The Mandalorian And Grogu Proves Star Wars Fans Are Missing The Point — My Son Showed Me The Way
by Bryan Young · /FilmThis article contains minor spoilers for "The Mandalorian and Grogu."
There's been a lot of ink spilled, literal and digital, about the worth and value of "The Mandalorian and Grogu" and whether or not the feature-length "Mandalorian" spin-off deserves the theatrical experience. Or whether or not this particular "Star Wars" film delves deep enough into a character arc, or whether or not it advances a metaplot further along. Others still are arguing about whether the movie's fan service goes too far or not far enough. For me, I'm usually more worried about whether or not a "Star Wars" film uplifts me and makes me happy, but even then, perhaps we've all been missing the point.
How badly we've all been missing the point didn't become so nakedly apparent to me as it did when I was leaving my first screening of "The Mandalorian and Grogu" with my 10-year-old, and we were having a conversation afterward. During that conversation, deep as only a conversation between a father and pre-teen kid can be, he made me realize that we were all way off the mark, and wrong doesn't even begin to cover it. He harkened back to something George Lucas, creator of "Star Wars," has been saying for years, and he didn't even know it. (I doubt my kid has even heard Lucas say it.)
As recently as the 2024 Cannes Film Festival (via The Hollywood Reporter), Lucas reiterated that his "Star Wars" films were meant for kids who "don't know what they're doing and are asking all the big questions: What should I be worried about? What's important in life? And 'Star Wars' has all of those things in there. They're buried in there, but you definitely get it, especially if you're young."
The Mandalorian and Grogu teaches kids about mortality
Watching "The Mandalorian and Grogu" with my 10-year-old, I was struck by how intense Grogu's quest becomes as its story progresses. In the film, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) is abducted at the behest of the Twins, the aunt and uncle of Jabba the Hutt's son, Rotta (Jeremy Allen White). Because of this, Grogu is left to fend for himself on a remote planet, with only some diminutive Anzellans for company.
For me, Grogu and the Anzellans' journey to rescue Din was akin to the Lost Boys rescuing Peter Pan or a big-budget re-interpretation of the 1980s Ewok films, in a good way (much like how "The Mandalorian" evokes the Ewok movies in Season 3). For my 10-year-old, however, this journey was profound and existential. On our way home, he was concerned about what would happen if something similar occurred to me — perhaps not getting kidnapped by Hutts, but being put in jeopardy. Then, he began imagining how he would handle my rescue if I were in trouble in real life.
At one point in the movie, Din tells Grogu that the old teach and watch over the young, and then the young do the same for the old. There's a sadness to the knowledge that parents will grow old and die. For a kid in the real world, the idea of losing their parents as they start to understand mortality is one of the most haunting fears there can be. Yet, in a way, this film helped my son grapple with that concern and find comfort in knowing there can be something in this life for him beyond his parents.
After our conversation, it struck me just how powerful the message of "The Mandalorian and Grogu" is to its target audience.
Like the best Star Wars works before it, The Mandalorian and Grogu is a morality play
The other thing my son latched onto in the film was the fast friendship that develops between Grogu and Rotta. In our conversation, he asked me to explain the timelines and lifecycles of Hutts and Grogu's species, helping him to contextualize the fact that Rotta and Grogu are both very much kids like him when you lay the lives of their species out on a timeline in proportion to humans. Watching them napping together, playing in the surf, becoming instant friends — this is exactly how kids his age are and how they respond to each other.
When Rotta is adamant about being good despite his father being so awful, it resonated with my 10-year-old as well. It was something he admitted hit him very hard. "I felt so bad for [Rotta]," he told me. "I'd feel so bad if my dad were as bad as Jabba, and I'd just want to be his friend, too, just so he knew he wasn't alone."
You'll excuse me if I'm dismissive towards other reviews of "The Mandalorian and Grogu," as my son showed me exactly what this movie is really about. Like George Lucas' "Star Wars" films, it's a morality play that serves to help kids like him deal with the big questions they're struggling with. It's the same thing a show like "Andor" does; the questions are just bigger and more complex in that case. If "Star Wars" isn't helping us work through those difficult, confusing dilemmas, then what's the point of it all?
This is why, when it comes to "The Mandalorian and Grogu," you can count me among those saying, "This is the way."
"The Mandalorian and Grogu" is now playing in theaters.