After a short notice tease, Studio Ghibli and Lucasfilm’s Zen – Grogu and Dust Bunnies has been announced to drop on Disney+ today.
Disney continues to collaborate with different partners. Earlier this week (Thursday, November 10, 2022), Studio Ghibli made a mysterious post that alluded to a collaboration with Lucasfilm. While the details remained vague about what it would be about or in what capacity, it hinted the two studios will be doing something together. Then, on Friday morning, it was announced their collaboration was a short called Zen – Grogu and Dust Bunnies.
The initial teaser video post simply showed both logos as they have appeared in their own respective films. A second tease showed an image with a mini statue of Grogu, and Hayao Miyazaki blurred out in the background. Finally, the poster confirmed the secret project was a short, as posted on Studio Ghibli’s Twitter.
Zen – Grogu and Dust Bunnies will be a three-minute short of hand drawn animation by Studio Ghibli, featuring the iconic characters from Lucasfilm and Studio Ghibli’s respective universes: Grogu from The Mandalorian, and Dust Bunnies (in Japanese, they are known as susuwatari, or wandering soot) from My Neighbor Totaro and Spirited Away.
The short will be premiering on the third anniversary of when The Mandalorian started, and the show will be directed by Katsuya Kondo. The music featured in the short will be by the composer of The Mandalorian and the Black Panther films, Ludwig Göransson.
Of course, the two collaborators have had a long history of partnering to expand audiences to anime films in North America. Disney’s first partnership with Studio Ghibli was bringing Kiki’s Delivery Service release to the United States back in September 1, 1998. It was supposed to be theatrically released in U.S. theaters but Disney changed their decision.
Even the release of Castle in the Sky and Princess Mononoke suffered its American releases afterwards due to decisions made by the Disney subsidiary, Miramax Films. It was not until the 2002 release of Spirited Away did Studio Ghibli films breakthrough in America. After the movie won Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards in 2003, Disney brought Howl’s Moving Castle to theatres in the U.S. for a limited time.
Studio Ghibli was famously co-founded by the filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki in 1985. The most recent film was directed by Miyazaki’s son, Gorō Miyazaki, which was a fantasy Netflix film, Earwig and the Witch, based on the novel of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones, back in 2020. And if you are a big Miyazaki fan, you would know he is returning for the last time to direct his last, upcoming film, How Do You Live?
Lucasfilm is famous for the iconic production company founded by George Lucas in 1971. He hive-minded the cinematic worlds of Star Wars and Indiana Jones. The studio has recently been known to have partnered with seven anime studios on the anthology series, Star Wars: Visions—met with great critical responses. The studio has had significant recent releases with the series, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Andor.
Lucasfilm has been hard at work for its next major series release, Willow, based on its classic 1988 film of the same name. It is expected to premiere on Disney+ on Wednesday, November 30. Also coming up for the company is the fifth Indiana Jones film, directed by James Mangold, which is slated for release on June 30, 2023.
Zen – Grogu and Dust Bunnies is currently out on Disney+ now on the streamer. I cannot wait to check it out and see what kind of cuteness exudes from it. I wish it was a longer short, but I will take what I can get from a collaboration between Lucasfilm and Studio Ghibli. If you are a fan of Grogu aka Baby Yoda, this is like a bonus cherry on top to quench your content thirst.
Here are some of the fan reactions on Twitter, when the tease was finally over, and Studio Ghibli revealed Zen – Grogu and Dust Bunnies:
