In season 3 of “The Mandalorian”, Grogu a.k.a. Baby Yoda will once again experience new adventures together with Din Djarin in
2023. But there’s already more of the little green rascal on Disney Plus – with a “Star Wars” short film from Studio Ghibli!
It had already become apparent: After it was first leaked that we can look forward to a surprising Grogu short film on Disney+ on 12 November 2022 and a little later it was teased that the legendary Japanese animation studio Ghibli would be making a joint venture with the “Star Wars” studio Lucasfilm, everything soon pointed to the fact that these two supposed projects were one and the same!
And indeed, to mark today’s third anniversary of “The Mandalorian” launch, a brand new short film featuring Grogu at the centre of the action has been released on Disney+, hand-drawn by animators at Ghibli.
THIS IS “ZEN: GROGU AND THE RUSSIANS “
Three years ago, the premiere of “The Mandalorian” took place, in honour of this, the Japanese animation studio “Ghibli” created a short film “Zen: Grogu and the Russians” about “baby Yoda” for the streaming service “Disney+”. pic.twitter.com/ckGf4C7Sft
– MovieFit (@movie_fit) November 13, 2022
As previously leaked, the film is titled “Zen: Grogu and the Sooty Men”. Ghibli fans will of course immediately prick up their ears, as the sooty creatures are industrious little mythical creatures that have already appeared in the anime masterpieces “Chihiro’s Journey to Wonderland” and “My Neighbour Totoro”. So the new “Star Wars” short film now combines two particularly popular types of fan favourites – more cuteness is hardly possible!
However, the encounter does not have a real plot. As was already suspected in advance from the film’s title “Zen”, the Grogu mini-adventure is somewhat based on the Disney+ format “Zenimation”, which consists of meditation shorts in which scenes from popular Disney animated films are accompanied by relaxation music. “Grogu and the Sooty Men” does indeed now offer new images of baby Yoda, but he’s just flirting a bit with the Ghibli mascots here.
This is certainly nice to look at, but those who were hoping for a full-fledged Grogu adventure from the celebrated anime company may be a little disappointed by the meditative Ghibli finger exercise. But who knows: maybe “Grogu and the Sooty Men” is just a harbinger for a “Star Wars” collaboration between Lucasfilm and Ghibli…
IS GHIBLI ALSO INVOLVED IN THE 2ND SEASON “VISIONS”?
As it became increasingly clear that Ghibli would be responsible for a “Star Wars” project, many had suspected (and hoped) that the studio also behind such classics as “Princess Mononoke” and “The Last Fireflies” might contribute an episode to the upcoming second season anthology series “Star Wars: Visions”. This is made up of non-canon short films set in the galaxy far, far away and contributed by various animation studios.
The fact that the Ghibli project has now turned out to be the film described above does not necessarily mean that a Ghibli contribution to “Visions” is off the table. It is even possible that the way has now been paved for it, even if that is still wishful thinking at the moment.
What is certain is that we will see Grogu in action again in about three months. The third season of “The Mandalorian” is expected to start on Disney+ on 22 February 2023.
