The sixth episode of Disney+‘s Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, entitled “Process,” dives into the pre-production work on The Mandalorian. While “Process” does have its interesting moments, overall, it feels like a shallower, more technical exploration of the show, especially in comparison to the previous episodes.
“Process” focuses on the work done on The Mandalorian before filming began, namely storyboarding and pre-visualization. Like every other episode of Disney Gallery so far, it includes interviews and roundtable discussions with the directors, producers, and visual effects experts who worked on the show.
While I did find it interesting to look at the storyboarded images and pre-visualization footage of The Mandalorian, this episode was largely underwhelming. The last three episodes have focuses on the incredible visual effects throughout the show, something that I loved seeing as a life-long Star Wars fan.
In contrast, “Process” centers around all the stuff the crew had to do before filming began. I appreciate the work that went into creating the story and appearance of The Mandalorian, of course, but it honestly just wasn’t that exciting to look at for a full 20 minutes.
Plus, since the episode focused on production, Jon Favreau was the main speaker in most of the interviews and roundtables. Even though I found his input interesting, especially when he spoke about how his work on The Jungle Book and The Lion King influenced decisions on The Mandalorian, I would have liked some more variety.
The directors of The Mandalorian did get some time to shine at the end, but I didn’t find much of their input very revolutionary. In fact, most of their comments didn’t seem to branch out at all from statements made in previous episodes about what it was like to work on such a unique show. I loved hearing Deborah Chow and Rick Famuyiwa speak, per usual, but found myself uninterested in most of the subject matter.
“Process” is just a simply middle-tier episode. It’s not really good or bad, it’s just sort of there, which is disappointing considering how phenomenal the last couple of episodes were. Seeing the storyboards and pre-visualization in comparison to the final product did interest me, but not enough to make it a standout experience.
It seems like Disney knew this going into the episode, too. It’s 10 minutes shorter than any other episode so far and there are quite a few moments of footage with no commentary.
Overall, “Process” is fine and might interest actual filmmakers. As a fan, however, it was mostly boring. The few interesting moments it did have for me were rare, and most of the episode is dominated by Jon Favreau with little input from others since it is so heavily focused on production leading up to filming, making it feel bland. “Process” is still worth watching if you’re incredibly invested in how TV shows are made, but if you’re watching it just for more Star Wars content, you won’t find much there.
Process
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Rating - 5/105/10
TL;DR
“Process” is fine and might interest actual filmmakers. As a fan, however, it was mostly boring. The few interesting moments it did have for me were rare, and most of the episode is dominated by Jon Favreau with little input from others since it is so heavily focused on production leading up to filming, making it feel bland. “Process” is still worth watching if you’re incredibly invested in how TV shows are made, but if you’re watching it just for more Star Wars content, you won’t find much there.
