Studio Ghibli and Lucasfilm have released their collaborative short “Grogu and the Dust Bunnies” on Disney+. To say it was a bit lackluster doesn’t really describe the disappointment I felt when watching it. I know tons of people are going to say stuff like “It was so cute” and “Isn’t Grogu adorable?” But for me it was just…not what I expected.
The short was simple. Not much color and mostly just sketched outlines. It looked like something made on Flip-a-Clip and used a stock background of a type of parchment paper. The whole video was around 2.5 minutes long not including the calling cards for the studios and the 13 second credits.
The animation itself was good. Featuring Grogu walking, spinning, jumping and his face moves with expressions of awe and wonder. Ghibli is well known for putting life into their characters and I just wanted to see more. Perhaps a nice background with moving elements? The soot sprites were also cute and it tells a story about the interaction between them and Grogu. But for all intents and purposes I really hope that this was just some sort of test animation that they decided to release for the fans. This absolutely feels like someone made it as a gift for the “Star Wars” creative team and they just decided to put it out.
It’s fine really, but not something that needs it’s own title card on Disney+. This short film seems to be more suited to a social media post given the length of it. It’s not really something I can put on for the kids and say hey, check this out! Because they’ll just watch it and be like, “is that it?”
You can watch this disappointingly short video streaming now on Disney+. Really though, is it too much to ask for an Ewoks/Totoro animation? I would gobble up all the merch that came from that in an instant.
“The Mandalorian” Season 3 will be released on Disney+ sometime in 2023.
