LEGO Star Wars: The Mandalorian is streaming now on Disney+.
At this point, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not we’ll ever see The Mandalorian Season 4 on Disney+. The tepid response to The Mandalorian and Grogu in theaters shows that this branch of the Star Wars franchise doesn’t carry the same weight it once did. It’s entirely possible that LEGO Star Wars: The Mandalorian is the last hurrah for this particular series, with Din Djarin and his little buddy relegated to appearing in Dave Filoni’s Mando-verse crossover movie. If so, fans are left with a fun but ultimately forgettable tribute to a show that was once the bright center of the Star Wars universe.
LEGO Star Wars: The Mandalorian is essentially a tribute to/recap of all three seasons of the live-action series, along with The Book of Boba Fett for good measure. There’s some new material here in the form of a framing device involving Mando’s friends throwing him a party, but for the most part, this animated special focuses on having various characters recount Din (Gavin Hammon) and Grogu’s (David Acord) exploits with a suitably goofy LEGO flourish.
Why Disney didn’t release this special before The Mandalorian and Grogu hit theaters is beyond me. You’d think they’d want to throw their cowboy hat into the ring of the many YouTube recaps of the series, especially since this one has the benefit of being both so in-depth and so embellished. But, to be fair, The Mandalorian and Grogu is such an aggressively straightforward and simple film that no recap was ever really necessary in the first place.
In any case, fans of the series should get a kick out of seeing those events retold and distorted through the cutesy LEGO lens. This special is good for more than a few chuckles as it dives into the show’s big moments and lampoons them with loads of self-aware humor. And, as you’d expect, there’s no shortage of visual jokes to be found as the special takes full advantage of the fact that this is a universe where characters move like clunky toys and everything is constructed of plastic building blocks. It all makes for a silly and entertaining way to relive the original series.
It’s also amusing to note those characters and elements that get glossed over in the push to compress everything into a modest 45-minute runtime. Cara Dune is afforded neither an introduction nor any speaking lines, indicating what Lucasfilm’s current stance is on that particular embattled character. The special also glosses over much of The Mandalorian Season 3, which is probably for the best. Ultimately, LEGO Star Wars: The Mandalorian paints a very cohesive picture of Mando’s journey so far without getting too caught up in extraneous details. Exactly what you want out of a recap, in other words.
Adding to the fun is the fact that much of the live-action cast returns to voice their LEGO selves. The lineup includes Amy Sedaris’ Peli Motto, Bill Burr’s Miggs Mayfield, Temuera Morrison’s Boba Fett, Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan Kryze, Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano, and Giancarlo Esposito’s Moff Gideon. Only Mando himself and a handful of other, minor characters have been recast.
The absence of Pedro Pascal in the voice cast is certainly disappointing, and probably the biggest knock against the special. Hammon is fine as the titular bounty hunter, but he doesn’t sound particularly close to Pascal. Luckily, it falls on the shoulders of other characters to actually narrate the extended flashbacks, so there’s plenty of room for Sedaris, Burr, and others to ham it up. Morrison’s Boba Fett also proves to be an unexpected highlight, as the special gives him an inflated sense of self-importance that the actor really runs with. Frankly, The Book of Boba Fett might have been a better show had it done the same.
LEGO Star Wars: The Mandalorian is cute and entertaining in equal measure. It even works as a nice little coda to the main series, highlighting how many friends and found family members Din Djarin has accumulated over the course of his adventures.
What it doesn’t do is blaze any new ground with the character. It’s hard not to wonder what might have been possible had this special focused on telling a wholly new and original story set within the world of The Mandalorian. Rather than recap adventures we’ve already seen, why not present a lost mission set during those gaps between seasons? Lucasfilm has really dropped the ball on that front over the years, with the promised Mandalorian spinoff novel never materializing and the tie-in comics also settling for adapting the series rather than expanding upon it. There’s room to dig deeper. But who knows? Perhaps this special will prove popular enough that we’ll get a proper LEGO Mandalorian spinoff. There’s certainly no shortage of potential there.
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