The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special Is Incredibly Cheesy, But That's The Point, Right?
Depending on whom you ask, Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is either a many-splendored era or a rancid trash fire. Both feel just a touch overdramatic, and probably say more about the critic than the art, but these opposing parties seem to agree on at least one thing — Phase 4 is the most varied arbitrary segment in Marvel's history. This variation comes from a desire to tell a wider diversity of stories in the wake of "Avengers: Endgame," which saw most of the familiar mainstays finalize their respective storylines. That's, uh, a really gentle way of saying a lot of people died.
The ever-expanding universe of heroes now includes quasi-immortal robot deities, an assassin suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder who also happens to have an Egyptian god using his head like free real estate, a young mutant whose crystalline powers apparently defy the laws of both time and space, and a martial artist who's choice in jewelry could casually cause the end of times. What a horrible time to be a normal civilian in the MCU! These stories are separated even further by their genres, which vary so drastically that it's understandably easy to feel like they're totally disconnected. "Werewolf by Night" is a (sort of) traditional monster movie, "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" is an episodic (sort of) legal comedy, and "WandaVision" is, ostensibly, a satirical horror series ... sort of.
And now there's also "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special," which would function as Marvel's first Christmas-themed caper, were it not for "Hawkeye" being a thing. Regardless, it's 45 minutes of undiluted seasonal silliness. Some might call that level of cheese a drawback but, here, we call that a feature, and so does James Gunn.
James Gunn's Holiday Special is inspired by his childhood
In 1978, 20th Century Fox released "The Star Wars Holiday Special" on CBS, and a young James Gunn adored the flop in a way that almost everyone at the time did not (and still doesn't). Admittedly, the special is a bit messy. It doesn't effectively gel with the established canon and the story is tonally a crap shoot. Still, it's "Star Wars" and Christmas combined, so there's at least some modicum of joy to be found therein, right? Since that release, Gunn, the creative mind behind "The Guardians of the Galaxy," has been notably outspoken about his love for the special, saying things such as, "for the record, I unironically liked the 'Star Wars Holiday Special' when it first aired when I was a kid ... sure, I was confused, but it was all the 'Star Wars' I was gonna get that year & I ate it up."
With that in mind, it's no hard chore to connect Gunn's work, whether it's with Warner Bros. or Disney, with his love for his favorite childhood media. For example, both "The Suicide Squad" and "The Guardians of the Galaxy" heavily feature '80s music. What's more, it's pretty easy to draw a line between the name he chose for his own Christmas special and the "Star Wars" story that brought him joy in his youth. Gunn isn't exactly hiding the connections — the campiness is clearly baked into the formula, and that's just the start. Gunn's "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" features 2D animated sequences in the style of Ralph Bakshi, the man behind the 1978 animated "The Lord of the Rings" film, as well as a complicated introduction the Hasbro's GoBots, a.k.a. the original robots in disguise from 1983, among other adult animated classics.
The gentle joy of camp
"The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" features a raucous gay bar, a hilariously morbid musical rendition of Santa's lore, a telekinetic Russian space dog, and the abduction of a Kevin Bacon. There was never a point in the process where this story was going to be some seismic, somber event. More than anything, Marvel's holiday special feels like a truncated version of Jim Carrey's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Aesthetically, too — Knowhere kind of resembles Whoville by the end. The whole thing is silly and unabashedly genuine, which perfectly balances out the disjointed chaos.
As others have noted, "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" is the present that no one asked for, yet only the willfully stubborn will refuse. It never pretends to be anything that it isn't, and everyone — even Bacon — looks as though they had the time of their lives filming it. That's an energy that no amount of creative polish can replicate.