The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

“The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special,” released last month on Disney+, is specifically about Christmas. No Hanukkah or Life Day celebrations are discussed in the forty-five-minute special. Jen Maravegias said in her review, “It would have been an entirely different sort of story if the special was about Peter Quill explaining how there are so many religious observances of light bringers and the sustaining of light during the darkest part of the Earth’s year. There would be less slapstick but more interesting than what is streaming on Disney+.”

It's a great special. Most of it is Dave Bautista and Pom Klementieff going around downtown Los Angeles as Drax and Mantis interacting with fans while they find Kevin Bacon in a misguided effort to give Peter the perfect Christmas gift. All of this is fine. However, the whole thing feels put together without the same thought process that went into “Werewolf by Night.”

Maravegias noted, “The story is bookended by a couple of Ralph Bakshi-esque animated flashbacks to a Christmas that Peter Quill, Kraglin (Sean Gunn), and Mary Poppins Yondu spent on the Ravenger’s ship and is framed by Kraglin trying to explain to the rest of the Guardians crew what Christmas is and how Yondu ruined it for young Peter.”

Maravegias continued, “Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill/Star-Lord is in it for maybe 10 minutes (which suits me just fine.) He’s rocking more of a dad-bod and shaggier hair than we’re used to seeing on the character, which is what made me think this was a situation where James Gunn rang up some buddies and said “Hey guys, let’s do a Christmas show!” And then Disney threw a bunch of money at him.”

Kevin Bacon brings a lot of manic energy into to the show, matching Drax and Mantis’ level of insanity as they navigate Christmas-themed Earthling culture. However, the standout in this special is the soundtrack. It starts with The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York, and features Christmas songs by Hanoi Rocks, The Smashing Pumpkins, Low, The Waitresses (naturally), Fountains of Wayne, The Wombats, Julian Casablancas, and Little Jackie. The Old 97’s shows up as a space alien band and perform two numbers, I Don’t Know What Christmas Is (But Christmas Is Here) and the finale, Here It Is Christmastime, with Kevin Bacon on guitar.

Maravegias said, “I’m not sure how many more generations of kids are going to enjoy the Christmas specials of our youth — or their grandparents’ youths. Kids these days are harder to impress. Rudolph is getting faded and Frosty doesn’t sell the magic like he used to. I’m glad that someone is making new specials that we can fold into the rotation around the holidays. The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special is a simple, silly story that didn’t leave much of an impression on either my twelve-year-old or me. But we did get to spend some time with adolescent Groot and watch the gift exchange between Nebula and Rocket.” They even made sure to include Cosmo the Spacedog.

If you didn’t get a chance to see this special yet, see it on Disney+. This is one of the nicest holiday specials ever, and to have it done by the MCU was really good. You should definitely see it, especially if you loved “Guardians of the Galaxy.” It was great to see these characters talk about a holiday that no one is familiar with except Quill. This really left people off with a good feeling after watching it.

Alright everyone, we have no reached the end of “Disney Month 2022.” I had included all of the MCU and Star Wars shows because they are a part of Disney now, so I hope everyone liked it. Next year will have the same theme, so I will start preparing for that starting next year. I hope I made some good recommendations for everyone and you have seen the ones that I said were good to see.

Have a good end to the year. I will see everyone back again next year when I start back up on my Friday reviews. In the meantime, I will go on a week break before starting back up again. See you guys in 2023.