Madison Meeks – Opinion Editor

mvm7037@psu.edu

(Spoiler Warning)

A new holiday special is available for people to enjoy this year. Disney Plus has released “The Guardians of the Galaxy: The Holiday Special” for fans to enjoy as they wait for the anticipated “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3”. This holiday special was released on November 25, and is around 45 minutes long. Said special was filmed at the same time as “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3” and concludes phase four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So far, the special has received generally positive reviews from critics.

The special takes place after the Guardians purchased Knowhere from the Collector. The holiday special is also the first appearance of Cosmo the Spacedog as an actual member of the Guardians. 

While visiting the Guardians, Kraglin, the leader of the Ravagers, tells the story of how Yondu ruined Christmas for Peter, which is told in an animated story to the rest of the Guardians. The story is told in animation which is an interesting technique since the rest of the special is in live-action. 

Mantis ropes Drax into helping find the perfect Christmas gift. They want to find the said gift for Peter Quill since he is depressed about the loss of Gamora. They then decide that the perfect gift for Quill is to go to Earth and retrieve his childhood hero, actor Kevin Bacon. The fact that they want to cheer Quill up by giving him his childhood hero is sweet but is also comedic that they do not realize what gifting a human to another person is called. 

So Mantis and Drax go to Earth and arrive in Los Angeles, California. On the search for Kevin Bacon, the two go to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This scene is one of the funnier parts of the special because people think that they are part street entertainers. So they get money by taking pictures with people in the streets of Los Angeles. They then go to a bar where they get a map of celebrity homes. 

Bacon is at his house in Beverly Hills, where he is waiting for the rest of his family to come home for Christmas. Scared by the appearance of Mantis and Drax, Bacon tries to run from them around the streets of Beverly Hills. The police arrive to help Bacon but Mantis puts them in a trance and they take Bacon with them. While they are returning to Knowhere, they find out that Bacon is not a real-life hero but an actor. After giving Quill Kevin Bacon as a present, Quill freaks out and demands that they return him home. Bacon decides to stay after learning about Quill’s heroism from Kraglin and everyone celebrates Christmas. 

Overall, the holiday special was good and humorous. There are a few songs throughout the special which are absolute bops. The only disappointment is that there is not enough of all the characters, especially Groot. Overall though, the “Guardians of the Galaxy: Holiday Special” was very good.