But we must also face the other half of Baby Yoda’s appeal — not the baby part but the Yoda part. Yes, The Child is vulnerable, adorable, whimsical, cuddly — but what made him an instant celebrity was that he was all those things in the form of a decades-old character that you already recognized and loved.

And of course, “Thing that you already recognize and love” is the animating force in entertainment today, particularly the movies, where Disney has made or bought a vast stable of superhero and sci-fi icons, and rakes in billions by deploying their intellectual property — “I.P.,” like the name of a model line of battle droids — into theaters everywhere. Avengers, jedi, princesses — presold, prerecognized and preloved.

Disney Plus is barely a month old, but it suggests a vision of streaming TV much like Disney’s multiplex strategy, based on already familiar brands. Besides “The Mandalorian,” there are or will be series based on “Toy Story 4,” the Marvel universe, “Monsters Inc.,” “High School Musical” and, again, “Star Wars.”

If you are old enough to remember the original “Star Wars” trilogy, you remember a stretch of over a decade when the idea of any more story beyond those three movies was just a cruel tease. Now you can get more of it as easily as you get tap water — you will get more, whether you think it’s a good idea or not.

And at the head of all this comes Baby Yoda, defying you to have a problem with that. Yes, this is a corporate entertainment hegemon, encroaching to conquer TV as it did the movies — but look at how it sips its little soupy cup! How can you be mad at that?

“The Mandalorian” is a delightful and artful entertainment. It’s also Disney saying, yes, we will re-gift you your childhood, over and over — but it will also be new, and cute, and genuinely inventive, and tweaked just an acceptable amount. It will gainfully employ brilliant people like Werner Herzog and Amy Sedaris. It will use the talents of visual artists who will combine the best of popcorn movies and art film, within the parameters of the franchises we need them to work in.