Jon Favreau's "THE MANDALORIAN" (Episodes 1-8)

February 19, 2020 Dennis D. McDonald

Updated March 1, 2020

I’ve now watched all 8 episodes of THE MANDALORIAN after signing up for the 7 day Disney Plus free trial. I’ve been toying with dropping Netflix for Disney Plus given that we have a granddaughter who visits occasionally and wanted to see what Disney has to offer.

The good news is that Disney Plus has the Pixar films. The bad news is: no Miyazaki.

But how was THE MANDALORIAN?

Pretty good! The production values are excellent as is the acting. Action sequence are well staged. Some of the drama, especially in Bryce Dallas Howard’s SANCTUARY episode, is convincing. Also, Taika Waititi’s Episode 8 is also very entertaining.

And yet, I don’t think I’ll be continuing with Disney Plus after I finish THE MANDALORIAN. While this show is good and a testimony to Jon Favreau’s expertise, there’s an overall sense of familiarity with plotting and story arcs being highly derivative of what we’ve seen before. We’ve seen The Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven, Japanese ronin pushing a baby carriage, the impacts of childhood trauma, and shootouts at close range. Even the. “lone wolf” gun-for-hire brings back memories of HAVE GUN - WILL TRAVEL. Plus, there’s Judge Dredd with his always-on helmet.

I understand that dramatic familiarity is what Favreau is aiming for but I want to see something new even if the characters and backstory have been around for a while. Good examples of that newness are tales like JOKER and BIRDS OF PREY.

Sometimes the action in Mandalorian is just plain goofy and reminiscent of an old-time Saturday morning cartoon. This may be intentional, of course. Producer and writer Favreau is pitching to a general audience here, one that has grown up with Star Wars and has learned to accept that this is not really science fiction but fantasy. This is Disney, after all.

If Disney Plus had Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli films I’d definitely continue. In the meantime I’ll get the occasional anime from Amazon Prime or GKIDS (from GKIDS I already have the streaming version of Ponyo). But I do admit that the kid in me did enjoy Manadalorian.