After Halloween’s Werewolf by Night, Marvel is back with another Special Presentation, this time themed around Christmas. But how does the Guardians Holiday Special fare?

Review by George Hewitt

Readers of The 1509 will be aware that I have a sweet spot for James Gunn. The Suicide Squad is my favourite superhero film of all time, Peacemaker is an excellent character-driven series, and the Scooby-Doo films of the early noughties are works of genius. Gunn’s flawless oeuvre continues to expand with his latest project for Marvel Studios. Ironically, this comes less than a month after Gunn took up the role of creative director at comic-book movie rival DC Studios. However, with one Guardians film still to come in 2023, his Marvel tenure is not over yet.

The Guardians holiday special, according to Gunn, was inspired by the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, a Christmas special so bad that its creator George Lucas has said he wants every copy of it recalled and destroyed. The twist for Gunn, however, was to ensure that his 45-minute feature took all the aspects of the Star Wars special but used them well and did good things. As such, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special opens with an animated segment, reminiscent of its predecessor’s The Faithful Wookiee. This sequence, set fittingly to The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York”, features a look into Peter Quill’s past, as we see the attitude that Yondu had to the Christmas celebration. Spoilers: he wasn’t a fan.

We then cut to the ‘present day’, where Mantis and Drax discover that it’s nearly Christmas time on Earth, so set out to give Quill the perfect Christmas present. After Gunn’s typically musical title sequence (set to an original song by Old 97’s called “I Don’t Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime Is Here”), Mantis and Drax set off on their journey.