“I liked the idea of the music & the mixed media.”
Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is here, and it is all things Christmas-y! The story is warm, gullible, and has hilarious twists and turns in true Guardians’ fashion. The feature was conceived during the filming of Vol 2 as MCU’s first Disney+ offering and was shot alongside the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 which gives it an edge to be a bridge between the events of Thor: Love and Thunder and the upcoming movie. The feature is also unique in mixing animation in a live-action feature, in a recent Tweet director James Gunn revealed the reasoning behind the interesting choice.
The holiday special opens with an animated sequence of a young Peter preparing for holiday festivities with Kraglin when Yondu comes in and ruins Christmas. It was a story told by Kraglin which makes the gang incredibly sad and prompts Mantis to do something special for Peter. When one fan asked Gunn about using animation for the flashback on Twitter, he revealed that he like the idea of having mixed media in the holiday special. He wrote, “I wanted to do the Star Wars Holiday Special but done right (no offense @MarkHamill etc). I LIKED the idea of the music & the mixed media & the off-the-rails nature but not necessarily the way everything was assembled. Also @FelloWyatt will always be young Peter to me.”
Gunn’s unconventional choices have made a big impact on the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise be it adding a talking raccoon and a tree as characters, the exceptional background score often consisting of hit musical numbers, or now adding animation to live-action. The interesting opening of the holiday special keeps you hooked and also brings back fan-favorite Michael Rooker as Yondu once more to the MCU. There’s another animated sequence at the end of the special that finishes Kraglin’s story on a perfect holiday spirit note!
In Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Drax and Mantis take a trip to earth to fetch and present legendary hero Kevin Bacon as a Christmas gift to Star-Lord, who is missing Gamora very much around this time of the year. It further reveals more secrets about Mantis and Peter’s relationship which will certainly be an emotional plot point in the upcoming Vol 3. The upcoming movie will close the chapter on Gunn’s stint and his current bands of misfits.
Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is streaming on Disney+.
