Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special [2022]

Are we just having these 'specials' every holiday, then? It's a bit bizarre, and this one certainly feels like it had a lot more budget compared to Werewolf by Night, and... it is interesting because the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is just a huge happy fun standalone movie whose plot is pretty much self-contained and mostly there for gags. But it was done basically perfectly in such a long-running series like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in particular the Guardians story. 

There is definitely something that impacts the main story for the Guardians moving forwards, which is, of course, the revelation of a plot point from a deleted scene -- that Mantis is Star-Lord's half sister by way of Ego. It's always something that I felt was kind of implied, and it would definitely make Mantis hanging out with Ego all alone on that planet a whole lot less creepy if she was his child. It is something that could've been delivered off-screen to us when we do get to Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 3 next year, and I've always been curious about Mantis and hoping that they'd do more with her. Mantis probably is the master of 'funny background moments' in Avengers: Infinity War, but otherwise she's simply reduced to barely more relevant than the tree that can only say three words. 

Likewise, Drax is probably one of the biggest cases of a character who lost a lot in the adaptation distillation from comic to screen. Losing his backstory as a human transformed into a living weapon, and having his rivalry against Thanos be transferred to Ronan (and thus subsequently resolved in GOTG), plus the role of the Guardians with the most enmity against Thanos being taken up by Gamora and Nebula in Infinity War and Endgame... yeah, poor, poor Drax.

So which is just basically a long-winded way to say that out of the Guardians ensemble, Drax and Mantis are the two best characters to build a one-off special out of where they get a bit more screentime, and what a glorious 45 minutes did we get out of this. Again, it's mostly jokes, but Dave Bautista and Pom Klementieff are both extremely hilarious as literal fish-out-of-water running around in Hollywood, Earth, and the interactions between the two has a very strong 'the blind leading the blind' idea going on. I don't really think there's a way to explain it all without listing every single joke they make in the mini-movie, but it is definitely well done. 

Basically, after hearing a story about how Yondu (a nice way to give Michael Rooker a role!) was a dick to young Peter in regards to Christmas, and realizing that Peter is still grieving over the whole Gamora thing, Mantis decides to do something nice to Peter because she's his sister... but the Ego relationship is something that Mantis thought is going to strain any revelations made about that. This flashback, by the way, is also made via a wonderful animation that recalls specifically the Star Wars Holiday Special, much-maligned at the time it was made but remembered as something neatly cheesy now. 

Mantis and Drax go off to Earth to hunt down Kevin Bacon and bring him to Peter as a gift, and, well, they basically go on a lot of hijinks. They take photographs with a bunch of cosplayers, get drunk, Drax beats up a GoBot cosplayer*, they get infatuated with inflatable elves and candy canes, we get a surprisingly hilarious amount of emotion from Mantis who gets pissed off at Drax for a Zarg-Nut incident...

*As a huge Transformers geek, a GoBot reference in 2022 is absolutely unfathomable to me! Let alone in a major Marvel Movies production!

And then they kidnap Kevin Bacon! They literally go to the actor's house, kidnap Kevin Bacon, and we get to see a surprising range of action scenes from Mantis. Drax we've seen do a bunch of action scenes in all the movies, so seeing him knock over police cars and get tickled by bullets is exciting but not impressive. Mantis, meanwhile, leaping from pillar to pillar while wielding a giant candy cane and grinning with those glorious bug eyes of hers? There is just such a manic but adorable intensity that MCU Mantis has going on for her. Neat to see her show off more combat capabilities beyond just 'sleep', anyway. 

Mantis and Drax bring Kevin Bacon to Knowhere -- which, by the way, the Guardians have purchased at some point after Infinity War from the Collector and turned into their base -- and Peter Quill is absolutely horrified that his buddies have kidnapped an actor. And also brainwashed him into being a hero. Of course, it can't be a Christmas/Holiday Special without a happy ending, so Kraglin and Kevin Bacon get to talking on the ship, and Kevin Bacon decides to stay around for one hell of a musical ending. (There's also a musical number about an alien with a super-long name completely missing the point about Christmas -- this alien band is played by real-life band, the Old 97's).

It's saccharine, yes, but it just... brings a smile to my face. All the ridiculousness of the comedy of Mantis and Drax running around on Earth, leading to the gift exchange with Mantis giving Drax the inflatable elf, Groot giving the other Guardians art pieces, Peter gives Groot a retro Game Boy, and Nebula of all people somehow getting Bucky's metal arm for Rocket. Also, Kraglin gets to speak a lot more as the character that knows Peter as a child, and the idea that he was Peter's big brother figure among the Ravagers is definitely pretty cool. Peter later tells the others that... Yondu eventually gets touched by the gift that Peter got him -- the very first tiny toy trinket on his ship's dashboard! And then Yondu got Peter his weird-ass quad-blasters! Which leads to Mantis's absolutely terrified and hopeful revelation to Peter that she is his sister, which Peter, of course, takes amazingly well.

Oh, and Cosmo the Space Dog finally getting some lines and being used as a character instead of just this weird out-of-context thing in the background is definitely something I appreciate. 

And it's all just a nice little happy fun bridge between the two Guardians movies, or at least the Infinity War/Endgame saga and the purportedly final Guardians of the Galaxy movie next year. It's just 45 minutes of cute, heartwarming and funny, and I definitely enjoyed watching this little mini-movie for sure!

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Post Credits Scene: 
• Rocket and Cosmo try to turn Groot into a Christmas tree, only for Groot to lower his arms and cause the entire ensemble to drop. Rocket remarks that they would need 'another' Holiday Special.
• Post Movies Continuity:
• Peter Quill being a fan of Kevin Bacon -- and using dancing to save a town in Footloose -- is a recurring gag in the first Guardians of the Galaxy, and was how Star-Lord distracted Ronan the Accuser at the climax of that movie. 
• One of the presents in the animated sequence is addressed to Taserface, the mutinous Ravager from Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.
• Cosmo the Dog has been a recurring background character in the first two Guardians movies, and finally gets a line. 
• Rocket has had an obsession with taking people's prosthetics in the escape scene in Guardians of the Galaxy, leading to the fans and the creators speculating on what Rocket would say when he met Winter Soldier -- resulting in a gag where he tries to buy Bucky's metal arm in Avengers: Infinity War. Nebula apparently, off-screen, managed to get her hands on the metal arm. 
• Rocket's hatred at being called a 'raccoon' is shown in the first Guardians movie. 
• Groot's love for art is explored, rather surprisingly, in I Am Groot. 
• The green Yoda-esque ugly toy that Peter gifts Yondu could be seen in his dashboard in the first two Guardians movies. 
• Mantis being revealed as one of Ego's daughters is actually filmed in a deleted scene in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, although a woman of Mantis's species is seen in the montage of women that Ego had bedded. 
• An ad for a Kingo special can be seen briefly -- Kingo has been shown to be a major movie star in the MCU. Presumably this is a rerun, because Kingo got himself abducted by Arishem in Eternals.
• There are cosplayers for Captain America, Black Widow, Ant-Man and Captain Marvel in Hollywood. Non-Marvel characters that can be seen include Jack Sparrow, Zorro and Cy-Kill. Taking things from other media, the people taking photographs with Drax thought that he was a Kratos cosplayer. 
• Kevin Bacon brings up Batman/Bruce Wayne from DC as a hero.
• The lack of Thor among the Guardians and the growth of Groot places this movie after the events of Thor: Love and Thunder, and presumably before Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3.