Book Review: "Art of Coloring - Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu" Adult Coloring Book Helps Fans Unwind Before the Movie

Last week, Lucasfilm Publishing and Random House Worlds released the new adult coloring book Art of Coloring - Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, and Laughing Place was sent a copy for review. Below are my thoughts.

I've been aware of the concept of adult coloring books for a while now, but I've never actually owned one until we received this review copy, so I was very interested to check it out. I'm a huge star wars fan and I've been fairly obsessed with the Mandoverse since the debut of The Mandalorian on Disney+ six and a half years ago, so Art of Coloring - Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu seems like the perfect way for me to jump into this world, as a tie-in to Lucasfilm's new live-action movie coming out in just a few weeks.

My first question to myself was, "What makes an adult coloring book different from a children's coloring book?" And upon opening this volume, the answer seems to be that the designs are more intricate here... and probably more time-consuming for those looking to escape their adult lives via the titular art of coloring.

The first half of Art of Coloring - Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu is made up of line-drawn images covering the first three seasons of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, plus-- pleasantly surprisingly-- a few key scenes from its one-season spinoff Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett (yes, Luke Skywalker pops up during his brief time spent training young Grogu). Then the drawings (totaling 100 throughout the book) start to get into characters and scenes from the movie, but spoiler-averse fans shouldn't worry too much, as it mostly only covers stuff we've seen in the trailers for Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu.

In addition to the two title characters (also known as bounty hunter Din Djarin and his ward "Baby Yoda," depending on who you ask), there are full-page spreads of Zeb Orrelios, Imperial remnant troopers, those adorable Anzellans, Sigourney Weaver's character Colonel Ward, and a beefy Rotta the Hutt, among other vehicles and landscapes from the film. A few pages interestingly flip the script by having you color in the negative space-- I imagine fans will get pretty creative with those.

For my first real exposure to this type of adult-targeted coloring activity, I'm pretty impressed with what the folks at Random House Worlds have come up with. My wife and I have already talked about splitting up some of the pages to color in our favorite characters, actors, and scenes, and I can easily picture other fans doing the same-- maybe as a rewatch of The Mandalorian plays in the background as we prepare ourselves for the new movie. My only minor complaint is that some of the artwork gets recycled within the book, albeit with different backgrounds. For example, one image of Colonel Ward pictures her standing in front of an X-wing starfighter, while on another page the same drawing is posed in front of a more abstract background. Otherwise this book delivers on its promise, and I'm looking forward to hopefully having some time to fill it in soon.

Art of Coloring - Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu is available now wherever books are sold. The Mandalorian and Grogu hits theaters on Friday, May 22.