Forget Game of Thrones. A new pop culture token has arrived. It takes the form of a green alien baby from the Star Wars television series The Mandalorian – a key offering from Disney+ when it launched last month.
[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2019/11/disney-plus-australian-pricing-library-and-release-date/” thumb=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/11/Empieral-Guard-410×231.jpg” title=”Disney Plus: Australian Pricing, Release Date And Content” excerpt=”This week, Disney gave Australians a taste of the content that will be coming to its streaming service, Disney+. It will be available on November 19 and it’s bound to shake up Australia’s streaming scene in a big way. Here’s everything you need to know, including how much it will cost Aussie subscribers.”]
In “Baby Yoda” (he is officially called The Child), we are introduced to a new version of someone we already love. The tiny, revered elder of the films has been further miniaturised and transformed. No longer a wizened oracle, he is presented as a vulnerable infant.
Imbued with traits we are biologically driven to find appealing – a large, symmetrical head, large eyes, a small mouth and a small nose – viewers have taken to this precious bundle and given him the online status he deserves: the internet meme.
There are online gifs, images and videos of Baby Yoda sipping soup, sharing a 50th birthday with celebrities, embodying extreme cuteness and – most importantly – inspiring Disney+ subscriptions.
Baby Yoda is shrouded in the mystery of uncharted territory. Unlike our first encounter with Yoda in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, this time we get to journey with him, as he and The Mandalorian explore a universe after the fall of the Empire.
The unlikely caretaker – one of the few remaining Mandalorian bounty hunters, who also made their debut in The Empire Strikes Back – discovers “the kid” towards the end of the first episode. The audience looks on with delight as the Mandalorian creates the unlikely kinship we all wish we could have with our own Baby Yoda.
Although recent Star Wars instalments didn’t hit home as strongly, we forgive all when we stare into those dark, pleading eyes.
The power of nostalgia
Disney has always marketed to the whole family, with a deep understanding of how nostalgia brands work.
Generations hand their cultural icons down with more effectiveness than any material heirloom. And yet companies need to constantly reinvent the nostalgia brand to keep it current without compromising its essential elements.
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