONTAINS SPOILERS – please see the film before reading!
It’s been six years since we’ve had a Star Wars movie on the big screen, although The Mandalorian And Grogu clearly began life intended for the small screen, as several episodes of what would have been Season 4 of The Mandalorian TV show. There is some precedence for this in Star Wars, as back in 2008 George Lucas watched the first three episodes of The Clones Wars cartoon series in his cinema-sized screening room and said, “this is beautiful, why not make this a feature.” And thusly it was released to cinemas (and in another connection, the character ‘Rotta The Hutt’ serves as the MacGuffin to drive the plot in both The Clone Wars movie and The Mandalorian And Grogu).
If The Mandalorian And Grogu had been 4 episodes of the TV show, I think they’d have been lauded as amongst the better episodes. However, as a coherent 2hr+ big screen movie, audience expectations are understandably higher, and in truth the film feels quite clunkily structured – every 15 minutes Mando seems to have a fight with some CGI enemies, and there is little to build a compelling narrative or arc to either the action or the characters involved.
However, to some this will be a plus. And for those audience members who really love action, this is definitely the most action-heavy Star Wars movie yet. As an older viewer who grew up with the Original Trilogy, my heart is more with practical fx and in-camera action and thankfully it’s not all CGI here. There’s one great fight scene in particular, where the Mandalorian and Grogu work together to fight a pair of robot mini-bosses guarding the Hutts throne room, animated by legendary stop-motion guru Phil Tippett.
The movie opens on a snowy planet, where Mando is hunting down an ex-Imperial warlord. There are three AT AT Walkers involved, and a bit of stretching credibility as they open fire point blank at Mando and all manage to miss – I guess the AT AT gunners are just as much bad shots as the Stormtroopers. As an old school toy collector I was rather thrilled to see that the small craft which the Warlord attempts to escape in is none other than the vintage Star Wars ‘mini rig’ toy INT-4. These mini rig toys not seen in the original trilogy were created by Kenner in the early 80s with the thought that they ‘could have been’ in the films but they were just off camera. So, it’s wonderful to see the INT-4 make its silver screen debut some 25 years later!
After this Mando and Grogu head to a Resistance Base (which looks rather too much like a modern day military base for my liking) and they walk past Dave Filoni (who looks rather too much like Dave Filoni for my liking), and then meet Sigourney Weaver (who is rather phoning it in too much for my liking – or perhaps the script just isn’t giving her enough to work with).
Here’s where the second episode begins, as Mando and Grogu go to the planet Shakari (a slightly more ominous Coruscant) to extract Rotta The Hutt, who is a successful gladiator and doesn’t want to leave. Rotta speaks with an American accent which for me is another negative – Star Wars has traditionally had a strangeness and otherworldliness to it, and like Skeleton Crew this overt Americanisation feels like dumbing down. It doesn’t help that Rotta only has a single personality trait and repeats himself throughout the film, “it’s hard being Jabba’s son” he sighs, again and again. On the plus side, the gladiatorial combat based on the Dejarik board (the hologram Chess set from the original Star Wars), is a really neat idea and allows for a big all-action sequence. It ends with Mando rescuing Rotta and catching Imperial Warlord number two (who looks and behaves so similarly to Warlord number one that you’d be forgiven for thinking it was the same dude).
Episode 3 is where the movie becomes more interesting. Mando and Grogu are back home and the Anzellans come to visit – you remember Babu Frik, the standout little Cartman-like alien from Rise of Skywalker – well now there are four of them. Thank god for puppetry, these little characters, along with Grogu are just magic and brought the film alive for me. It made me wish for a Jim Henson style Dark Crystal / Labyrinth film with these characters taking centre stage. If the whole movie had been this I’d have been in absolute paradise.
Mando and one of the Anzellans are kidnapped away to the Hutts planet, Nal Hutta. This planet is great - it’s got a swampy Vietnam type biome with sort of a living palace made from vegetation. We get a few glimpses of the slug-like Hutts within the environment (I’d have liked a bit more, because this conjured up some of that otherworldliness that I mentioned). Grogu and the three Babu boys mount the most adorable rescue of all time and although the film does lapse back to its stock trade of Mando fighting CGI creatures (a bunch of Amani and a white water serpent), the scenes that follow as Grogu nurses a poisoned Mando back to health are the most special. I wish there was more of this, because its so good. Grogu builds a Yoda-style hovel to keep Mando safe in, and finally the film is brave enough to slow down and just be about the two title characters. Brilliant.
Episode 4 is the finale. A restored Mando heads back into the Hutts palace to deal some payback and rescue Rotta. I thought this was a really satisfying climax to the movie, it includes that cool stop motion fight scene I mentioned earlier, and also a threeway Hutt throwdown which is also a lot of fun. Sigourney Weaver and Dave Filoni show up in X-Wings to provide a final ‘big boom’ explosion. There is a goodbye back at the US military base, and then Mando and Grogu head off alone in their ship, unchanged and exactly as they were at the start of the movie (character development be damned!). What we do get at the very end though is a really awesome bit of soundtrack. Do yourself a favour and have a listen to ‘Your turn, Grogu’ by Ludwig Goransson – this is my favourite track from the OST, and adds an almost Beatles-esque touch to the classic Mandalorian theme.
As an overall movie The Mandalorian And Grogu is objectively decent rather than outstanding, and I understand why professional critics have been hard on it. But subjectively there are elements and parts within it that I wholeheartedly love and will keep coming back to. That’s the magic of Star Wars. Somehow the best bits in a Star Wars movie, will outweigh the best bits in another movie. I’m already looking forward to a home release and hopefully lots of cool behind the scenes and ‘making of’ footage, which I think will deepen the appreciation for what was achieved in this film, particularly in the design work and the practical sets and creatures. This is the way!
