The Guardians of the Galaxy rock around their Christmas tree.
A very music-heavy holiday special transported me to the 90s.
The Short Take:
A cute and heartwarming jaunt, perfect for the holiday season. A lot more music forward than I expected, which was fun.
Image Credit: IGN
[We’ll be SPOILER-FREE until the last few paragraphs at the end. I’ll give you fair warning before we switch over.]
The Long Take:
When I was a teenager in the 90s, I had these Christmas music compilation albums called A Very Special Christmas. They had Keith Herring artwork on the cover and featured both covers and original songs by popular artists at the time to raise money for the Special Olympics. There were three of them, and I wore out the third one, which came out in 1997, the most. It was such a time capsule for late 90s alt rock and pop music. Smashing Pumpkins, No Doubt, Hootie and the Blowfish, Natalie Merchant, Mary J. Blige….Blues Traveler! I had completely forgotten about Blues Traveler until this very moment. My musical taste during this time, especially with anything contemporary, was nascent at best. I remember these CDs, which I annually fished out of this wicker picnic basket we kept all our Christmas music in for some reason, served as a formative entry point.
Image Credit: Spotify
Forgive the nostalgic detour, but my point is that The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special brought me right back to that listening memory. To the musical zeitgeist of 1997. After watching this breezy 45-minute special, I went back and looked at the list of song titles and realized that there was a very literal reason for my mental time travel: The Smashing Pumpkins song from A Very Special Christmas 3, “Christmastime” is actually in the Guardians special. No wonder! Even if it hadn’t been, though, all the other songs could have easily fit into the warm flannel shirt hug that is A Very Special Christmas 3. Does anyone else know what I’m talking about? Please affirm my sanity in the comments if you can.
Image Credit: Marvel.com
Director James Gunn actually collaborated with one of his favorite bands to write two original songs that would fit right in as well. I was not familiar with the Old 97’s before this (the grammarian in me wants to remove the apostrophe, but I looked them up and that’s their official name so…shrug), but they’re credited with contributing to the alt-country movement in the 90s, having formed in 1992. They’re associated with the alt-rock and indie-rock genres too, so I think they in part fuel the 90s rock vibes I’m getting from the special in general. According to James Gunn’s Twitter account, he originally asked the lead singer of the Old 97’s to just help him write the song “I Don’t Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime is Here),” and then later asked him if the whole band would like to appear in the special as an alien group on Knowhere (which, as a reminder, is the floating severed head of a Celestial, like the one that pops out of the Earth surface in Eternals).
“I Don’t Know What Christmas Is” was my favorite song overall because the lyrics hilariously describe what Christmas would seem like to an alien unfamiliar with Earth’s customs. I don’t want to spoil it too much, but, just to tease, some of the verses include phrases like “Santa is a furry freak with epic superpowers” and “Mrs. Claus, she works the pole.” Re-listening to the tune on its own, it’s actually quite catchy too. I may have been too distracted by character reactions to the performance of the song to notice that during my initial viewing.
This focus on music and specifically on musical performances within the story makes this a “true” holiday special in the network TV variety show tradition, as it has the same disregard for more serious, high-stakes storytelling. The spirit of the season reigns supreme. Songs about the season, conversations about the season, and heartwarming scenes between characters revolving around the spirit of the season take precedent above all else. Get ready for lots of colored lights, garish decorations, and ugly sweaters.
Image Credit: The Verge
There is a discernible, coherent plot; it’s just fairly simple and straightforward to make space for all of the festive touches. Much like the other Marvel “Special Presentation,” “Werewolf By Night,” the Home Alone-esque antics of our favorite space goofs don’t connect at all to the larger MCU’s phase-based storytelling. While it technically maintains MCU continuity, set between Thor: Love and Thunder and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it very much sits as its own self-contained piece. And that’s a nice gift to open every once in a while.
James Gunn may have overstated things, however, when he said on Twitter that he was trying to make The Star Wars Holiday Special but better. He specifically said that he “liked the idea of the music & the mixed media & the off-the-rails nature” of the now infamous 1978 TV special. The GotG Holiday Special does have more than one musical number and bookends with rotoscope animated flashbacks, but I would not describe it as “off-the-rails” in its structure or style. It’s not nearly as disparate and segmented as its predecessor. Everything, even the animated sequences, work towards a unified plot. There was technically a plot in the Star Wars special too, but the show constantly digressed from it. Its animated sequence, for example, chronicled an entirely different adventure with Boba Fett, a character not featured in any of the live action scenes. To be clear, this isn’t a criticism. I think Gunn’s rendition works well as is.
The GotG Holiday Special’s straightforward plot focuses on Mantis and Drax, who embark on a quest to save Christmas for Star Lord. They hear that when Peter was a child carousing around with Yondu and the Ravagers, Yondu rejected Peter’s attempt to celebrate Christmas. They conclude that this traumatic memory plus the recent loss of Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War has Peter noticeably blue, and Mantis especially wants to cheer him up. In search of the perfect gift — a “legendary hero” that Peter looks up to — the duo fly to Earth. Charming high jinks ensue.
Gunn tells a fun, low stakes side story and in doing so drills in on pure, raw holiday cheer. On full display, though, is the Guardians’ signature blend of wholesome and crass. These characters just want to be good friends and their intentions are so earnest, but they do terrible things in trying to execute on those intentions. In many ways the sincere, at times endearingly awkward, “awww, I love you guys” tone of this rag tag team is a perfect fit for a touching holiday special.
I have a couple of minor criticisms which I’ll get into in the spoiler section ahead, but in general I’d say that this is definitely worth checking out if you’re a big fan of the Guardians or just a fan of kitschy, feel good Christmas fare.
[SPOILER ALERT: I’m switching over now. Just go watch the special! It’s short and delightful.]
My main complaint is that there was somehow not enough Kevin Bacon. Or, more specifically, not enough throwbacks or references to Kevin Bacon as an 80s pop culture icon. I don’t even think there’s even a six degrees of Kevin Bacon joke. The accomplished actor does have ample screen time, but there is only one scene that briefly references a couple of movies he’s been in. Instead, we get this very heavy-handed running joke about how terrible actors are. Mantis and Drax become visibly repulsed when they learn that Kevin Bacon has only played fictional heroes as opposed to being a hero, and insultingly tell this to his face. It’s all very over the top.
Image Credit: Variety
I get that Kevin Bacon in real life may not want to revisit his youth and become a puppet of nostalgia-driven fan service. I don’t blame him for not wanting to redo Footloose at this stage in his career. Gunn and company may not have had control over this and were probably just lucky to get Kevin Bacon at all. But I’m just imagining what Tom Cruise would have done in this situation. He would have brought a self-deferential, self-aware celebrity wattage. He would have gone Tropic Thunder meets Rock of Ages and it would have been epic. Don’t get me wrong; it was still lovely to see Kevin Bacon and see him sing with the Old 97’s. I just feel like there were missed opportunities here.
The funniest moment for me might have been with Rocket, who functions largely as a background character in this instance. Because I knew that the salty raccoon had an irrational limb fetish in previous films, I was hoping that the gift for him from Nebula would have been some kind of arm or leg. I was then overjoyed when he opened it and it was BUCKY’S ARM. This is a great callback to Avengers: Infinity War, in which Rocket asks Bucky how much his arm costs. When Bucky says it’s not for sale, Rocket mutters, “I’m gonna get that arm.” I really hope we get the story behind Nebula’s aquisition of the arm at some point, even if it’s in a comic or some other medium.
Image Credit: Polygon
In general, I liked the short Rocket/Groot/Cosmo interludes sprinkled here and there. And Maria Bakalova, who you may recall was the breakout star of the most recent Borat film, was absolutely adorable as Cosmo. Groot was the only character that gave me pause, as his design here was….a choice. I get that according to the timeline of this version of Groot he must be going through his awkward growth spurt phase, but the proportions of his body are very odd. My friend Greg (@eyeoncanon on IG and Hive) said that he hopes this isn’t the version of Groot we get in Vol. 3, and I agree in hoping that he keeps growing and changing between now and then. As I was wrapping up this review, I started to listen to The Ringer-Verse’s episode on the this special, and they have a side-splitting-ly funny exchange about “swole Groot.” Jomi Adeniran says that “He looks like you took The Mountain’s body and put a newborn baby’s head on it. It’s legitimately terrifying. There’s no way they can run that back for Vol. 3.” That cracked me up. Again, it didn’t actively bother me, but I if I’m picking from a Groot line-up, I’m not picking this one.
I don’t have a lot to say about Mantis’ big reveal that she’s Star Lord’s half-sister, though I feel compelled to mention it just the same. It seemed like a logical inevitability considering the events of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. More importantly, it gives this holiday special an extra shot of sentimentality that I think makes the whole endeavor work. I was glad to see Mantis have more of a central role. I remember liking her in Vol. 2 but also thinking she barely said anything. Her comic timing with Drax is great, and I’m glad she got this time to shine.
Image Credit: Salon
What I’m realizing as I write this is that while this special presentation is self-contained and a welcome respite from the massive, sprawling tapestry that is the MCU, I do think it has gotten me more excited for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (slated for May 5, 2023) than I was before. I know many of us have cooled on Star Lord and Chris Pratt recently, but this special reminded me — more than Thor: Love and Thunder did, by a mile— how much I loved the first Guardians film and what a great hang this motley crew can be.
Great take(s). First time in a while I've seen the show/episode before the review (perpetually behind on media life).
Old 97's are one of my family's favorites, though I don't think I ever noticed the apostrophe before. Wikipedia says it's from the Wreck of the Old 97, an event and country ballad standard where the Old 97 is a train. The bassist is a train fan. More to the point, they actually explained the apostrophe once:
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-rhythm-news-possessed-by-the-old-97s-2012aug29-story.html
I don't really agree with them, just like I didn't agree with Vampire Weekend's Oxford Comma rant, but they're the artists, so....A lot of Old 97's' (that's fun!, not the band, fun.) lyrics are tongue-in-cheek, so I think they would have been better served to say, "we belong to a train" in one interview and "we belong to the country ballad tradition" in the next and so on, until they finally get to "it's short for Old 97 your mamas." But again, that's just me.