While Marvel Studios is typically associated with action packed superhero movies and TV shows, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special offers something new. Released on Disney+ on Nov. 25, this 44-minute long special is lighthearted, and great for the Christmas season.

The special follows Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff), two members of the Guardians of the Galaxy, as they work to give their friend Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) the best Christmas ever by acquiring the perfect Christmas present.

The special starts and ends with animated scenes detailing past events in Peter’s life. The animation is fun and creative, and adds visual interest while also differentiating the past from the present.

We then move onto the planet ‘Knowhere’, a popular place seen in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, which Quill and the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy are fixing up after having just bought it from The Collector (Benicio del Toro). Seeing familiar faces such as Groot (Vin Diesel), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), and Nebula (Karen Gillan) is nice for longtime viewers and assures them that while this special centers around Mantis and Drax, the rest of the gang has not been forgotten.

The special does not fail to entertain and has plenty of funny moments which mainly center around the fact that Mantis and Drax know very little about Christmas and Earth manners in general. For example, on their hunt to find Quill a gift, their idea is to get him Kevin Bacon, so they go to Earth and kidnap Bacon, who plays himself and is clearly having a ton of fun with the role. This whole ordeal is very humorous and has lots of Christmas related jokes.

One highlight of the special is its music. There are lots of great Christmas songs including original songs ‘I Don’t Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime is Here)’ by the Old 97’s and ‘Here it is Christmas Time’ by the Old 97’s which also features Kevin Bacon.

The special has plenty of heartwarming moments too with everybody coming together to celebrate Christmas even if they don’t completely understand it because they aren’t from Earth. It is sure to get you in the Christmas mood and I would recommend this special to anyone looking to have a good time and especially to Marvel fans.

9/10