On the first day of its release, my daughter called me. A Disney junkie who bought an annual family pass to Disney World shortly after moving to Florida–and got her money’s worth from it–she’d signed up for Disney + as soon as she found out about it and paid the annual fee (our children did not adopt our spending habits.)
“Mom, did you sign up for Disney? You have to watch The Mandalorian. The ending was great!”
Not only did our children not adopt our spending habits, they also didn’t adopt our love for all things Star. But she loved this show–the quality, the characters and the ending of the first episode. I could no longer resist the urge to see it.
The following contains spoilers, so if you haven’t signed up for Disney +, try the Seven Day Trial, watch The Mandalorian, and come back.
I loved it. My husband loved it. Our friends, who we convinced to sign up for Disney + loved it. We even watched an episode during a joint vacation to the mountains of Virginia over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Why do we love it? Here are a few reasons.
First, Baby Yoda. We don’t know if the baby is really Yoda, as the story takes place after the fall of the Empire and the death of the Yoda we all know and love, but we don’t care. Baby Yoda is the cutest thing to hit the screens.
Which leads me to another reason we love the show. Baby Yoda is so cute, he generates a lot of great memes on the internet. My daughter sent one as I typed this.
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| I don’t know who who to credit for memes such as this, but thanks. |
Next, it may take place in space, but The Mandalorian is a Western. A Western in the spirit of every Clint Eastwood movie my husband has ever watched. I thought as much during the first episode, and I’m not the only one. A Brazilian friend on Facebook posted a Spaghetti Western Mandalorian Trailer (in Spanish, so I had to get the gist) complete with spaghetti western music. It was great. One episode was even titled, "The Gunslinger." Who could resist a space western?
Another reason we love The Mandalorian is the Mandalorian himself. In an age where masculinity is derided and discouraged, he’s unapologetically masculine. And he has a heart. In episode one, we learn as a child he lost his parents and was taken in by the Mandalorian order. Consequently, he not only feels it’s his duty to watch over “foundlings,” he wants to. Hence his concern for Baby Yoda. He also makes a great dad. A lot of dads are missing from families these days, for a variety of reasons. This one not only protects his charge, risking his life to protect the baby, he does dad stuff, and we can’t get enough of it.
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There you have it. We have no idea if the plot of this show is going anywhere, other than around the galaxy, but we don’t care. It’s a good show, and it’s been a long time since we’ve been a good one. Well done, Disney.