The Mandalorian and Grogu

Me and Grogu,
Halloween 2022

We've come a long way from those uncertain times for Lucasfilm circa 2019. The Mandalorian, the first live-action Star Wars television show, debuted on Disney+ around the same time that the final film in the nine-part, multi-decade Skywalker sage titled The Rise of Skywalker underperformed among critics and fans. It helped recalibrate the studio and try something different. From that first moment that the enigmatic warrior with Beskar armor walked into the cavern to collect his bounty to the final moment of the pilot in which he sets forth on the path to fatherhood by taking in the adorable creature the internet nicknamed "Baby Yoda," viewers knew that they were in for a treat. 

A lot has changed since then. The first season was followed by a second that was almost as good, though it suffered from a pinch of fan service, no doubt thanks to Dave Filoni, the co-creator of The Mandalorian and other Star Wars projects like Rebels and Ahsoka, who just can't seem to help himself. The series concluded its story arch after just two seasons, which is fine, but then the story of "Mando" and Grogu, as we later learned he was called, inexplicably carried on muddily into the spinoff series The Book of Boba Fett, which then led to a third, considerably weaker and goofier season in which nothing particularly interesting happens (although Jack Black and Lizzo are married in it). 

The opening of the newest tale of this unique duo is The Mandalorian and Grogu, directed and co-written by the other creator of the show, Jon Favreau. The opening of it largely mirrors the trajectory of the show, starting crisply as Mando (or Din Djarin as he's officially known) creeps his way around the base of an ex-Imperial officer now ruling as a warlord in the era of the New Republic before the film's vibe devolves into Filoni-esque fan service. (It's seriously concerning that this is the guy they're handing over the keys of Lucasfilm to.) After seven years of those three seasons and now this dud, it's fair to say that Mandalorian and Grogu have jumped the colo claw fish. 

When the film starts, Mando (Pedro Pascal, along with on-set doubles Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder) is now working for the New Republic, mainly under the supervision of Ward, a colonel played by Sigourney Weaver, who assigns him bounty-hunting tasks (like bringing in ex-Imperial warlords). He is still accompanied by his pal (or son?), the infant Grogu (who's still mostly an adorable puppet). For his next task, it's a bit convoluted: Djarin is instructed to work with the twin cousins of Jabba the Hutt (the worm-like crime lord strangled to death by Princess Leia in Return of the Jedi). Jabba's son, Rotta (voiced by Jeremy Allen White), has been taken prisoner. The Hutts will provide information on the whereabouts of a warlord if Djarin can successfully bring back Rotta to them. Before I go any further, let me say that Rotta, whom we first meet as a gladiator Hutt with a six pack, is not an interesting character in the slightest, and further proof that Filoni should cool it with the lore—the character first appeared as a baby in the dreadful Clone Wars film from 2008, directed by none other than Dave Filoni. 

Anyway, for fans hoping for any sort of character development, allegory, or even just good old-fashioned sci-fi fun, they are unlikely to find it here. No new fascinating characters make their entrance, either. Star Wars is usually only good if its villain is. This is, after all, a franchise that features an eclectic group of antagonists that includes Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, Boba Fett, Jabba the Hutt, Kylo Ren, Dedra Meero, Grand Moff Tarkin, Orson Krennic, and Darth Maul yet seems to have run out; if the best the film can do after three years is two heavily computer-generated Hutts and a few war lords, then that is surely disappointing. (The film's over reliance on fake-looking CGI makes it look more like the prequel trilogy and not the sequel trilogy—and I don't mean that in a good way. It is one more element that makes it inferior to the first two seasons of the show.) And whatever evolution we may have witnessed of our hero's journey from mercenary to paladin is totally devoid here. Instead, it's a lot of pew-pew. 

Ultimately, the only intriguing thing in The Mandalorian and Grogu is Martin Scorsese of all people briefly appearing as an Ardennian, the same species Favreau portrayed in Solo, who reluctantly provides Mando with some information during his search for Rotta. Scorsese famously complained that Marvel films (an enterprise largely started by Favreau) were nothing but roller coasters. The Mandalorian and Grogu doesn't feel so much like a theme park, per se, but it does feel like it was only made as if to tailor itself to a video game adaptation; indeed, each big scene feels like one level leading to the next, with one fight or struggle to overcome, particularly in the form of a boss (which here can find itself in the form of giant snake monsters or AT-AT walkers). That undoubtedly sounds like an entertaining (albeit uninspiring) video game, but it also feels like what Alissa Wilkinson once described as the franchise giving up. 

Since the Skywalker saga ended, this franchise has been its best when it has tried new things, like having Japanese animators create non-canonical shorts in Visions or letting Tony Gilroy elevate Rogue One characters into the realm of HBO-style gravitas and maturity (picking up a Peabody and a few Emmys along the way) with Andor. That same novelty could be said of those first two seasons of The Mandalorian, which helped the franchise seemed fresh yet again. Now, however, The Mandalorian and Grogu is a victim of the franchise's own success, particularly after those stupendous two seasons of Andor. One really feels for the people at Lucasfilm, for they will simply never be able to top that, no matter how hard they try. But try here, it seems they did not. The Mandalorian is stale, Grogu's cuteness can only go so far, the villains are so dull that they feel absent, and one wonders where the studio goes from here. If I ever have children, I'll tell them the show ended after the Mandalorian hands Baby Yoda over to Luke Skywalker and hope they never discover season three, The Book of Boba Fett, or The Mandalorian and Grogu. 

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The Jungle Book

This version of The Jungle Book feels less like Disney and more like Life of Pi for kids. Or at the very least, it's an adaptation of the very famous story that strives to embrace both Disney and Kipling, without alienating either camp. Shere Khan, the malicious tiger, is here of course, but he's not quite George Sanders. In the 1967 animated film, Shere Khan was debonair. In Disney's first live-action adaptation in 1994, he was more sympathetic, more of a protector of the wild. In this one, directed by Jon Faveau, the former has more weight than the latter, but it is understandable to see why he hates Mowgli so much. The result is something far scarier than anything you saw in the cartoon.

For the very few who have no idea what the story is about, Mowgli (Neel Sethi) is a young boy who has been raised by wolves. But the jungle has become too dangerous for him, for Shere Khan (Idris Elba) possesses a fierce hatred toward man for the scars they gave him, and wishes to annihilate the young boy. "Man is forbidden!" he yells to other animals of the jungle. Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), the black panther who rescued Mowgli, sets out to return Mowgli to the man village, where he will need to be raised as a man. But while it does take a village of animals to raise a man-cub, it takes another to destroy him. It's not simply Shere Khan who tries to kill Mowgli on his odyssey, but also Kaa the snake (Scarlett Johansson) and King Louie the ape (Christopher Walken).

There is a ton of talent in this cast, an eclectic array of some of the best performers around. And yet, the one with unquestionably the toughest task is young Sethi. His Mowgli is just as inquisitive and brave as he needs to, but unlike the title character in the 2005 movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mowgli doesn't have a solution to every conundrum. He is helpful and courteous, even selfless, but he also gets angry and makes mistakes. That is about Mowgli, so what makes Sethi's portrayal of the character so interesting? The most obvious is how imaginative he must have been during the filming. This is a film shot basically all on a sound stage surrounded by green screens. Other than Jim Henson puppets that were supplied to him, Sethi was acting in make-believe land.

I had mixed feelings about the use of some of the classic songs from the animated version. Bill Murray as Baloo, the bear who befriends Mowgli, does a surprisingly decent job belting out "Bare Necessities," but Walken's solo of "I Wanna Be Like You" is very...Walken. It doesn't feel like a big jazzy showstopper but instead an arbitrary act of look-at-me showmanship. Mowgli's mouth seems to hang open more due to shock at how random the scene is in relation to the rest of the movie than to how scared it must make him. Everyone knows Walken is an entertaining dancer, but in regards to singing, he's no Louis Prima. For the rest of the scene, though, Walken is terrific. He plays King Louie, an invented character from the animated film, not Kipling's stories. In the animated film, Louie is an orangutan, a creature not native to India. Here, Favreau and his crew changed the character to a Gigantopithecus, an extinct ape, and he rules his ape kingdom akin to Malon Brando in Apocalypse Now. It's the film's best scene.  

Overall, this is quite a fun movie to watch. The technology would have been unthinkable ten years ago. The animals, in my mind, still look too obviously unreal, but maybe that's how it should be. Just think of what this technology will make the movies of next decade look like. But technology only goes so far. Story is important, and not just a story we've known for over a century. The story coupled with the visual effects make The Jungle Book feel fresh. The movies Favreau directs are not perfect, but this one is quite good. It's the kind of movie you will be thinking about for a while.

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