The puppet show: The Mandalorian and Grogu and Project Hail Mary are proof why puppets reign over CGI

Next week marks the cinema debut of Grogu, who was dubbed Baby Yoda from the moment he entered the public consciousness.

A toddler version belonging to the same Force-wielding species as the famed Star Wars character, Grogu elicited coos, awws and exclamations of “Aaaah, he’s so cuuuuute!” normally reserved for a smiling Corgi puppy (or a human baby, if you’re into that kind of thing).

That was seven years ago and Grogu is the centre of all the promotions for The Mandalorian and Grogu, the cinema sequel to the streaming series. The character’s widespread appeal is a forceful argument for puppets over CGI.

From next week, Grogu, with his wrinkled eyes, sickly pallor, stretched out horizontal ears and that slight fuzz of greys on his head, will be splashed up on the big screen.

When you read that description, it doesn’t sound cute. Same if you try to describe E.T., with his cro-magnon ridge, wide-set eyes and snake-like neck. But both are among the most beloved characters in screen history.

Apart from Grogu and ET being alien companion characters with the temperament of a child, they are both also animatronic puppets. They are physically in the frame with the actors and the props, and interact with other characters as if they were real.

It makes a huge difference, especially now in an era when CGI is so prevalent in filmmaking.

For an audience member, the difference between a CGI character and a puppet character is rarely distinguishable to the eye, but there is this intangible gut feeling knowing whether something is there or not.

When The Mandalorian series premiered, the production made a point of publicising that Grogu, who at the time had not yet been named and was officially known as The Child, was a puppet and not pixels.

It wasn’t always the case. Dave Filoni, who co-created The Mandalorian and now a co-president of Lucasfilm, recounted to Vanity Fair in 2019 that during filming the first season, it wasn’t yet confirmed whether the puppet would remain.

The story goes that during one scene with actor Werner Herzog, Filoni and co-showrunner Jon Favreau went to remove the Grogu puppet off the set so they could film a take without it, giving the production the option to replace the character digitally if the puppet didn’t read as convincing on screen.

Herzog, who is also an acclaimed filmmaker, apparently told them off. “You are cowards, leave it,” Herzog said, according to Filoni.

One of the show’s episode directors, Deborah Chow, has also shared it was as if Herzog had fallen in love with the puppet and was interacting with it as a real-life creature.

More recently, Favreau while promoting the release of next week’s film, said he too now directed Grogu as if it was a person, speaking to it directly rather than the puppeteers. He said it was something that had started on the streaming series with Bryce Dallas Howard, who had directed several episodes, and it’s something that’s kept going.

Built by Legacy Effects, Grogu is made from custom soft silicon and is controlled by up to five puppeteers on set – one moved the eyes, another controlled the ears and mouth, and there are separate people for his head, arms and body.

That’s one of the great advantages of a real-life puppet rather than CGI. Not even the most gifted thespian in the world can act opposite a tennis ball on a stick as well as they could against something that’s actually there.

Take Project Hail Mary, which is reliant on audiences buying into the bond between Ryan Gosling’s character Ryland Grace and Rocky, a rock-shaped alien with several limbs and no discernible face (he uses echolocation to “see” things).

That relationship is the almost the entire emotional core of the film, so if it doesn’t work, the whole movie doesn’t work.

Rocky was built by Neil Scanlan, who has worked for Jim Henson’s creature shop, and puppeted by James Ortiz and a team. Ortiz also provided the computer voice that was translating Rocky’s dialogue.

His contribution to the performance of Rocky has made him eligible to be nominated for a supporting actor Oscar (only one voice acting performer has been nominated previously and that was Eddie Murphy for Shrek).

With Ortiz taking ownership, as it were, of a puppet character, Rocky felt more layered and nuanced than a CGI version would’ve been.

Ortiz told Variety that the creative team empowered him to make character decisions. “What I loved about the process was at no point did (directors) Phil (Lord) or Chris (Miller) or anybody on the team ever treat me like I was a technician, or like a plumber who was brought in to fix a specific thing.

“At every point, they would ask, ‘What do you think, would Rocky do this or that?’, and I’d think about it and tell them exactly how Rocky would feel.”

Earlier productions such as The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Muppets, the original Star Wars trilogy, Gremlins, Alf, and even E.T. were made at a time when computer animations had not yet been developed to a point as to replace puppets.

Maybe there’s something in that. Kermit, OG Yoda and E.T. are the characters that have endured, and no matter how advanced CGI has evolved, there is this weightlessness to something that’s not really there, sharing scenes with live-action humans.

You can match the eyelines as best you can, but there are some things you just can’t fake.

May the puppet Force be with you.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is in cinemas on May 21, Project Hail Mary is in cinemas now