Christmas Movie Review – Guardians Of The Galaxy: Holiday Special

This may be a bit late. It was released back in November 2022 but, somehow, we never reviewed it! Now, with all the Guardians Of The Galaxy: Vol 3 kerfuffle. I thought I should take another look and write a few words about it. OK, I know it is a Christmas special but May isn’t that far off. Anyway, the Guardians Of The Galaxy: Holiday Special is a forty four minute short feature. It starts off with some old school rotoscope animation showing Peter Quill (Luke Klein as the young Peter), Kraglin (Sean Gunn), and Yondu (Michael Rooker) and how Christmas was ruined. 

There’s then a cut to a grown up Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) who is being miserable even though it is actually Christmas time back on Earth.  Despite their best efforts, the residents of  Knowhere really don’t have a clue what the season is all about. The song over the opening credits is very clever and funny. The way the band manage to confuse all the various aspects of the Christmas story. Well, the “Twas the night before Christmas” story part anyway. It’s called I Don’t Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime Is Here) by the Old 97s if you want to look it up.

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Get Over The Zarg-Nuts!

While all of the Guardians, except Gamora, appear most of the heavy lifting is done by Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff). Mantis makes a familial revelation which makes her feel committed to cheering Peter up. Because Peter has told them all about some films he has enjoyed they decide to go to Earth and bring him a present…Kevin Bacon (Kevin Bacon). The rest of the film is spent by a fish out of water tale surrounding Drax and Mantis trying to track down Mr Bacon and bring him back to Knowhere.

The rest of the film boils down to a lot of lighthearted nonsense.with plenty of action and silliness thrown in. As is expected from Guardians Of The Galaxy films there is also loads of music. Obviously it is a festive collection; besides the aforementioned I Don’t Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime Is Here) there is also my all time favourite Christmas song – Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses. Actually, my all time favourite Christmas song is I Believe In Father Christmas by Greg Lake but that wasn’t included.

We’re Looking For The Legendary Kevin Bacon

There is some nice in-jokes too. By “in jokes” I mean “in the Marvel Cinematic Universe jokes”. For instance, Mantis uses her powers to make Kevin Bacon be a hero and he says “ I’m Batman” who, obviously, Drax has never heard of!  There’s also a nice sight gag of Kraglin holding a present. It’s a model of Kraglin, holding a model of Kraglin, holding a model of Kraglin, etc. 

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The Guardians Of The Galaxy: Holiday Special is set between their appearance in Thor: Love And Thunder and Guardians Of The Galaxy: Vol 3 but manages to be a total standalone. One thing that is introduced is Cosmo the space dog’s voice provided by Maria Bakalova. I have to admit that the first time I saw it I was a bit underwhelmed but, after another couple or three viewings, I have to say that it has grown on me. It’s under three quarters of an hour long and if you have access to the Disney+ channel I recommend you give it a look.

Movie Grade: A-