I am not in love with the new season of The Mandalorian. After the brilliant Andor, I was willing to give Disney's Star Wars the benefit of the doubt again, but so far, The Mandalorian just isn't doing much for me. It's better than the awful Obi-Wan Kenobi, but after seeing Tony Gilroy's Rogue One prequel bring such a fresh take to the galaxy far, far away, it's a little tough to go back.

But I still like Baby Yoda. Many Disney properties have used Stagecraft in the wake of The Mandalorian's pioneering work with the technology and, for my money, most are worse for its CG sets. But, The Mandalorian has plenty of practical elements, too, and Grogu is one of them.

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More specifically, I like the way Baby Yoda moves. In past seasons, he's been capable of toddling, which was cute in its own right. But in season three, Grogu's force training has given him the ability to flip through the air like a pancake. In the most recent episode, "The Mines of Mandalore," Din and Grogu return to Tatooine to ask Amy Sedaris' Peli Motto for help upgrading their ship. She asks, "Where's my guy?" and Grogu appears from Mando's lap, jumps into the air, and somersaults down into her arms. Surprised, she asks, "Now who taught you how to leap like a Lurmen, huh?" Grogu coos.

Image: Adam Savage's Tested

That interaction contains all the things that are fun about Grogu. He's a cute little guy with big eyes and Sedaris' genuine joy when he pops into frame feels like a reflection of how we feel about him. And the mix of impressive acrobatics and a childlike inability to speak makes him a fascinating little toddling contradiction. It's the same alchemy that made it fun to watch Yoda drop his cane and cloak to fight Count Dooku at the end of Attack of the Clones. We're watching a creature who otherwise moves very slowly and deliberately, suddenly leap into action with kinetic ferocity.

Yoda's prequel trilogy fights are the result of extensive CGI work. Though the character had been a puppet in the original trilogy, Lucas updated the look for Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith (and, eventually, in The Phantom Menace, too). That was probably necessary, given the extent of Yoda's acrobatics. But The Mandalorian's more practical approach to Grogu gives the character's movements a childlike charm. The way he flips through the air isn't unlike how you would do the effect as a kid making Mandalorian home movies with your friends. It looks like he just gets tossed through the frame.

As Grogu continues to grow, I worry the show will eventually move beyond this simple charm. Puppetry and animatronics work for Grogu now, because he doesn't move much. But the series is filled with CG (as we recently saw in Bo Kattan's bout with the robotic entity that captured Mando) and if Grogu eventually needs to fight with a lightsaber, I fear his practical presentation will be replaced with a CG model. But for now, I still get a kick out of watching Grogu flip like he's on the business end of a fry cook's spatula.

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