Earlier this week, famed Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli posted a cryptic video on social media featuring its and Lucasfilm’s logos, and this morning I have full details of what it means.
The first clue
On Thursday, November 10, Studio Ghibli posted a bizarre 15-second video that only showed its logo and the Lucasfilm logo:
To which the official Star Wars account responded with nothing more than a retweet of the Studio Ghibli post.
Shortly after, Studio Ghibli released an enigmatic photo that shows a model of Grogu from “The Mandalorian” on a table with a blurry image of studio co-founder Hayao Miyazaki in the background:
This time, the Star Wars account responded with a retweet and an emoji:
Then both accounts stopped posting until late last night (November 11) when all was revealed.
What does all this mean?
It turns out that the tweets led to the announcement of a collaboration between the two, called “Zen – Grogu and Dust Bunnies”.
“Zen – Grogu and Dust Bunnies” is an original three-minute animated short film directed by Studio Ghibli’s Katsuya Kondo, and featuring both Grogu and “My Neighbor Totoro” character Makukuro Kurosuke (the dark circle with the legs in the photo above).
The short film is described as “a cute short film about the friendship between Japan and the United States”.
The hand-drawn piece will also feature music by Oscar-winning and Emmy-winning composer Ludwig Göransson, who recently wrote the score for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever“, and also marks “The Mandalorian”.
When will it be released?
The good news is that it’s not a long tease for the show, which was created to celebrate the third anniversary of the debut of “The Mandalorian.”
“Zen – Grogu and Dust Bunnies” actually debuts today on Disney+ worldwide, so by the time you read this it should be available to watch.
I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but if so, let us know what you think in the comments!
