Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Starring Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Dave Bautista (Drax), Kevin Bacon (Himself), Chris Pratt (Peter Quill / Star-Lord), Sean Gunn (Kraglin), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Bradley Cooper (the Voice of Rocket), Vin Diesel (the Voice of Groot), with Maria Bakalova (the Voice of Cosmo) and Michael Rooker (the Voice of Yondu) and The Old 97’s as The Knowhere Band
THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY HOLIDAY SPECIAL
Directed by James Gunn
A Kevin Feige Production
Also Produced by Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, and James Gunn with Sara Smith and Simon Hatt
Written by James Gunn
Music by John Murphy
Distributed by Disney Platform Distribution
Run Time: 42 minutes
Original Release: November 25, 2022
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%
Fun The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Facts
On Thursday, December 10, 2022, as part of Disney’s Investor’s Day, Marvel CCO Kevin Feige announced The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special for a 2022 release, to be written and directed by James Gunn and to be filmed during the production of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is the third Marvel Studios production to be set during Christmastime following Iron Man 3 and Hawkeye.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special reveals that Pom Klementieff’s Mantis is the daughter of Ego (as seen in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Two), which makes her the biological half-sister of Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill / Star-Lord.
In The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, the Baby Groot that we have been following in the MCU since the credits of 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy has grown into early adulthood, boasting a deeper voice and a much larger body than what we have seen for the eight years between Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: Love and Thunder.
In the 2023 book Marvel Studios – The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline, it is revealed that The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special occurs at Christmastime in the year 2025. To follow the team’s chronological journey post-Endgame, you should watch Thor: Love and Thunder before this special, followed by Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Three, which was released theatrically in 2023.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Like James Gunn’s first two Guardians of the Galaxy films, music plays a big part in making this production what it is. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special boasts a soundtrack that features the following songs:
Dead by Christmas by Hanoi Rocks
Christmas Treat by Julian Casablancas
Mrs. Claus by Little Jackie
Just Like Christmas by Low
Christmastime by The Smashing Pumpkins
Fairytale of New York by The Pogues (featuring Kristy MacColl)
Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses
Is This Christmas? by The Wombats
I Want an Alien for Christmas by Fountains of Wayne
I Don’t Know What Christmas Is (But Christmas is Here) by The Old 97’s
Here It Is Christmastime by Kevin Bacon and The Old 97’s
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
My The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Review
I love Christmastime! Halloween and Christmas are my favorite holidays and I enjoy the majority of the festivities that coincide with each of these dates, and I love that Marvel Studios gave us two Special Presentations in 2022 to celebrate these holidays (Werewolf by Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special)! Speaking of Christmas specifically, I love Christmas music, Christmas movies, and Christmas traditions such as Santa Claus bringing gifts on Christmas Eve and drinking eggnog and decorating the Christmas tree and hanging Christmas lights and wrapping presents for loved ones and cuddling on the couch while drinking hot chocolate.
My favorite Christmas songs are The Christmas Song (chestnuts roasting on an open fire) and Walking in a Winter Wonderland. I also love The Smashing Pumpkins’ Christmastime song which was prominently featured in the Guardians Holiday Special, much to my surprise and appreciation! Amongst my favorite Christmas movies are National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, Elf, Home Alone, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and every Christmas Eve, me and mine watch Mickey’s Christmas Carol, which is Disney’s animated adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which I would call the greatest Christmas story ever told if it wasn’t for Dr Seuss’ amazing How The Grinch Stole Christmas. I love the book, I love the cartoon, and I absolutely adore the Jim Carey movie, and I love going to the Universal Studios theme park and watching the on-stage performance of Dr Seuss’ classic and of course, meeting The Grinch himself! Some of the most special memories of my life have revolved around Christmastime. It’s truly one of my favorite times of the year to be a parent and a husband!
With all of that being said, this is an MCU site, so let me go ahead say that Iron Man 3 has been essential viewing for our family for almost a decade at Christmastime and I thoroughly enjoyed Hawkeye last year (more than a lot of folks, it would seem), but getting to the point of this review, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special has set a new and wonderful standard!
I LOVED this production!
The production starts off with a really fun twist on the Marvel Studios opening montage, as we see glimpses of Christmas themed Marvel comic book panels mixed in with falling snow over the flashback scenes and all leading to the Marvel Studios logo itself being wrapped in colorful Christmas lights. This was beautiful!
We then take an animated look at a flashback sequence showing a young Peter Quill trying to bring Christmas to Yondu and Kraglin. The gist of this is Yondu lashing out at Peter over the ridiculous idea of Christmas and throwing out Peter’s tree and presents, much to Kraglin’s great disappointment. As Kraglin tells it, Yondu ruined Christmas.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
All of this is relevant because on Earth, it is Christmastime and Peter’s teammates want to do something special for him to raise his spirits over his lingering sadness pertaining to Gamora, specifically the 2014 Gamora Variant that was created due to The Avengers’ Time Heist in Avengers: Endgame and her decision to not join The Guardians. We learn a couple of important things pertaining to the MCU mythology here. One, The Guardians of the Galaxy have bought Knowhere (the mining colony that exists within the severed head of a Celestial) from The Collector (who is in fact still alive), and two, Mantis is Peter Quill’s biological sister! We are also treated to a really fun musical number from a band of Knowhere residents that have come to possess some Earth instruments (portrayed by The Old 97’s). These lyrics were actually written by James Gunn himself, and this was some great stuff, as these colorful alien beings try and make sense of what all it is that makes Christmas so supposedly special. The lyrics include references to Santa Claus as both a super-powered being and a master burglar that will lash out at you if you don’t leave him milk and cookies. Santa’s “creepy elves” are also alluded to! I thought this was a lot of fun, and it was a neat callback to my daughter, who for years has found the idea of Santa Claus watching her while she’s sleeping and when she’s awake a bit unsettling!
Coming out of all of this, Mantis and Drax decide to venture to Earth on a mission to bring Peter Quill’s hero Kevin Bacon to Knowhere and present him as a gift to Peter! Kevin Bacon plays himself in this, and he is wonderful! En route to Kevin Bacon’s residence, Mantis and Drax arrive at Hollywood where they mingle and fit in with the various superhero cosplayers that populate the area. They end up making some money off this which they then spend at a local bar.
I thought the bar scene was incredible! The way that Mantis drank her drink by lapping it with her tongue was hilarious, as was her physical reaction after she consumed alcohol, and then watching her drunkenly dance was epic, and I’ll just go ahead and say, Pom Klementieff as Mantis was the MVP of this Special!
After sobering up, Mantis and Drax figure out where Kevin Bacon lives, and they venture to his home where they delight in his Christmas decorations (especially a candy cane and an inflatable elf).
Poor Kevin Bacon is of course horrified as Drax and Mantis invade his home, and this leads to an altercation with the police during which Mantis uses her empathic powers in some really fun ways. This includes using them on Kevin Bacon to force him into compliance, and off Kevin Bacon is to Space! During the journey, Drax and Mantis are both horrified to discover that Kevin is a mere actor and isn’t actually the hero that Peter Quill has declared him to be. Nonetheless, they continue forward with their mission.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
All of Knowhere pitches in to make the occasion as festive as possible for Star-Lord. This is some gorgeous imagery for anyone that loves Christmas and was a very moving sequence. Quill is taken aback by the sentiment, but soon focuses in on the large gift box that has been positioned for him in which a somewhat panicked Kevin Bacon is waiting. Star-Lord is a combination of appalled and worried as he beholds Kevin, whom he realizes has been brought there against his will. He orders Mantis to break Kevin out of his compliance trance, and she does, and then Kevin runs for his life!
Quill instructs Kraglin to take Kevin back home, but as he prepares to do that, Kraglin explains the situation to Kevin and lets him know just how important Kevin has been in making Star-Lord the hero that he has become as well as just how much Kevin Bacon and Christmas both mean to Peter Quill. Kevin therefore decides to stay on Knowhere and help bring Christmas to Quill!
Kevin performs a song with the Knowhere band and The Guardians exchange Christmas gifts. This is all fantastic stuff! My favorite thing was Rocket getting Bucky’s arm as a gift from Nebula! If you know, you know!
Peter cherishes all of this! The gifts, the lights, the music, the ambiance, and of course Kevin Bacon. It’s a really great sequence that is brought together fully with Peter thanking Mantis for trying to make the occasion so special, and her revealing to him that she is in fact Ego’s daughter / his sister. Star-Lord warmly embraces Mantis and tells her that discovering that fact was the best Christmas present that he could have possibly gotten, and yes, I’m smiling like a big dork while simultaneously crying!
Quill also explained what that supposedly ill-fated Christmas with Yondu was really like, explaining that Yondu ended up getting his present from Quill out of the trash (one of those little critters that we know him to have loved) and then gifting Quill with his Quad Blasters!
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
This Special Presentation really punched me in the heart! I laughed SO much, and I cried, and I watched it sitting on the couch with my family with the lights out and the Christmas tree lit and moving forward I have a new favorite Christmas film!
Again, Mantis was the character that made this most work, and that was really cool since she is usually a background sort of character. It was great to see Pom Klementieff have a chance to flex her acting muscle as this character. I thought she was hilarious throughout this presentation!
I also (as always) loved every time that Rocket was on the screen! Him trying to kill Kevin Bacon after Kevin called him a “taking raccoon” was SO fun, and I enjoyed his interactions with Cosmo as well!
I also have to praise James Gunn! I can’t help but feel the recent announcement that James is taking over the DC Universe for Warner Brothers is a huge loss for Marvel Studios. As I always say in these reviews, to each their own, but for me, James Gunn is a genius filmmaker that combines humor and heart like no other. He has been a godsend for The Guardians of the Galaxy, who would not be what they are cinematically speaking without his vision. He is going to be greatly missed within the MCU but at least we’ve gotten what we have gotten, and I cannot wait to see Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Three next year!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Highlights of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special:
Pom Klementieff as Mantis
Bradley Cooper as Rocket
The Brilliance of James Gunn
Kevin Bacon!
The Smashing Pumkins!
Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord
Dave Bautista as Drax
Music
Ambiance
Heart
Humor
Christmas Tree Groot!
Notable MCU Concepts and Characters Introduced:
We Finally Meet the legendary Kevin Bacon! The Guardians of the Galaxy Own Knowhere! Peter Quill and Mantis are Related! Cosmo Talks!
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