Tag Archive: The Mandalorian


Review–The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian tops four years of the best Star Wars concept art books

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November 23, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

It really is the ultimate holiday gift for your favorite Star Wars fan.  The nostalgia in the ideas for the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, as illustrated and explained in The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, is exactly what fans were hoping for in their next Star Wars experience, probably dating all the way back to the anticipation of the release of Return of the Jedi back in 1983.  There’s a reason for the universal praise for the series, and why it’s one of the best television series of the past ten years, if not one of the best Westerns ever.  Jon Favreau, Doug Chiang, & Co. figured out how to please a diverse fandom.  By including the concept artwork in the end credits for each episode, they took us back to the Ralph McQuarrie paintings that inspired the first Star Wars film.  But those images are only the beginning.

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LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special–Goofy fun bringing together characters from across the galaxy

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November 22, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

It’s not your typical holiday special, but it may be one to return to each year, The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special has arrived, a parody of the franchise starring LEGO Rey as she attempts to find a way to teach Finn to become a Jedi, using information she learns on Life Day–Life Day the holiday first introduced in the original 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, which was a perfect snapshot of what you would expect for a blockbuster movie’s TV tie-in in the 1970s.  Disney has used this show as an opportunity to poke fun at itself, at the Star Wars ideas it has created since it bought the franchise from George Lucas, while also poking fun at some of the ideas Lucas created.  It’s not just for fans of the third Skywalker trilogy of movies as time travel arrives in the Star Wars universe, allowing Rey to zip back and forth to every corner of the past, meeting all your familiar friends in key scenes from the movies.

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Revisit Katee Sackhoff’s character from The Mandalorian and more in the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars

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November 19, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

Even if you couldn’t muddle through the first six seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which aired from 2008 through 2014, fans of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian now have one reason to take a look back at the animated series.  Earlier this year executive producer and creator Dave Filoni presented a fill-in-the-blanks, seventh and final season of The Clone Wars for Disney+.  Last week on The Mandalorian, Katee Sackhoff (Longmire, Battlestar Galactica) reprised the character Bo-Katan, a Mandalorian she voiced in 2012 and 2013 on the series, with a reference to fan-favorite spin-off character Ahsoka Tano, voiced by Ashley Eckstein in the animated series, and soon to be played by Rosario Dawson (Marvel’s Luke Cage, Men in Black II) in The Mandalorian.  If you want to see some interesting connections between the past in the Star Wars movies–the prequels, the animated series Star Wars Rebels, and more–and the current happenings on The Mandalorian, it’s time to revisit the 2020 season of The Clone Wars.

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Mega mash-up–Disney brings a new Star Wars Holiday Special, LEGO style, to the small screen

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November 8, 2020

Just in time for our holidays, the Star Wars Holiday Special is making a comeback later this month.  It will be forty-two years to the day that kids like myself first saw Bea Arthur serenade a cantina full of familiar aliens as Ackmena, met Chewbacca’s extended family, and saw Boba Fett on the screen for the first time (after his preview as an action figure offer).  The Special aired on television for the first time in 1978, and now Disney+ is bringing the holiday special to a new generation of Star Wars fans.  The twist is your next celebration of Life Day is also the next LEGO movie, so expect loads of laughs and throwbacks in the animated LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special.  Even better, it comes with time travel and mash-ups across the movie spectrum.

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Preview–Go behind the scenes of the hit series in The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian

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November 7, 2020

If you’ve been watching the new season of The Mandalorian, you might agree that this week’s new episode, The Passenger, may be the best episode yet.  Heck, if we’d have seen it back in the 1970s and 1980s with the original trilogy, we might have rated it even better than the films.  When we reviewed Abrams Books’ last behind the scenes look at the Star Wars franchise in The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, we mentioned we were hoping that the publisher would get the rights for The Mandalorian series so we could get a close-up look at the costumes, props, and production art–and continue with a sixth volume of Abrams’ superb series of behind-the-scenes looks at the franchise.  Well Star Wars fans are in luck.  The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian is now available for pre-order here at Amazon, and we have a preview for borg readers below.

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The Mandalorian–Season 2 begins heavy on throwbacks, light on plot

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October 31, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

One of the oldest sayings of actors is never take a role with an animal or a child, because you’ll always get upstaged.  That’s where the Disney+ series is currently stuck–they created a character in The Child (aka Baby Yoda) that we’d all probably rather see more than Pedro Pascal’s title character.  Yes, The Mandalorian is back this weekend with the first episode of Season Two, more than welcome fun in the year of COVID-19 and real-life, high-stakes politics.  The series is full of Easter eggs and good throwbacks to the original trilogy, the prequels, bits and pieces of the entire franchise.  But the plot for the season opener is a retread of themes and scenes from last year, light on our favorite young green-eared friend.

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Bounty Hunters–Star Wars’ newest great comics arc arrives in a collected edition next month

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October 26, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

Delayed a bit due to the pandemic, a Star Wars tie-in comic book series proved this summer to be the best so far since Marvel Comics pulled the comics license back from Dark Horse.   Star Wars: Bounty Hunters completed its first story arc and will be coming next month to comic shops in a collected edition, available via pre-order now here at Amazon.  Compiling the first five issues of a new series in the vein of The Mandalorian, it establishes itself with a new anti-hero from the past and familiar faces fans of the original trilogy love.  It all begins by asking why all those bounty hunters appeared together on Darth Vader’s ship Executor in that brief scene in The Empire Strikes Back.

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The Mandalorian–Season 2 is looking better and better, and yes, lots more Baby Yoda

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October 20, 2020

Disney+ shared a new trailer for The Mandalorian late Monday, adding more great clips and images from the coming season, tying viewers back to the original 1977 Star Wars.  The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal), who we now know as Din Djarin, flying around with his backpack?  Check.  Cara Dune (Gina Carano) and Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) putting an Imperial troop transport through its paces?  Check.  Someone found Yondu’s Yaka Arrow?  Check.  The Abyssin cyclops from the Mos Eisley cantina?  Check.  More of The Child (we know, you know him as Baby Yoda)?  Check.

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The Mandalorian: The Art and Imagery–Packed with concept artwork from the series

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October 7, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

Star Wars in pictures.  It’s something fans of the franchise have gotten excited about now for 43 years running.  From the first publication of Ralph McQuarrie’s earliest concept art, fans want more.  So it makes sense we’re going to see three books are concept artwork this year for the first season of The Mandalorian, the best thing to happen to Star Wars since the original trilogy (OK, and one or two “Star Wars story” movies).  The first of these behind the scenes books is Titan Magazines’ The Mandalorian: The Art & Imagery, just released in three versions, one via newsstands, one via comic shops, and a hardcover version you can pick up here at Amazon and brick and mortar bookstores.

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The Mandalorian–Now with more Banthas, Gamorreans, and yes, more Baby Yoda

Filed under: Fantasy Realms, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, TV — Leave a comment
September 16, 2020

Every new glimpse, new scene, new image from the Disney+ incredible, monumental hit series The Mandalorian provides another dream come true for any fan of the original 1977 Star Wars.  Take a look at this week’s trailer for the second season below, and see if you don’t think this is one of the best trailers from the entire franchise.   Now with 100% more Banthas, 200% more Gamorreans …and throw in a cyclopsian Abyssin straight out of the cantina at Mos Eisley.

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