See this series to movie transition you should.

I’m a late bloomer when it comes to TV shows, but there are those I do catch up on and watch. “The Mandalorian” is one of them. Created by Jon Favreau and streaming on Disney+, this “Star Wars” series takes place after “Return of the Jedi,” where Pedro Pascal plays the bounty hunter known as the Mandalorian. Unless he’s eating in privacy, he can’t take off his mask, and if he does, he has to get baptized in order to redeem himself. You know how oaths work (“This is the way,” he says). And what some would refer to as “Baby Yoda,” he has a young apprentice named Grogu, whom he protects and serves as a father figure to him.

So now, Favreau directs his series-to-movie transition known as “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” and while it plays like an extended episode of the series (episodes ran between 30 minutes to an hour), it still has a lot of eye candy and fun for fans. I saw it in IMAX last week, and I think the format works with how the movie knows when to go full screen for the actions sequences. This is me speaking in Yoda: Popcorn entertainment it chooses to be.

Pascal is back as Din Djarin, A.K.A. the Mandalorian, who is tasked by the New Republic’s colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver) to track Jabba the Hutt’s son Rotta (voiced by Jeremy Allen White with a lower pitch), who was kidnapped and placed in a fighting arena. And he looks like Adonis Creed had sex with his mother with the his pecs and muscles. So I guess the movie likes to be campy in this fashion, especially when “Avengers: Endgame” made spliced Bruce Banner and the Hulk in a comical manner. And I guess it would be an unwritten rule that the youngsters have to be cocky to ignore the warnings of the person trying to save him, which in this case has him thinking he does one last fight and his debt is cleared.

“The Mandalorian and Grogu” isn’t as glorious as “A New Hope,” “The Empire Strikes Back” or “The Force Awakens” because the story doesn’t really justify the bounty hunter’s complexity, but it still knows how to handle the character. Without spoiling anything for fans, you know his mask will be taken off, that he will be screwed over, and how Grogu is by his side all the way through. And Pascal still delivers his series character as he makes the theatrical jump.

I like to think that this movie wants to be nostalgic and campy, which is enough to keep us going. We also get a track that almost sounds like its own cover version of Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” as well as voice cameos from Martin Scorsese and Stephen McKinley Henderson, a sense of humor with Grogu, and a sewer ride that acts like the water slide in “The Goonies.” It’s just fun to think about that. And I’ve been hearing reports that Gen Z has been helping to revitalize the movie going experience, so I think the series knows how to make a movie for the big screen and not the computer screen.

Even on a series, the live action “Star Wars” franchise has been trying to honor the movies with the right special effects an animatronics, and puppetry. Grogu, the tiny droidsmith Babu Frik, and his assistants are almost like walking toys with how they move and react. I’ve been hearing that a new “Gremlins” movie will honor the 1984 in that fashion, and I like to think I’m getting a little teaser of that. Favreau is a filmmaker who specializes in action and special effects (“Iron Man,” “Zathura,” “The Jungle Book, etc.), and he directs his series-to-feature transition with the right visuals and energy, if not a perfect story.

Back to TV to movie transitions. “Beavis & Butthead Do America” introduced me to the MTV idiots, “Downton Abbey” was able to have three movies showing different kinds of people who’s boss, and “The Simpsons Movie” made me catch up on the episodes in my youth. And I’m glad I was suggested to watch “The Mandalorian” so I can compare and contrast the movie version. It’s not a perfect “Star Wars” entry, but it’s an eye full that knows the way.