The Guardians of the Galaxy: Holiday Special Review

Out of nowhere, Disney brings out a small Holiday Special featuring one of its best space-based franchises… No, not Star Wars since that one already did one and failed. This time we get the Guardians of the Galaxy a go in doing that exact same thing, just without the horrible Christmas variant that required too many Wookies to explain and a lot fewer weird moments and songs. With The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, we get a messed up story that just works for the characters involved.

Title: The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
Production Company: Marvel Studios
Distributed by: Disney+
Directed by: James Gunn
Produced by: Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, James Gunn, Sara Smith, Simon Hatt
Written by: James Gunn
Starring: Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Sean Gunn, Michael Rooker, Zoe Saldaña, Kevin Bacon, Maria Bakalova
Based on: Guardians of the Galaxy by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Release dates: Text
Running time: 40 minutes

Once upon a Christmas in Nowhere…

Story Summary – SPOILERS

[toggler title=”Click to read story summary” ]The Guardians of the Galaxy purchase Knowhere from the Collector and take in Cosmo the Spacedog as a new member. As Christmas approaches, Kraglin Obfonteri tells the Guardians the story of how Yondu Udonta ruined Christmas for Peter Quill in his childhood. Mantis discusses with Drax finding a perfect Christmas present for Quill, as the latter is still depressed following the loss of Gamora.[a] After brainstorming for ideas, they decide to go to Earth and retrieve Quill’s childhood hero, actor Kevin Bacon.

Mantis and Drax arrive in Hollywood, Los Angeles, where they attempt to search for Bacon. After spending time at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a bar, they acquire a map of celebrities’ residences and locate Bacon’s home in Beverly Hills. Bacon, who is waiting for his family to come home, is terrified by the appearance of Mantis and Drax and attempts to escape. Police arrive to help, but Mantis places them and Bacon in a trance before taking Bacon with them. As they return to Knowhere, Mantis and Drax are disappointed to learn that Bacon is an actor and not a real-life hero. Later, the Guardians surprise Quill with a Christmas celebration, but Quill is horrified to learn that Bacon has been kidnapped against his will, demanding that he be returned home. On the Guardians’ new spaceship, the Bowie, Bacon learns from Kraglin how he inspired Quill’s heroism and decides to celebrate Christmas with the Guardians before returning home.

After the celebration, Quill reveals to Mantis that Yondu eventually changed his mind about Christmas and gifted him a pair of blasters which now serve as his primary weapons. Mantis confides in him that she is Quill’s half-sister, after years of refusing to tell him the truth out of fear of reminding him of his father Ego’s misdeeds, to Quill’s surprise and elation.[/toggler]

Story Review – Some Vague Spoilers

For what little story there is for The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, it works really well. We are following a small adventure for two of the franchise’s most entertaining and most forgotten characters in Drax and Mantis while they do something that would be considered criminal in any other movie, or reality, but just works for them. The whole chase to find and bring Kevin Bacon to Quill because they wanted to save Quill’s impression of Christmas is a barrel of laughs from beginning to end, with things getting even weirder once they realize that Kevin Bacon is not all that Quill made him out to be. The finale of everything for The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is what makes the special worth watching as they reveal something that might impact things going forward while reminding people of the meaning of the season.

The kidnapped and the kidnappers…

• Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer
  Drax is a comedy icon in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. While everything he does and says is inadvertently comedic, you can see that he only has the best of intentions when it comes to what he is doing. Normally I’m not a fan of the big dumb guy gimmick, but Drax is the exception to the rule here. As always Bautista does a great job with the character that seems to be tailor-made for him.
• Pom Klementieff as Mantis
  Mantis wasn’t my favorite addition to the group during the events of The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but with The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, I’m happy to see her be involved. Showing the kind heart to Drax’s strong seriousness works really well as the two seem to have some great chemistry while on screen. Plus drunk Mantis is funny as hell.
• Kevin Bacon as himself
  Playing yourself must be so hard for a movie… Not! Bacon is great as himself, running away from two alien invaders before getting captured. I actually learned something with The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special as I didn’t know Kevin Bacon could sing. A weird “Big Lipped Alligator Moment” from Bacon showed me something new about the guy, which is not a bad thing. I just wish there was more interaction with Kevin and all the characters instead of the 3 characters he does interact with.
• And the rest…
  You’ll notice that there are a lot of people who I’ve left out of this rundown, like Peter Quill, Yandu, Groot, Rocket, and more. The reason for this is that most of this special does not involve them, only using some of them as book-ends to the overall story or are just mentioned in passing. I’m happy to see everyone getting a paycheck for this special, but they really don’t do anything interesting. Hell, Yandu appears in animated flashbacks and has two lines… Meh.

A parody of the worst Christmas special ever, but done right

From the opening moments of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, you notice that this is a parody of the Star Wars Holiday Special, mixing songs and animation sequences with a small story to pull things together. But unlike the Star Wars Holiday Special, there is a feeling that there was a lot more care given to the look and feel of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. The animated moments, where a story about Yandu “ruining” the idea of Christmas for Quill is really well done. The limited animation style worked really well and the story itself goes from being a moment of horribleness to being one that shows the deep love Yandu really had for Quill, continuing on from the ending the two had in The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

The main story of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, with Drax and Mantis trying to locate Kevin Bacon results in some of the best moments of the special. Having two aliens walking around near the Grauman’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood’s walk of fame where all the cosplayers/rip-off artists hang around during the “Era of Heroes” results in the best moments of the whole special… and making Go-Bots official Marvel canon. Then the following sequences also give us some great moments featuring Drax and Mantis that you wouldn’t see in anything outside of a wacky adventure like this.

Limited and somewhat off-putting

Much like the Star Wars Holiday Special, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special has a flaw when it comes to at least one of its songs. In the beginning, we are “treated” to a song about Christmas that gets just about everything wrong but since it’s from an alien group who have only heard stories and rumors about the holiday I guess we should be more forgiving about it… And at least it’s not that weird song with Bea Arthur or that Life-Day thing. The second song, sung by Kevin Bacon, is ok but doesn’t really enclose anything to do with Christmas itself, but more of a neutral “best to all” type song that has become standard in this “we can’t offend anyone” era.

Outside of the songs, I would have liked to have seen more from the rest of the Guardians as they are around for the special. The appearance of “Buff Groot” was shocking to me as I don’t remember him becoming that at any point during The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. My final character gripe comes from Cosmo, the RUSSIAN space dog, who does not sound anything like a Russian at all in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, making me think that either the casting is off, or they removed the Russian from the character even though the space suit still reads CCCP on it.

A Holiday Special that is ok enough for Disney/Marvel

For something that is meant to be a one-time watch, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is a really good example of using property the right way. Unlike other Holiday specials that seem to be designed to just celebrate Christmas, having an actual story tied to things that make for a great stand-alone adventure really pushes the experience. Plus the small revelation at the end of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is just right and hits the feels in a way that will make those TV onions appear and leave you with the feeling that something was actually accomplished for the overall franchise rather than just a one-off spin-off.