The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: My Review

I don’t know if any of you are the same, but as soon as Thanksgiving ends, my family jumps RIGHT into the holiday season. We celebrate Christmas, so the day after Thanksgiving we put up our tree, decorate our house, and build gingerbread houses all together! It’s always been one of my favorite things about this time of year. And adding a little bit of Marvel magic to that this year was just what I needed (especially since it’s been one full year since Hawkeye 😪 I MISS IT).

My first thoughts on The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special was that it was so cute! I was super excited to see Mantis and Drax as more of the main characters this time around and it did NOT disappoint. SPOILERS from this point forward, as I will be talking about all the major plot points!

I wasn’t expecting the little cartoon animation at the beginning with young Peter and Yondu, so that was a fun little twist! It made me so sad when he started kicking Peter’s little tree, though ☹️ The start of the special after that I felt was kind of a slow build, and I get that the song was supposed to be a funny way to describe that the people of Knowhere didn’t grow up knowing about Christmas, but after a while I felt like the song dragged on just a little too long. But my guy Groot in the corner dancing his heart out was KILLING ME he is so buff, I’m crying!!! He’s been bulking his bark at the gym, that’s for sure 😭.

The plot about Mantis being Peter’s sister was not as much of a shock for me, as I had read a little thread theory about it on Twitter a few days before the special came out and the more I was thinking about it, it made a lot of sense! I actually really love that they did that, I think it’s so sweet that they both found some family. And the fact that Mantis cares so much for Quill that she wanted to spread some Christmas cheer to him made my heart swell so big. I loved the Drax and Mantis team up so much!

When they got to Earth and they forgot to put the cloaking device on the ship and everyone was running around, I think it was a great way to remind us that people living in the Marvel Universe must be TERRIFIED of things like that after the Thanos attacks and everything else that goes down between the Heroes and the Villains. Drax and Mantis’ little adventure around Hollywood was so cute and had me laughing the whole time. When they saw the people dressed as the Avengers and Mantis jumped on them I was DYING. It also confused me just a little bit because did she actually ever meet Steve? During Infinity War, she was hanging with Tony and the crew, and I couldn’t remember a time in Endgame when they interacted. But I guess it’s supposed to be assumed that they had talked and interacted, perhaps during Tony’s funeral. Anyways, moving on…

I loved them just accidentally collecting so much money from taking pictures with tourists, and Mantis just shoving it all into her shirt and not even questioning it HAHA. And it’s so like them to just go and blow it all on partying, especially Drax. I think it was also fun to see more of how Mantis can interact with the world, like the way that she breathed smoke after taking a shot, and how she can mind control (i.e. getting the map with the houses of all of the celebrities on it for free). And I loved the little easter eggs with all the celebrities! Drax hanging out at John Cena’s house was the icing on the gingerbread house for me 😂
Nothing made me laugh as hard in this special as when Mantis was talking her plan out loud on how she wanted to get over the fence to get to Kevin Bacon’s house and Drax just YEETED HER so fast! Literally was in tears laughing over that. And then Drax and his funny little man (the elf blow up decoration) and Mantis with her candy cane, and how he lost it when they were chasing Kevin down and Mantis told him it was because he was irresponsible, I was rolling.

The other part that got me in stitches as well was when the cops showed up to help Kevin and they started shooting at Drax, and it was just tickling him. Everything about Drax as a character makes me laugh so hard, he’s seriously one of the funniest characters. And then when they raided that Christmas store? Priceless. Absolutely priceless. The whole special had all of the feels in the best way.
I feel like it also really tugged at my heartstrings towards the end as well in ways that I wasn’t expecting. When they decorated all of Knowhere and it was lit up so beautifully and Peter was walking around, it was so sweet. Something about lights just make me feel all warm and snuggly. I could be in the worst mood and holiday lights just bring out the best in me. And then it went right back to funny again when he was talking to Kevin and Kevin just took off. (Also not Kevin calling Rocket a raccoon and him just absolutely losing it 😂).

At the end of it all, I love that Kevin stayed to hang out with them for a bit and to make Peter’s Christmas a special one, even though they technically kidnapped him to make all this happen 😂 The little montage of gift giving was so cute. I loved Groot’s little wood carvings of everyone! God, it only solidified why I love him so much. If Groot gave me a gift like that I would die on the spot. But the best…and you all already know…was Rocket getting BUCKY’S ARM!! At first I thought Nebula had given him his old Winter Soldier arm, which like, makes sense. Because he doesn’t need it anymore since he has the Wakandan one. BUT THE FACT THAT IT WAS HIS NEW ONE SEALED THE DEAL. Oh my god. I need to know how that all went down. Perhaps a new skit idea is on the horizon…😉

I have to admit, the end of the special made me really emotional. The story of how Peter got his guns from Yondu was so sweet, probably one of his favorite Christmas memories! And that whole interaction with Peter and Mantis when she finally reveals that she is his sister had me BAWLING. God, it was just so special. Plus the music in the back was so moving, too, it just made me want to cry. I love them so much.
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This whole special made me love Mantis and Drax’s characters even more than I already did! I loved every second of this, and it was such a sweet story with some holiday Guardians fun. Absolutely adorable. I will definitely be adding this to my yearly watch rotation of Christmas specials for sure!