'Shamelessly stolen' from 'Gremlins,' says director Joe Dante on Baby Yoda character

Washington [US], July 15 : 'Gremlins,' director Joe Dante believes that Baby Yoda character from the TV series 'The Mandalorian' is completely stolen and copied from his movie.
Recently in an interview director Joe Dante said, "I think the longevity of [the films] is really key to this one character Gizmo, who is essentially like a baby," director Joe Dante recently told the San Francisco Chronicle of the star of his classic Gremlins films. "Which brings me, of course, to the subject of Baby Yoda, who is completely stolen and is just out-and-out copied. Shamelessly, I would think," as per Deadline.
Both the creatures look a lot alike when seen side by side with extraordinary powers, big eyes and expressive ears. However, the initial inspiration for Grugu, referred to as Baby Yoda, a character from 'The Mandalorian' Star Wars Disney original television series undoubtedly predates the first Gremlins, which came out in 1984. Yoda made his debut four years prior, as a seemingly impish little swamp creature who bugged Luke Skywalker while he was bogged down on Degobah, according to Deadline.
Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau explained last year that he was thinking more about E.T. than Gizmo when conceiving the character.
"Dave [Filoni] had done a sketch of kind of a Michelangelo/E.T. moment, and that was a source of inspiration," Favreau shared about the Child's first scene. The sketch shows Grugu's cradle afloat with his little hand reaching up out of it and Mando reaching back down to touch fingers. You can see that actual drawing in this Disney Gallery episode on 'The Mandalorian'. The drawing combines Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" and echoes Steven Spielberg's famous alien, said Jon Favreau.
"Doug Chiang and the whole art department started generating drawings of it, and the Legacy [Effects] people built it, "added Favreau
"We got lots and lots of drawings," explained Favreau in the Disney Gallery episode. "Some of them were too cute, some of them were too ugly, some of them were the wrong proportions."
You can see some early sketches here.
Favreau shared, "Finally there was one image that Chris Alzmann did that had him wrapped up in what looked like a piece of a flight jacket." "His eyes were a little weird, and he looked a little out of it, there was something a little off with it. But we found it charming, and that became the rallying image that we said, 'This is good.' And it developed from there."
Star Wars creator George Lucas had an entirely different concern about the character at its inception, as per Deadline.
He revealed that Lucas, who once was pictured on the set of The Mandalorian cradling Baby Yoda, worried about the character's development.
Filoni revealed in the book that, "I had a talk with George at one point about the Child, and his main concern was that the kid has to have a proper amount of training."
Lucas got his wish. An entire episode of The Book of Boba Fett is devoted to the Jedi training of young Grogu.