Pedro Pascal as Din Djarin/The Mandalorian in a scene from "The Mandalorian and Grogu." (Photo courtesy of The Walt Disney Studios)
When it comes to big summer movies aiming to rope in most demographics, the current mood at your local multiplex is supercute. While cinephiles in Cannes soak up the sun and the cinema in the south of France, mainstream moviegoers in the U.S. and overseas are being treated to a bunch of cuddly (and not-so-cuddly) critters, as the 2026 summer season gets underway before May is even over.
Two new releases out in wide release serve up retro pleasures while also courting a younger crowd. One is a big-budget outing for two beloved characters from a galaxy far, far away, as well as a hit Disney Plus series, that's heavy on the action but not on the scope. The other turns a German mystery novel into a family film set in the English countryside that, despite its present-day trappings, feels as if it was plucked from the mid-1990s.
Do these comfort-food creature features merit a trip to the movies? Let's find out.
“The Mandalorian and Grogu”: The stoic hired gun and his mischievous sidekick cut an iconic figure, enough for streaming subscribers to keep coming back for more, but as Din Djarin and Grogu make the hyperspace jump across formats in this serviceable swashbuckler, can their magnetism survive the transition?
The journey from long-form TV to a feature is bumpy, in part because this meat-and-potatoes entry in the Star Wars universe plays like three episodes from “The Mandalorian” stitched together. Think the “Sex and the City” movies, which compressed the contents of a season into nearly two and a half hours.
Pedro Pascal as Din Djarin/The Mandalorian and Grogu, voice designed by David Acord, in a scene from "The Mandalorian and Grogu." (Photo credit: Nicole Goode. Courtesy of The Walt Disney Studios)
A lumpy structure is just one of several obstacles director/co-screenwriter Jon Favreau, the series' showrunner, encounters when telling this standalone story that pits Djarin (Pedro Pascal), his face always covered with a helmet made from a nearly indestructible iron called beskar, and his sage green, pointy-eared adopted son against a crime syndicate run by none other than Jabba the Hutt's cousins. Ah, Jabba, that slimy, jumbo-sized talking slug who had Princess Leia dressed in a skimpy slave outfit in “Return of the Jedi,” aka “Episode VI.”
Pedro Pascal as Din Djarin/The Mandalorian and Sigourney Weaver as Colonel Ward in a scene from "The Mandalorian and Grogu." (Photo credit: Justin Lubin. Courtesy of The Walt Disney Studios)
Jabba's cousins, fraternal twins (one male, one female) simply referred to as the Twins, are not leering creeps like their older family member, who met a most undignified fate at the hands of the very royal he tormented, but they're every bit as conniving and Machiavellian. They enter the picture early on, after Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver), a commander for the New Republic, hires the titular bounty hunter to find Coin (Jonny Coyne), an Imperial warlord, about five years after the events in “Return of the Jedi.”
Enter the Twins, who will reveal Coin's whereabouts, but only if Djarin brings them Rotta, Jabba's son and heir. From the Hutts' bog-filled planet of Nal Hutta, our intrepid duo head to the moon of Shakari, its neon-hued, rain-soaked streets a heartfelt nod to “Blade Runner,” where they find Rotta (well voiced by “The Bear's” Jeremy Allen White) entertaining bloodthirsty audiences in a gladiator arena.
Sister Hutt and Brother Hutt are The Twins in a scene from "The Mandalorian and Grogu." (Photo courtesy of The Walt Disney Studios)
If the plot sounds convoluted, it isn't. “The Mandalorian and Grogu's” chief virtue is the simplicity of its narrative, how viewers don't need to be familiar with all three seasons of the Disney Plus show to follow along. Unlike too many of the Marvel movies and Illumination's “Super Mario” movies, Favreau resists piling on the facile references. Instead, quite a few of the ones he includes are kind of obscure for non-diehard fans. The director often tips his hat to stop motion wizards Ray Harryhausen and Phil Tippett, and at its best, the film is a playground for fans of these special effects pioneers.
So what holds this “Mandalorian” yarn back? Its relatively slim narrative was practically begging for a leaner runtime, but at 132 minutes, the film moves in fits and starts. There are competently staged fight sequences, including a bruising saloon brawl and a gladiator rumble that brings on the freaky creatures. Also, even when it thrives, as in the aforementioned monster mash, cinematographer David Klein, who's lensed several Kevin Smith movies, opts for a flat look that can charitably be called functional. It may be billed as “filmed for IMAX,” but this “Mandalorian” too often feels like it's shot for streaming, a couple of picturesque sun-dappled vistas notwithstanding.
But even as it's unable to shake its TV trappings, the characters don't get lost in the shuffle. I wanted to see more of Rotta, whose standoffish demeanor conceals disarming layers of resolve. White approaches the character as if he were John Garfield making a boxing drama. And even through the human antagonists are interchangeable and rote, the Hutt siblings help make evil fun again in the Star Wars firmament.
Grogu, voice designed by David Acord, in a scene from "The Mandalorian and Grogu." (Photo courtesy of The Walt Disney Studios)
But the young and young at heart are most likely showing up for Grogu, and Favreau gives ample screen time, and even an extended moment of Zen, to the creature initially nicknamed “baby Yoda,” whose trademark gurgles were created by sound designer David Acord. This does come with an asterisk: this PG-13 rated release is a little more violent than it needed to be. Some of the more intense action here brings to mind another Favreau genre outing: “Cowboys and Aliens,” his underrated Western/sci-fi hybrid from 2011, starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. Parents, take the rating seriously, because there's nightmare fuel aplenty here.
Even though it lacks the sweep of the franchise's more memorable entries, “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” uneven but worthwhile, values its characters and delivers thrills that, not unlike the original trilogy, hark back to matinee serials from an earlier moviegoing age. With its blend of Western, samurai, gangster and creature-feature elements, Favreau has engineered an agreeable fusion of new and old “Star Wars.” Closer to “Lone Wolf and Cub” than Joseph Campbell and “The Hero's Journey,” it honors the past and looks ahead to an uncertain future, for the medium and for the worlds that George Lucas conjured up.
“The Sheep Detectives”: Back in 1995, “Babe” pulled off a whopper of a paradigm shift: a live-action talking animal film that was not only exceptional, but appealing to a wide array of audiences, at least once they put aside their skepticism. The spunky little pig at its center went a long way, on screen and off. More than three decades later, here's another charmer that follows on that Oscar winner's hoofsteps and meets the high bar set by the previous movie.
“Babe” reimagined as a whodunit may sound like an unlikely studio pitch, but this storybook in motion, brought to vibrant life by director Kyle Balda and screenwriter Craig Mazin, is the kid-friendly crowd-pleaser you didn't know you needed. (You need it, you definitely do.)
Lily, voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Hugh Jackman as George Hardy in a scene from "The Sheep Detectives." (Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios)
The Amazon MGM Studios release has been marketed as a vehicle for star Hugh Jackman, shrewdly cast as farmer George Hardy, a lone wolf with regrets in his past, a penchant for mystery novels and nothing but devotion to his flock. The real stars, however, are the bovine trio of Lily (the voice of Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Sebastian (Bryan Cranston) and Mopple (Chris O'Dowd), who find their inner detective after their beloved shepherd winds up dead.
Cloud, voiced by Regina Hall, Mopple, voiced by Chris O'Dowd, and Lily, voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, in a scene from "The Sheep Detectives." (Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios)
Enter the residents of the quaint (and fictional) village of Denbrook, who, as it turns out, all have their hidden motives to commit this crime. The movie also throws a trio of outsiders into the mix: George's daughter Rebecca Hampstead (“The Bear's” Molly Gordon), Lydia Harbottle (Emma Thompson), George's no-nonsense attorney, and Elliot Matthews (Nicholas Galitzine), a newspaper reporter who stumbles upon a much bigger story than the one he came to cover.
Tasked with solving this homicide is the bumbling Officer Tim Derry (“Succession's” Nicholas Braun), who quickly learns he's in over his head. Hercule Poirot he ain't, but the titular sleuths, having listened to George for years as he read to them from the murder mysteries he favored, realize they might just have what it takes to crack this case.
Nicholas Braun as Officer Tim Derry and Nicholas Galitzine as Elliot Matthews in a scene from "The Sheep Detectives." (Photo credit: Alex Bailey. Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios)
And if “The Sheep Detectives” had stayed there, it would have been a cozy little whodunit that keeps you guessing, droll and clever and colorful. But Balda and Mazin, who have adapted the 2005 German novel “Three Bags Full,” go further, also etching an affecting portrait of trauma's ripple effects and letting go of old prejudices.
The film's inspired conceit is the sheep's ability to will themselves into forgetting something painful on cue. As for the prejudices, the sheep turn their backs on lambs born in the winter, without realizing the magnitude of their cruelty. Mazin, the co-creator and executive producer of the HBO series “The Last of Us,” based on the popular video game, inserts a dash of that show's somber gravity, which Balda weaves in between the laughs he wrings out of his quirky scenario, such as the sheep's irrational fear of asphalt.
This is a quantum leap for Balda, whose résumé (“Minions,” “Despicable Me 3”) hardly suggests the animation vet had this film in him. That he pulls off something that's equal parts funny, touching and just a little unsettling comes as a surprise, even if, at 109 minutes, the film does begin to overstay its welcome in the final stretch. What does not surprise, as a headstrong porker taught us so many years ago, is that a movie dominated by talking animals can be this good, so good that you end up forgetting these are talking critters and become invested in their welfare. So shed your biases and preconceptions and flock to see this thoroughly satisfying gem.
Emma Thompson as Lydia Harbottle in a scene from "The Sheep Detectives." (Photo credit: Alex Bailey. Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios)
“The Mandalorian and Grogu” is now showing across South Florida, including IMAX engagements at AMC Aventura 24, AMC Sunset Place 24, CMX Dolphin 19 and the AutoNation IMAX at the Museum of Discovery and Science in downtown Fort Lauderdale. “The Sheep Detectives” is also playing in wide release, including at the Silverspot Metsquare in downtown Miami, Cinépolis Luxury Cinemas in Coconut Grove, the Landmark at Merrick Park in Coral Gables and Regal Kendall Village.
