James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special takes a few of its cues from 1978's near-mythical Star Wars Holiday Special, which is ironic, as the latter is almost uniformly derided and has never been rebroadcast or released on home video.
Like the SWHS, the GotG Holiday Special mixes animation, music, humour, action, and sentiment to try to reach an increasingly jaded audience with a message about the values of this season. Does this unlikely-seeming mashup transcend the original, or is it destined to join Chewbacca's on Lumpy in pop culture's fickles trash heap?
Yeah, I think they nailed it. In fact, at this point, having watched it twice, I am ready to give GHS the number two spot in my definitive (and highly subjective) all-time Christmas TV shows ranking.
Like the Star Wars special, this one also includes an animated flashback, rotoscoped for extra retro charm. Peter Quill, as a young boy on a Ravager starship, enlists first mate Kraglin in trying to recreate Christmas with a stubby tree and presents. Yondu, unsurprisingly, does not approve, and gosh but it is good to hear Michael Rooker in that role again!
But once you return to live-action, a good holiday special has to be entertaining, and it can do this through suspense, action or drama, but will most commonly draw from comedy. It must also walk a delicate balance between sincere emotion and treacly sentiment or nostalgia. My number one pick, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, remains my favourite example of this because animator Chuck Jones is a bona fide genius.
But GHS does the humour just as well as The Grinch, particularly in conveying an alien's perspective on just how ridiculous much of our Christmas lore and holiday traditions would seem to an extraplanetary outsider. And best of all, they do it in a song performed by alt-country legends The Old 97s very early in the show in order to set the stage for the mayhem to come.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQOb1fybgW0
The rest of the music in the special is a great mix (dare I say "awesome"? 😋), enhancing Gunn's already significant soundtrack reputation with artists ranging from The Pogues to The Waitresses and Smashing Pumpkins
There is also a ton of slapstick and some very well-done fish-out-of-water comedy demonstrated by Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Drax (Dave Bautista) as they return to Earth and wander around Hollywood looking for the gift that they believe will save Christmas for their dear friend Peter (Chris Pratt) - the legendary Kevin Bacon.
Saving Christmas can be a contrived goal of the highest order when handled poorly or literally (or both) in fare like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, but it works here because these two Guardians aren't trying to save Christmas for the entire world or even save it from itself (like they do so well in my number three pick, A Charlie Brown Christmas) - no, they are trying to save a memory of Christmas for someone they love and respect, and one of them has a great reason for doing it which I shall not spoil.
For us MCU nerds, it is also a chance to check in on the cosmic corner of an increasingly expanding catalogue of people, places and things before Vol. III of GotG comes out next May. This special is the capstone for Phase 4 of the MCU and doesn't waste any time with major linkages, but there are some offhand references and a couple nice easter eggs (and a post-credits scene, natch). I was also glad to finally hear the voice of Cosmo the space dog, but have to confess I alway heard their voice as male when reading the comics.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is the whole package: great laughs, wonderful music, cracking dialogue and a heartfelt message about why Christmas can matter to everyone, regardless of their beliefs and proximity to Sol III, and whether or not they have heard of it before. And it is only 45 minutes long, so definitely consider adding it to your selection of Christmas tv shows, at least for this year.
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