To everyone’s surprise, the iconic Studio Ghibli and the Lucasfilm firm have just worked on a joint project. This is an animated short centered on little Grogu, the darling of the series ” The Mandalorian “, entitled “Zen – Grogu and the Susuwatari” and available on Disney +.
Studio Ghibli: the crème de la crème of animation
Created in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, Studio Ghibli is one of the most influential animation studios on the planet. With around twenty feature films, Studio Ghibli has distilled, over the decades, a superb dreamlike universestunning 2D animation for iconic feature films.
The castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Spirited away… We no longer count the masterpieces staged by Hayao Miyazaki and more broadly by the Ghibli studio.
While Aya and the Witchthe Studio Ghibli’s first 3D filmdirected by Goro Miyazaki, has been available on Netflix since June 22, the famous Japanese animation studio just teamed up with Lucasfilm for joint production. As a reminder, Lucasfilm is an American film studio created by George Lucas in 1971. To whom we obviously owe the production of cult franchises like those of Star Wars, Willow or IndianaJones.
A short film about Grogu
On Thursday, November 10, Ghibli announced this partnership with Lucasfilm on Twitter via a short video. But without revealing the subject of this mysterious association. After two days of waiting, Saturday November 12studio Ghibli revealed the content of this short film in the comments of its post, through a link to Disney+. The association between these two emblematic studios has therefore given birth to a short film centered on Grogu and titled Zen – Grogu and the Susuwatarialready available on Disney+.
The Susuwatari are better known in France under the name of Noireaudes. These are the little black and white balls of soot that we see in different Ghibli movies like My Neighbor Totoro Where Spirited away.
Of a period of 2 minutesthis short film in 2D thus recounts the meeting between Grogu and the Noireaudes. It’s about a mute and aesthetically stunning adventure. But which remains generally anecdotal and adds no added value to the universe Star Wars.
Zen – Grogu and the Susuwatari is directed and animated by Katsuya Kondo and produced by Tomohiko Ishii, both from Studio Ghibli. Regarding the soundtrack of the short film, LucasFilm has once again turned to the services of Ludwig Göransson (the creator of the theme of The Mandalorian).
