WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, in theaters now.
Since The Mandalorian started, the popularity of Baby Yoda has been infectious. Fans were left demanding that Disney create more merchandise and toys to satisfy their appetite for the "Child." Apart from his cute factor, those affectionate scenes of him trying to use the Force to save the ones he loves brings a lovable warmth to the Star Wars spinoff and, surprisingly, add levity to a series that's more or less a violent space western.
However, as huggable as Baby Yoda is, thanks to The Rise of Skywalker, we now have a character even more cute: the wrinkly Babu Frik.
Babu steals the scenes he's in just like Baby Yoda but there are a couple things which make him way more adorable. Firstly, unlike the kid who's just a passenger in whatever debacle Mando finds himself, Babu's an all-out soldier, despite being pint-sized (Wookieepedia has him at less than a foot tall). He has the disposition of a kid as too, despite Poe revealing he's one of the oldest friends he has.
Voiced by Shirley Henderson (aka Moaning Myrtle from the Harry Potter series), Babu's a droidsmith with the Spice Runners of Kijimi, and someone Poe needs desperately to help them find a way to Palpatine's secret lair. Poe takes Rey and Finn to Babu's partner and Poe's ex, Zorii Bliss (Keri Russell), so she can convince Babu to reprogram Threepio and get the map decoded to find a way to the Sith temple in the Unknown Regions.
Right off the bat, Babu leaves fans laughing with his signature, "Heyyyyyy!" He's comedic relief but he actually plays a key role, and looks so fuzzy and lovable doing so. Make no mistake, when we're introduced to Babu, it's a very bleak arc as he resets the droid's memory to bypass security protocols that prevented him from translating the Sith map. But while the rebels are tense as Threepio loses his memory, Babu's cracking jokes, babbling incoherently like a kid.
From his iconic "I... Babu... Frik" to "Droid.. Go... Dark... Night... Night," he's quite a hoot, making any sequence he's in, no matter how dark it is, hilarious. When Threepio awakens with his red eyes in what should be a scene steeped in grief, Babu scurrying around in the back with his "Uh-oh!" is just too funny and keeps the humor factor rolling.
The hacker's importance can't be downplayed because, apart from getting the map decoded to help Rey to go after her grandfather, the monkey-like engineer is integral to Zorri's fleet finding Poe and Co. on Exegol where more rebels fly in to take out the Final Order of Star Destroyers. Babu pops up with his "Heyyyyyy!" in the Zorri's cockpit once more, and unlike Baby Yoda, who does things by accident, this Anzellan's a man on a mission, having fun while fighting oppression.
He looks like a tyke, has a lot of one-liners and gives Finn and Poe crap like Junior from Problem Child. But rather than grabbing things he shouldn't be touching, it's Babu's muttering and talking which gives him the edge over the cooing "asset" Mando's taking care of. Maybe someday we might even get to see both partner up but until we figure out how long Mando's kid lives for and if he does meet Babu, all we can do is hope and bask in wide-eyed glory at what Disney has created.
Babu may have stolen the kid's thunder but, still, let's enjoy a time where both exist!
Directed and co-written by J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, is currently in theaters, and stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Keri Russell, Anthony Daniels, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams and Carrie Fisher, with Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant.