This holiday season, get ready for something a little different from Marvel Studios, with their second major “Special Presentation”, which is “The Guardians Of The Galaxy: Holiday Special”.    Coming in at around 40+ minutes with the credits, this seasonal special is very unique and shouldn’t be taken too seriously, as it’s full of fun holiday cheer.

The basic idea of this special is that Starlord gets a little down at this time of the year, as in space, they don’t celebrate Christmas and so after an animated flashback to Starlord’s Christmas past, Mantis and Drax head to Earth to pick up Kevin Bacon as a gift to cheer Starlord up.  As you might expect from Drax and Mantis arriving in Hollywood, there are plenty of antics along the way, until they kidnap Kevin Bacon and take him back to Nowhere, to wrap him up and deliver Christmas to Starlord.

Let’s just be honest, if you don’t like the funny side of Marvel, this one isn’t going to be for you.   It’s daft, it’s fun, it’s charming.  It’s not serious in the slightest.  I really enjoyed watching it, and I’m going to watch it again over the Christmas weekend.

One of the many advantages of a Special Presentation, is that it allows Marvel to stretch its wings a little and give us a story, that just would never make it to the big screen nor be worthy of a full series.  I like to think of this Holiday Special, like a one-shot comic book that would come out around the holidays. It’s an easy-going story, with some laughs along the way and of no consequence to anything else going on or afterwards.

The music in this special is fantastic, it pulls in on your typical Christmas film vibe but more importantly, has an incredible opening number called “I Don’t Know What Christmas Is” by The Old 97’s, which is a hilarious take on the idea of Christmas, through the eyes of aliens, who have no idea what Christmas is about and have completely misunderstood what happens.  There is also a lovely musical number by Kevin Bacon at the end, which sums up the entire Holiday special.  And on a whole, having Kevin Bacon playing himself was great, especially with the team’s reaction to finding out he’s only an actor.

Most of the focus of the special is set on earth with Drax and Mantis, with them being clueless as to what’s going on, but that’s all part of the fun.  As you might expect, they keep the appearances of  Cosmos, Groot and Rocket Raccoon to a minimum to reduce costs (I think Kevin might have had something to do with that!), and the animated segments of the special are a little jarring, but make sense in the overall concept.

“The Guardians Of The Galaxy: Holiday Special” is a lighthearted, charming and funny adventure with the team. It isn’t something to be taken seriously, nor is it the greatest thing ever within the MCU.  It’s just fun and will make you laugh.  If you didn’t like “Thor: Love & Thunder” or “She-Hulk” because they had some humour in them, this one might not be for you, and I would say, don’t go into it thinking it’s going to blow your socks off.  As it isn’t that type of special.  Honestly, for me, this is going to be my pick as the best Holiday special of the year!

Rating – 4 Out Of 5

“The Guardians Of The Galaxy: Holiday Special” arrives on Disney+ on Friday, 25th November 2022.

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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