Stream It or Skip It: ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special’ on Disney+ Is a Marvelous Christmas Gift

Marvel Studios’ weirdest and wildest superhero team is back in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special on Disney+. This is the real deal: a legit Christmas story written and directed by James Gunn and starring all of the actors from the feature film… plus one Kevin Bacon. But is Marvel Studios’ first attempt at a holiday special (other than Hawkeye, which was a holiday series) out of this world? Or did Kevin Feige just leave us a lump of coal?

THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY HOLIDAY SPECIAL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: It’s Christmastime on Earth — which normally doesn’t mean a blasted thing when you’re camped out on a floating Celestial head in middle of nowhere space. It’s hard to keep track of your home planet’s holidays when you’re an intergalactic superhero like Peter Quill (Chris Pratt). Plus as Kraglin (Sean Gunn) tells it, Peter had Christmas ruined forever by a big blue grinch named Yondu (Michael Rooker, who appears in animated wraparound segments done in a kinda unsettling Ralph Bakshi style). After learning about Christmas and how tween Peter had his makeshift tree stuffed into a space trashcan by his kidnapper/father figure, Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Drax (Dave Bautista) come up with a wonderful, awful idea. They’re gonna fly to Earth and get Peter the greatest gift of all: his hero, Kevin Bacon.

Yes, they’re going to give Peter Quill Kevin Bacon for Christmas. That’s where the special starts, and it only gets more strange from there.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Obviously the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, considering pretty much everyone involved in those movies was involved with this special (it was filmed back-to-back with next year’s GOTG v3 movie). On the Christmas front, though, there’s a surprising amount of Elf in this one… if Buddy was bulletproof, super strong, and was considered one of the deadliest beings in the galaxy. But the GOTG Holiday Special matches Elf’s fish-out-of-water anarchy, albeit amped up to 11, and it also shares Elf’s unwavering sincerity.

Performance Worth Watching: Pom Klementieff’s Mantis is the real standout here, as she’s essentially the lead character of the entire special. After stealing plenty of scenes in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Avengers: Infinity War, we finally get to spend a lot of time with her. We see her playful side, her angry side, and — for all the Marvel Comics experts out there — we finally get to see MCU Mantis have the master martial arts skills that were so crucial to her character in the 1970s comics. Also can I point out how smart it is to center the character who is an empath as well as a literal spreader of cheer (when she wants to be) in a holiday special?

Memorable Dialogue: Since I can’t fit 39 minutes of transcription in this section, I will highlight the moment where we hear from offscreen Karen Gillen’s Nebula shout in a gravel throated voice, “Can’t outrun me, Bacon!!”

A Holiday Tradition: Peter Quill tried (and failed) to create a holiday tradition with the Ravagers back after he was first abducted, but Yondu threw a fit because Ravagers don’t do gifts because Ravagers don’t accept handouts (eyeroll).

Two Turtle Doves: You’ll have to go back into the past for the perfect companion piece to this special — and no, it’s not the Star Wars Holiday Special. Go on and look up the ’90s X-Men animated series on Disney+ and watch Season 4, Episode 17: “Have Yourself a Morlock Little X-Mas.” You won’t regret it.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: Yes. I mean, it could’ve riffed on the “vol.” riff that the films are using and maybe name itself after an album? Guardians of the Galaxy Presents: Christmas in the Stars? Nah, this is a holiday special through and through.

Our Take: I loved it. Done. Oh — I have to write more? Listen: I’m an easy mark for this special. The Guardians are my favorite MCU sub-franchise, I love Mantis, I love Christmas, I love Christmas specials, I love Christmas music, and I especially love Christmas specials that embrace sentimentality and sincerity without hesitation. When it was announced that Gunn would be writing and directing this special, it just made sense: so much of Gunn’s work in these superhero universes is about finding the emotional core of a story and the heart of the characters and then amplifying them via jokes, rock songs, and unfiltered moments of emotion. In short, Gunn has always had the stuff that you need to write an instant classic Christmas special.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special delivers in every single way. Again, as someone who gets incredibly emotional when he sees characters be genuinely moved by Christmas light displays, this special did it for me. The special feels like a win for Team Holiday Sincerity. Is most of this special absolute madness, like the extended sequence where Drax and Mantis rake in cash by posing with tourists on Hollywood Boulevard? Absolutely — but it’s never cynical or insincere. Those are the traits that make the classics feel like classics, and this special has that. The reason for the season is togetherness, goodwill, fellowship, love, family, giving — all that sappy stuff, and those are the exact emotions that Mantis is trying to express by kidnapping living legend Kevin Bacon from his Hollywood home.

And true to the films, Gunn’s song selections are all spot-on — like where Gunn places The Waitresses “Christmas Wrapping” in the special, or how Gunn uses Smashing Pumpkins’ underrated “Christmastime” for the emotional core of the whole damn thing. Again, like Elf’s soundtrack, this feels like the mix that director has been playing during the holidays on Spotify, his iPhone, his iPod, his Discman, and his Walkman… and now he’s made us a copy. Or I guess sent us a link. Whatever — I want this soundtrack on vinyl.

Like everything else in the MCU, it’s very easy to see a holiday special as unnecessary, excessive, and capitalistic. The same is said of Christmas, too. But I think that both Christmas and this special will pull out what you bring with you. You can see it as a waste of time and bah humbug it, or you can let the defenses that you carry with you all year long down a little and feel a little bit of what this special is earnestly sharing. I can’t help it, y’all. I’m a believer.

Our Call: STREAM IT. This is the best gift Marvel could have given us for the holidays.