‘Star Wars’: You can now see Studio Ghibli’s short featuring Baby Yoda on Disney+

After creating an uproar with several photos of Grogu on Twitter, finally this same November 12, Studio Ghibli officially announced (and released a poster) the project it has prepared with Lucasfilm: a 3-minute short titled “Zen – Grogu and the Soots” which is now available on Disney+.

Made with traditional hand-drawn 2D animation, this adorable creative collaboration features little Grogu (baby Yoda to friends) meeting the Susuwatari, also called soot spirits, dust bunnies, dust sprites, or soot gremlins, depending on the dub and subtitles. These creatures were born from the imagination of Hayao Miyazaki and appear in both “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away”. The short also has music by Ludwig Göransson (composer of ‘The Mandalorian’ soundtrack) and is directed by Katsuya Kondo. The premiere of ‘Zen – Grogu y los hollines’ coincides precisely with the third anniversary of the streaming platform, Disney+, launched in the United States and Canada on November 12, 2019 (it arrived in Spain on March 24, 2020).

Background

This is not the first collaboration between George Lucas’ studio and an anime studio, as the entire ‘Star Wars: Visions’ anthology series has a Japanese production, with works by Kamikaze Doga, Studio Colorido, Studio Trigger, Kinema Citrus , Production IG, SARU Science and Geno Studio. The first season premiered in September 2021 and season 2, which will also feature studios from Africa, Europe, and India, should opens next spring.

Either way, it’s the first time Lucasfilm has Miyazaki, who retired in 2013 and returned to the fray in 2017. Is he currently working on an adaptation of Yoshino’s 1937 novel Genzabur? entitled “How do you live?” (‘Kimitachi wa Do Ikiru ka’), which should be released in theaters between 2023 or 2024. As a director, in Miyazaki’s filmography, in addition to the aforementioned Chihiro and Totoro, ‘Porco Rosso’, ‘Princess Mononoke’ or ‘The Castle in the Sky’ stand out.