There was a time when Christmas specials were all the rage, and were looked forward to by kids of all ages. Some didn’t do so well, while others, like the Charlie Brown Christmas and a Muppets Christmas Carol, became regulars and were always dusted off and aired year after year. They became tradition.
And then for some reason they all but vanished. Oh for sure there are movies that still come out about Christmas or that take place at Christmas time, but the Holiday Special, where you have a television, movie or cartoon characters celebrate Christmas, well that seemed to be a thing of the past, part of a bygone era we lived through as kids and dropped along the way, like rotary phones, or the floppy disk. So it's only fitting then that the franchise to give the MCU its first Holiday Special would be the very retro Guardians of the Galaxy.
Peter Quill, aka Star Lord, the leader of the band of two-time galaxy-savers is feeling a little glum, what with his girlfriend Gamorra going missing after the events of Avengers Endgame.
Wanting to cheer him up, Mantis, played by Pom Klemetieff decides she wants to cheer him up, and along with Dave Bautista’s Drax go on a mission to give Peter the best Christmas ever with, well, the legendary Kevin Bacon.
Mantis gets the spotlight in this outing of the Guardians, and Klemetieff rises to the occasion. This is a welcome change as Mantis has until now been written only as a side character good for a funny moment. She and Bautista have excellent on screen chemistry and comedic timing, resulting in laugh out loud misadventures.
Much of the comedy comes from the fish-out-of-water moments where both Mantis and Drax try
to navigate their way around Hollywood, California, with a lot of laughs and no small amount of alcohol. Needless to say they finally find the legend they are after and he’s none too happy about being kidnapped.
Kevin Bacon looks like he had fun playing a fictional version of himself, and completely bought into the nuttyness of it all. And it does get very nutty. If kidnapping an actor to give to a friend to cheer him up didn’t tip you off, the alien band singing about Christmas will.
Is it Guardians 2.5? Not really. There is a bit of a backstory, helping us understand and giving new meaning to certain items from the original movie. It doesn’t really set much up or weave into the larger MCU storyline. You will probably understand the third movie without watching this, but that would just be a crying shame.
In comics any sort of seasonal special issue was outside regular continuity, and was always a good chance to see our heroes doing things other than save the world, or in this case, the galaxy.
But somewhere in the insanity of it all, underneath the irreverent humor and the main set amazingly decked out for a truly bright and joyous holiday, is a story about what Christmas means. It will creep up on you and tug at your heartstrings when you least expect it, and to the credit of writer/director James Gunn, he pulled it off excellently here.
Complete with an animated segment, decorations, songs and lots of family warmth and fuzziness, it is unapologetically a Christmas movie.
Marvel fans can think of this holiday special as a gift from Santa Disney, the last hurrah from Phase 4 and the first stocking-stuffer for the season. And it is, definitely, very much appreciated.