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Really hit home for me when I met my half-sister. She was tearing up thinking he’d hate being reminded of his father only to say it’s the greatest gift. 🥲
My favorite part as small as it is, is Nebula ready to shoot Bacon the moment he calls Rocket a raccoon. Those 2 were the only guardians left after the snap and both of them were "enhanced" so it shows they have a pretty big bond
Makes sense they would get along. They have similar personalities. Though they probably bring out the worst in both of them. Imagine Nebula and Rocket getting into trouble and going on a heist spree. I hope they expand on or show their relationship in GotG 3
Nebula growling , “You can’t outrun me Bacon!”, Mantis’s screaming at Drax and her chase style, Nebula giving Rocket Bucky’s arm, & Mantis telling Peter that they’re family! Truly loved this! (Pom & Karen are my faves!)
Yeah I had no idea either. I don't look for things like that. I'm usually just wrapped up in the story and the setting and the characters... I'm not thinking about the real world effects and behind the scenes stuff when I'm focused on the story. To me, they're real enough to forget they're not real.
Here's my theory on the Go-Bots reference: - Peter had a Go-Bot toy from when he was a kid. - Drax saw it and recognized it as the same kind of being that killed his cousin (a transforming robot). - Peter told Drax that it was just a Go-Bot, but Drax understood that to mean that it was a Go-Bot that killed his cousin. - Drax tells that story to Mantis and she repeated it.
BEST HOLIDAY SPECIAL EVER!!! The sight of Rocket getting Bucky’s arm and tearing up was both heartwarming and hilarious. And I loved that we found out Peter and Mantis are siblings!
When I first saw Mantis carrying all the cash around like that my first thought was "that's dangerous for her to be doing that" then I remembered oh yeah Drax is RIGHT there if anyone tries to rob her, then it hit me.. Mantis fought Thanos and can take care of herself lol.
That appears to be Quills first year with him and the first of Yondu's little creatures. It could be that every single one of them was a Christmas gift from Quill.
That Guardians 3 trailer made me realize why this was so cheery not only because it’s Christmas time but because we will be crying at the end of the third film 😭😭 Also, the actress who played Mantis’ mother in GOTG 2 her scene with Kurt Russell was cut so there’s that. We would’ve learned that Mantis is Peter’s half sister but then maybe we wouldn’t have had the special so everything worked out I suppose lol.
It's still implied right? Like when the scence were Ego shows all the species he essentially mated with I think I saw (assuming its Mantis' mother )in the top left of the group
I’ve been thru a similar scenario with my half-sister so this hit home. Mantis tearing up thinking Peter wouldn’t wanna be reminded of his father, only for him to say it’s the greatest gift he could’ve gotten had me emotional. James Gunn knows how to pull on the heart strings.
Guess it makes all the sense now that Mantis spilled out that Peter had romantic feelings for Gamora in front of her, it is a total little sister move.
I love the lady just crying hysterically when Mantis and Drax showed up with their spaceship. I'm sure there are a lot of people that have full on PTSD because of Thanos whenever they see a spaceship. Also, I wonder if Bucky will be in hot water with Wakanda again for somehow losing a whole arm's worth of Vibranium.
It depends when it takes place - to me it only makes sense to take place during Christmas 2023 because it should really be the first Christmas after Endgame, and therefor before Falcon and The Winter Soldier, in which case it’s a duplicate arm. However they seem to be implying it’s Christmas 2025, in which case I imagine the Wakandans will stop Bucky from using his arm whilst with the Thunderbolts (they’re going to be a subsection of the CIA and after Wakanda Forever we know the feelings of the Wakandans on that topic).
@@pumpedupbricks It can't be Christmas 2023 because the Special is clearly taking place after _Thor: Love and Thunder_ (Groot's bigger & no Thor on the team)
Honestly I had no idea the dog was CGI and I watched the special 3 times already! Now that you tell me when I watch I can see it but I swear when I didn't know I couldn't see it at all-- never crossed my mind
@@tobiasminwookgoser770 Stephane Ceretti (visual effects supervisor) said in a tweet Slate (the real dog) was just used as reference for behavior and lighting. Cosmo is 100% CG
I didn't know, but also, didn't care. I thought the special was nice and I only watched it for entertainment not to dissect it. I always find it interesting the things that bother people...
@@mariadantzler2991 Well in terms of stuff like Cosmo, i didn't notice it either but thats cause im often blind to bad CG (not to say this was bad. It was top notch i think). Other's it was less dissecting it and more it just looking wrong, so it distracted them. Some people just notice those things easier and once you do, it can be hard to ignore it
God I love this Special. It had heart, it had laughs, and it had Kevin Bacon! When I first heard that there would be a Christmas Special for the Guardians, I didn't know what to think. Now, it's one of favorite MCU properties and something I will def watch every Winter Season.
In case no one mentioned it, the animation style you're talking about is called *_rotoscoping._* Ralph Bakshi's _Lord of the Rings_ has some examples of it that are both great 😃 and horrendous 😝 IMO. *Edit:* It is a staple of Bakshi's work. A more consistently solid example can be found in his film _Fire and Ice_ (1983). I'm sure *Peter* knew *Kevin Bacon* was an actor. That's how he knew his name was *Kevin Bacon* and not *_Ren McCormack,_* the name of his *_Footloose_* character. Much like *Calvin* says at 32:42, *Pete* simply didn't over-explain the unnecessary elements when sharing referrences. Like talking about *Yoda¹* to someone. . .You're not going to also go into an additional diatribe about how _"he was actually a puppet."_ ··•●✺●•·· ¹ ─ Just as *John Crichton* does in *_Farscape._* A show where a human often makes pop culture references around aliens.
It was also used in the animated show Undone with Bob Odenkirk. They mixed it with something else I cant remember. Was super interesting to watch. And the show itself was very interesting and terribly underrated
@@jenniferdesouza5082 A couple other great examples of rotoscoping intentionally used to achieve a specific look and feel and not just to make animating movement easier are Richard Linklater's 2006 film _A Scanner Darkly_ (starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryderm and Rory Cochrane, and based on Philip K. Dick's novel) and A-ha's 1985 _Take On Me_ music video.
I think it was so amazing that Gunn decided to make this the origin of Yondu's love of the Troll dolls. Yet another example Peter missed of how much Yondu though of him as a son.
This special made me cry. It was beautifully done, and had the proper holiday spirit. Just seeing Rocket get emotional over receiving Bucky's arm was touching enough. (Who ever could have imagined after all these years, that in Endgame, a blue half-robot woman and a mean talking sentient racoon holding hands in sad remorse could bring a tear to your eye?)
Yes. The 'I am Groot' shorts are canon. Cosmo was a boy in comics, but Gunn switched it up for GotG because Laika, the Russian space dog that died in Soviet mission (which Cosmo is a reference too) was female.
Cosmo was portrayed by a real dog named Slate. With Maria Bakalova voicing her. In the comics Cosmo is usually a boy but they changed him to a girl in the MCU bc of the real dog Cosmo was inspired by. The real dog's name was Laika.
Typical woke Hollywood changing an iconic male role into a girl. (Because you can never be sure on the internet I must add a disclaimer that this was a joke.)
Well kinda. Had too google before commenting just this, and found a tweet from Stephane Ceretti who was the visual effects supervisor who confirmed, Cosmo is 100% cg in this. Slate was on set being the real dog, but was just used as reference for behavior and lighting. Slate was never actually in the special that we watched
That was a great Christmas show and it'll be something I can watch every year! I'm over the moon that we got so much Mantis in this because Pom has been so underutilized. A lot of good feels in this.
29:51 The animation technique is called rotoscoping. It's exactly what Eric said, the frames are created based on real footage. Disney used it often along with other techniques in the classics like Snow White.
So much so that they had Michael Rooker on set in his full Yondu costume for reference. It's also a callback to the SW holiday special which used rotoscoped animation to introduce Boba Fett for the first time because the special was aired between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.
Mantis has always been my favourite MCU character so this special felt like it was specifically aimed at me. I'm so glad they addressed the suggested sibling stuff between her and Peter from Guardians 2 that I always thought was an overlooked aspect of that film.
Personally I just think it’s far more ethical to use cgi animals rather than an actual animal. I’m surprised Eric got so worked up about this. I genuinely didn’t even think about it. I just thought there’s a cute dog. An c’mon I love the prequels as much as Eric but he praises the use of cgi there when they could’ve easily used real sets for a lot of it.
Oh, was Cosmo 100% CG? I noticed that her human-like facial expressions were CG enhanced but I really thought it was just a real dog enhanced by CG a little bit. Even if she was totally CG, I was convinced enough by it that it didn't bother me at all, I don't really get what they're complaining about.
I've been waiting for this reaction for a while and I'm so gald u guys enjoyed it. Getting to work on this was such a treat and yes the cg characters were animated to reference from the actors but it wasn't rotoscoped, we took a lot from their performances but didn't just copy the footage. As for cosmo, we used a combination of the actors performance and there was a real dog on set that we took footage from as reference. I'm guessing she was done in cg to get a little more performance in the facials compared to a real dog
This was the best Marvel projects that takes place around Christmas (along with Hawkeye series)!! Perfect way to end Phase 4!! Rocket finally got Bucky’s arm!! Peter and Mantis being siblings was surprising (hoping both of them don’t get killed off in the final film)!!
To add to the Cosmo thing, depending how long they plan on having them in the MCU, how often would they need to switch out the dog actors for them cause of age of the actors/what the project demands of Cosmo to do? might be more expensive to constantly get more/replace actual Golden Retrievers for the role instead of just using effects to update every few years like Rocket. I’m totally indifferent to it, in that I noticed it but it didn’t suck me out of it, but I can see both sides of the argument, and just wanted to present another possible reason for the creative decision. Also didn’t expect this to be a major focus of this, but it’s Blind Wave so I shouldn’t be shocked.
Yeah but in erics defense, marvel has been outed about overworking their vfx workers, and now they are just give vfx more work then they actually need to do
@@cb_productions362 exactly. Like I said, I get where Eric’s coming from and agree that you could use a real dog in major of those shots, but I also didn’t get sucked out of it and those scenes weren’t horrible cause of it, and don’t know if it was Gunn’s decision because Cosmo’s gonna do some stuff that getting a real dog to do will be troublesome in Vol. 3, or a Feige thing cause of the reason I gave in the og comment cause depending on who made the choice, it’s either a director doing something to potentially help with his finale film in a trilogy they’ve been itching to complete, or a “easier” solution to a long term thing that makes peoples’ jobs more prolonged and frustrating with whatever short time they had.
Also, they probably already created a CG model of Cosmo for Guardians Vol 3, it would make sense to use it for this too, especially since she only has like 2 minutes of screentime
I know nothing about what's coming but suspect they will need Cosmo to be cg, also while Eric was talking about it I started to wonder if they could be dodging even trained dogs reaction to some practical elements/makeup? but I'm probably thinking to hard
Eric’s complaint about Cosmo is wild because of how much more convenient it is to use a cg dog that can be manipulated in post especially since this was filmed during guardians 3 which isn’t finished and they have to decide minor details later. Like he just accepts Rocket and groot but cosmo is too much?
I rarely agree with Aaron just picking arguments but damn if he’s right. If they’d used a real dog Eric would’ve just complained about the contrast between real and fake
I don’t think it’s necessarily fair to compare it with Rocket and Groot because you can’t just get a real raccoon or tree man whereas you can just get a real dog That being said I absolutely do agree with Aaron, using a CGI dog (especially when the CG is this good) is way easier than finding a dog that can do all the stuff they might need Cosmo to do as well as believably interact with CGI characters. Not to mention the nightmare that dealing with animal actors can be to a production
The answer to the Cosmo "dilemma" is that the Holiday Special was filmed DURING the filming of Guardians 3 (multiple shoots over the months of the sequel's production). Cosmo in Guardians 3 has a more significant role AND powers yet unseen
I don't think Nebula used force to retrieve the arm, but out of ANY of the Guardians, I believe she would be the most capable of obtaining it. I think this happened after everything we have seen so far, and I really hope they call back to it in the future. That is too big of a move to gloss over.
James Gunn stated in an interview that he used the Holiday special to show the audience what exactly has been going on with the Guardians since we last saw them in Thor (i.e. they settled in Knowhere, Cosmo, the sister revelation, etc." so that he didn't have to spend time in the next movie catching up the story. He put in easter eggs to accomplish that in this, which I think is a really smart idea!
I love that this special confirmed that the Go-Bots are canon in the MCU. James Gunn wasn't able to bring Rom Space-Knight to the MCU but he was able to do it with the Go-Bots. Respect. 👍
The animation style you're talking about is rotoscoping. Basically drawing over actual video frames. They used it in the LotR cartoon and in a huge chunk of older cartoons, including a lot of the Disney classics. You guys should react to Undone. It's a pretty cool show done in that style.
8:26-8:31 my freaking FAVORITE joke in the special. Always had that thought that he’s Space Kratos even after Guardians 1. Plus… I can actually see Dave playing him in live action. Lol Edit: I forgot about my other favorite joke, Kevin Bacon watching Santa Clause vs. the Martians. Also, 15:43-16:03 um, TECHNICALLY, in the Friday film he was in, it wasn’t Jason, it was his mother. Still love the callback tho. Last thing, I swear. I feel like the Gobots thing was a nod to the fact Marvel made Transformers comics a while back and there is a Marvel character who had crossovers with Transformers and I think Dr. Who called Death’s Head, but probably copyright stuff with Paramount/Hasbro, so Gobot instead. That being said, I wish that a Starscream cosplayer and not a Gobot so I can see Drax beat him up. Lol
@@prathapkutty7407 No, I love him, it’s just knowing his history of being, comedically or not, beat up by Megatron and others, it’s just be funny to me to see Drax do it.
I’m pretty sure this is my first ever comment on UA-cam just to say that you guys look adorable in your matching sweaters and it kinda made my night. ❤
cosmos cgi looked impeccable to me tbh, almost as good as rockets cgi. I see eric's point tho, but like y'all pointed out, its possible they have cosmo do some crazier things in GOTG3 that a normal dog wouldn’t be able to do
In general you always shoot/use reference for animation. Sometimes it's the actors, sometimes the director or any creative/animation senior and if they don't provide any, the animators record it themselves. But there is a difference between Rotoscoping (which is this) where you draw your lines over footage on a new layer, or when you use it as a reference but do the animation by itself. Just very different approaches. You could see it as 2D motion capture.
They filmed the special and the third movie together so even though Cosmo didnt do anything crazy in this special it is probably going to do crazy things in the movie. Like I am pretty sure Cosmo can levitate, its eyes light up, and all sorts of things in the comic.
While it was played for laughs here I do wonder if Mantis tapping into her anger more readily may be a sign of her developing her Celestial powers, and similar emotional control problems like her father.
Just subscribed to the raw rider service! This will be my first full length video with the crew! Woohoo! Don’t worry, I’ll be back for the discussion 😉
I don't know if it's the case for this production but I know there's been a Hollywood wide push to stop using "animal actors" from a 'cruelty' standpoint. It's usually from the point of view of Apes, and other exotic animals, but it's also notoriously difficult to work with animals on set. That may be why they went CGI for the dog.
it's still hard to believe you guys aren't 1 mill sub channel yet. you guys put a lot out there and i think you guys deserve more than 3 mill at least by 2022.
If you freeze gaurdians 2 when ego is showing peter the pods explaining his existence, you can see ego and mantis mother together. The pod where ego shows peter the different species and planets he come across. She's in the upper left hand corner. Big fan btw!
Choice to use The Pogues Fairytale of New York for Peter/Yondu theme was a great choice. Try and find a bar in UK where that plays and find someone not singing along-impossible-Even Drax would join in!! (Edit purely for drunk spelling issues)
I’m with Aaron on the Cosmo conversation, if you’re going to have he dog do some wild stuff and have to interact somewhat believably with other CGI characters it’s just easier to make the dog CG than try to train a dog to do it
This brings so much more meaning to the first guardians film, seeing all the little toys on the dashboard and the presents Peter gets Yondu. And yes, the the little green guy that Peter got him in the animation is there!
Isn't Santa Claus the most powerful Omega-Level Mutant in Marvel comics? Can't wait for the X-Men to join in, so we can see that for the next holiday special
50:40 They had this discussion after Infinity War and I believe the reasoning one of the Russos gave was that Bucky considered the arm as part of himself. It would have been weird if clothes disappeared and the arm didn't (even though when you think about it, yeah, it doesn't really make sense that clothes were dusted too).
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The animation yall was talking about is rotoscoped.
@@hamhockbeans Yep James Gunn did an interview he said he used the same technique as "Wizards"
Groot was 100% CGI in the holiday special James Gunn said
The biggest news is Kevin Bacon himself is now in the MCU so could Sebastian Craine “Invisible Man” be joining The Guardians?!?
Seeing all 3 of them having huge, stupid grins on their faces when Peter was hugging Mantis as siblings was so heartwarming 🥰
Adorable fucking Christmas nerds 😊
Really hit home for me when I met my half-sister. She was tearing up thinking he’d hate being reminded of his father only to say it’s the greatest gift. 🥲
My fırst thought watchıng thıs scene was "oh my god they're killing one of them off next movie"
@@kavtoM Same
@@kavtoM *** Spoilers for Guardians vol. 3 *****
They haven't!!! I couldn't have been more happier!
My favorite part as small as it is, is Nebula ready to shoot Bacon the moment he calls Rocket a raccoon. Those 2 were the only guardians left after the snap and both of them were "enhanced" so it shows they have a pretty big bond
Yea i was also like wow nebula about to kill for rocket
Makes sense they would get along. They have similar personalities. Though they probably bring out the worst in both of them. Imagine Nebula and Rocket getting into trouble and going on a heist spree.
I hope they expand on or show their relationship in GotG 3
@@fightingfaerie they do
Nebula growling , “You can’t outrun me Bacon!”, Mantis’s screaming at Drax and her chase style, Nebula giving Rocket Bucky’s arm, & Mantis telling Peter that they’re family! Truly loved this!
(Pom & Karen are my faves!)
These are most of my favorite parts too!
"You can always tell when someone is cg."
I legit did not realize Cosmo or Groot were fully cg in this.
Right? What's he babbling about?
Cosmo was a real dog, they had a picture up with the one that was in Hawkeye.
@@ChaosSepher Based on a real dog for reference. But he is CG.
Yeah I had no idea either. I don't look for things like that. I'm usually just wrapped up in the story and the setting and the characters... I'm not thinking about the real world effects and behind the scenes stuff when I'm focused on the story. To me, they're real enough to forget they're not real.
Seriously? Might wanna get your eyes checked.
I'm so excited for guardians of the galaxy 3 after that amazing emotional trailer
I'm most excited for Lylla, the OTTER!!!!!🦦
@@fuzzyotterpaws4395 yes i cant wait to see rocket and lyllas horrible backstory, im gonna cry in the cinema for sure
@@jelousjake3500 I’m really scared of this movie. I’m afraid it’s gonna break my heart.
@@goldenageofdinosaurs7192 mine too, its gonna be so sad
If they kill rocket, we riot!
Now this is an epic Christmas Special. And starring the great Kevin Bacon himself.
James Gunn has done it again.
Introducing... the great Kevin Bacon.
@SpicyXHotsauce so you're one of those people that goes to this channel and complains
@@streakermaximus
The FANTASTIC Kevin Bacon.
Remember that Nebula was able to sneak onto Thanos’ ship, so taking Buckys arm would be a cakewalk.
Also we know from Falcon Winter Soldier that his arm literally has a disconnect button that the Dora Milaje can use. Maybe she asked Okoye for it.
Here's my theory on the Go-Bots reference:
- Peter had a Go-Bot toy from when he was a kid.
- Drax saw it and recognized it as the same kind of being that killed his cousin (a transforming robot).
- Peter told Drax that it was just a Go-Bot, but Drax understood that to mean that it was a Go-Bot that killed his cousin.
- Drax tells that story to Mantis and she repeated it.
22:35 Watching 3 guys jaws drop in unison is always priceless 🤣
It's so good. No one could see this moment coming :D
BEST HOLIDAY SPECIAL EVER!!!
The sight of Rocket getting Bucky’s arm and tearing up was both heartwarming and hilarious. And I loved that we found out Peter and Mantis are siblings!
When I first saw Mantis carrying all the cash around like that my first thought was "that's dangerous for her to be doing that" then I remembered oh yeah Drax is RIGHT there if anyone tries to rob her, then it hit me.. Mantis fought Thanos and can take care of herself lol.
Angry/irritated Mantis is one of my new favorite things.
I’m glad she doesn’t let Drax push her around and bully her anymore.
GET OVER THE ZARG-NUTS!
James Gunn actually wrote the opening credits song which is super impressive considering it’s superrrrrrrr catchy!!
I knew it was original but I didn’t know James wrote it! That’s pretty cool honestly
That appears to be Quills first year with him and the first of Yondu's little creatures. It could be that every single one of them was a Christmas gift from Quill.
Yea i think they all were... is gonna be nice to see GOTG 1 knowing those are gifts from his son and not just a weird obsession
That Guardians 3 trailer made me realize why this was so cheery not only because it’s Christmas time but because we will be crying at the end of the third film 😭😭
Also, the actress who played Mantis’ mother in GOTG 2 her scene with Kurt Russell was cut so there’s that. We would’ve learned that Mantis is Peter’s half sister but then maybe we wouldn’t have had the special so everything worked out I suppose lol.
It's still implied right? Like when the scence were Ego shows all the species he essentially mated with I think I saw (assuming its Mantis' mother )in the top left of the group
@@Koi_Pond.31I’m pretty sure you’re right because someone showed a screenshot and highlighted an alien that looked like Mantis’ species!
I’m so glad someone pointed this out 👏
@@Koi_Pond.31 must’ve missed it I’ll go check that out
@@zT4SGaming you were right about crying at the end of the 3rd film
I’ve been thru a similar scenario with my half-sister so this hit home. Mantis tearing up thinking Peter wouldn’t wanna be reminded of his father, only for him to say it’s the greatest gift he could’ve gotten had me emotional. James Gunn knows how to pull on the heart strings.
I actually started tearing up during that last scene is was so sweet
As someone who’s had a long lost half-sister before, seeing Mantis tear up really hit home for me.
Kevin Bacon being in a MCU special was so awesome to watch.
If the multiverse brings in the X-men he is kinda already in with the villian in X-men first class
i hope for him to stay lol
Standup guy, nebulas comment “I guess not all actors are pieces of shit”, priceless.
@@hamhockbeans i hope we somehow get a reference to that
I’ve never really seen any of his movies, which would you recommend?
Guess it makes all the sense now that Mantis spilled out that Peter had romantic feelings for Gamora in front of her, it is a total little sister move.
I love the lady just crying hysterically when Mantis and Drax showed up with their spaceship. I'm sure there are a lot of people that have full on PTSD because of Thanos whenever they see a spaceship. Also, I wonder if Bucky will be in hot water with Wakanda again for somehow losing a whole arm's worth of Vibranium.
It depends when it takes place - to me it only makes sense to take place during Christmas 2023 because it should really be the first Christmas after Endgame, and therefor before Falcon and The Winter Soldier, in which case it’s a duplicate arm. However they seem to be implying it’s Christmas 2025, in which case I imagine the Wakandans will stop Bucky from using his arm whilst with the Thunderbolts (they’re going to be a subsection of the CIA and after Wakanda Forever we know the feelings of the Wakandans on that topic).
@@pumpedupbricks It can't be Christmas 2023 because the Special is clearly taking place after _Thor: Love and Thunder_ (Groot's bigger & no Thor on the team)
Honestly I had no idea the dog was CGI and I watched the special 3 times already! Now that you tell me when I watch I can see it but I swear when I didn't know I couldn't see it at all-- never crossed my mind
i could be wrong but they did use a real dog. they just added some cgi to it for whatever reason. i think u can find a picture of the real dog
@@austindaniels4827 It is a real dog. I guess they did the space suit via CGI and that mix might look strange.
@@tobiasminwookgoser770 Stephane Ceretti (visual effects supervisor) said in a tweet Slate (the real dog) was just used as reference for behavior and lighting. Cosmo is 100% CG
I didn't know, but also, didn't care. I thought the special was nice and I only watched it for entertainment not to dissect it. I always find it interesting the things that bother people...
@@mariadantzler2991 Well in terms of stuff like Cosmo, i didn't notice it either but thats cause im often blind to bad CG (not to say this was bad. It was top notch i think). Other's it was less dissecting it and more it just looking wrong, so it distracted them. Some people just notice those things easier and once you do, it can be hard to ignore it
one of Peter's short flashbacks in Guardians 2 is him being taught how to use his guns by Yondu
God I love this Special. It had heart, it had laughs, and it had Kevin Bacon! When I first heard that there would be a Christmas Special for the Guardians, I didn't know what to think. Now, it's one of favorite MCU properties and something I will def watch every Winter Season.
In case no one mentioned it, the animation style you're talking about is called *_rotoscoping._* Ralph Bakshi's _Lord of the Rings_ has some examples of it that are both great 😃 and horrendous 😝 IMO.
*Edit:* It is a staple of Bakshi's work. A more consistently solid example can be found in his film _Fire and Ice_ (1983).
I'm sure *Peter* knew *Kevin Bacon* was an actor. That's how he knew his name was *Kevin Bacon* and not *_Ren McCormack,_* the name of his *_Footloose_* character.
Much like *Calvin* says at 32:42, *Pete* simply didn't over-explain the unnecessary elements when sharing referrences. Like talking about *Yoda¹* to someone. . .You're not going to also go into an additional diatribe about how _"he was actually a puppet."_
··•●✺●•··
¹ ─ Just as *John Crichton* does in *_Farscape._* A show where a human often makes pop culture references around aliens.
Love how Bakshi made the Orcs look practically look like Tusken Raiders in his adaptation with the rotoscoping.
It's just nostalgia from the animation of the 80s and early 90s. I much prefer the old style animation than the new CGI cartoons kids these days see.
It was also used in the animated show Undone with Bob Odenkirk. They mixed it with something else I cant remember. Was super interesting to watch. And the show itself was very interesting and terribly underrated
@@jenniferdesouza5082 A couple other great examples of rotoscoping intentionally used to achieve a specific look and feel and not just to make animating movement easier are Richard Linklater's 2006 film _A Scanner Darkly_ (starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryderm and Rory Cochrane, and based on Philip K. Dick's novel) and A-ha's 1985 _Take On Me_ music video.
Of course he knew haha, he's not dumb.
I’m surprised Eric focused more on Cosmo being CG than Groot, Mantis’ gate stunt and the environment being practical
Because groots NOT A REAL FKN BEING. where are we gonna hire a walking talking tree.
I think it was so amazing that Gunn decided to make this the origin of Yondu's love of the Troll dolls. Yet another example Peter missed of how much Yondu though of him as a son.
This special made me cry. It was beautifully done, and had the proper holiday spirit. Just seeing Rocket get emotional over receiving Bucky's arm was touching enough. (Who ever could have imagined after all these years, that in Endgame, a blue half-robot woman and a mean talking sentient racoon holding hands in sad remorse could bring a tear to your eye?)
Yes. The 'I am Groot' shorts are canon.
Cosmo was a boy in comics, but Gunn switched it up for GotG because Laika, the Russian space dog that died in Soviet mission (which Cosmo is a reference too) was female.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who shed a tear. I didn’t full on cry, but as someone who grew up with an older sister I definitely shed a tear
Cosmo was portrayed by a real dog named Slate. With Maria Bakalova voicing her. In the comics Cosmo is usually a boy but they changed him to a girl in the MCU bc of the real dog Cosmo was inspired by. The real dog's name was Laika.
Typical woke Hollywood changing an iconic male role into a girl.
(Because you can never be sure on the internet I must add a disclaimer that this was a joke.)
Well kinda. Had too google before commenting just this, and found a tweet from Stephane Ceretti who was the visual effects supervisor who confirmed, Cosmo is 100% cg in this. Slate was on set being the real dog, but was just used as reference for behavior and lighting. Slate was never actually in the special that we watched
@@TheNamekianClown It's for tribute to the first dog in space named Lakia....
@@zamhobby9662 Yup, who sadly died in orbit :(
@@zamhobby9662 read the parenthesis in his comment
That was a great Christmas show and it'll be something I can watch every year! I'm over the moon that we got so much Mantis in this because Pom has been so underutilized. A lot of good feels in this.
Cosmo looks pretty good to me.
honestly one of my favorite holiday specials i’ve seen ina while
29:51
The animation technique is called rotoscoping. It's exactly what Eric said, the frames are created based on real footage.
Disney used it often along with other techniques in the classics like Snow White.
Truth!
So much so that they had Michael Rooker on set in his full Yondu costume for reference. It's also a callback to the SW holiday special which used rotoscoped animation to introduce Boba Fett for the first time because the special was aired between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.
Thanks, I was about to type that exact response.
Mantis has always been my favourite MCU character so this special felt like it was specifically aimed at me. I'm so glad they addressed the suggested sibling stuff between her and Peter from Guardians 2 that I always thought was an overlooked aspect of that film.
they smartly increased the character dynamic between mantis and peter..
its probably going to play a role in vol3
My favorite part of this reaction was Eric saying Groot looked SO real, then being angry for 10 minutes that Cosmo wasn't.
Personally I just think it’s far more ethical to use cgi animals rather than an actual animal. I’m surprised Eric got so worked up about this. I genuinely didn’t even think about it. I just thought there’s a cute dog. An c’mon I love the prequels as much as Eric but he praises the use of cgi there when they could’ve easily used real sets for a lot of it.
Oh, was Cosmo 100% CG? I noticed that her human-like facial expressions were CG enhanced but I really thought it was just a real dog enhanced by CG a little bit. Even if she was totally CG, I was convinced enough by it that it didn't bother me at all, I don't really get what they're complaining about.
I've been waiting for this reaction for a while and I'm so gald u guys enjoyed it.
Getting to work on this was such a treat and yes the cg characters were animated to reference from the actors but it wasn't rotoscoped, we took a lot from their performances but didn't just copy the footage.
As for cosmo, we used a combination of the actors performance and there was a real dog on set that we took footage from as reference. I'm guessing she was done in cg to get a little more performance in the facials compared to a real dog
This was the best Marvel projects that takes place around Christmas (along with Hawkeye series)!! Perfect way to end Phase 4!! Rocket finally got Bucky’s arm!! Peter and Mantis being siblings was surprising (hoping both of them don’t get killed off in the final film)!!
And Iron Man 3
To add to the Cosmo thing, depending how long they plan on having them in the MCU, how often would they need to switch out the dog actors for them cause of age of the actors/what the project demands of Cosmo to do? might be more expensive to constantly get more/replace actual Golden Retrievers for the role instead of just using effects to update every few years like Rocket. I’m totally indifferent to it, in that I noticed it but it didn’t suck me out of it, but I can see both sides of the argument, and just wanted to present another possible reason for the creative decision. Also didn’t expect this to be a major focus of this, but it’s Blind Wave so I shouldn’t be shocked.
Yeah but in erics defense, marvel has been outed about overworking their vfx workers, and now they are just give vfx more work then they actually need to do
@@cb_productions362 exactly. Like I said, I get where Eric’s coming from and agree that you could use a real dog in major of those shots, but I also didn’t get sucked out of it and those scenes weren’t horrible cause of it, and don’t know if it was Gunn’s decision because Cosmo’s gonna do some stuff that getting a real dog to do will be troublesome in Vol. 3, or a Feige thing cause of the reason I gave in the og comment cause depending on who made the choice, it’s either a director doing something to potentially help with his finale film in a trilogy they’ve been itching to complete, or a “easier” solution to a long term thing that makes peoples’ jobs more prolonged and frustrating with whatever short time they had.
Also, they probably already created a CG model of Cosmo for Guardians Vol 3, it would make sense to use it for this too, especially since she only has like 2 minutes of screentime
I know nothing about what's coming but suspect they will need Cosmo to be cg, also while Eric was talking about it I started to wonder if they could be dodging even trained dogs reaction to some practical elements/makeup? but I'm probably thinking to hard
Eric’s complaint about Cosmo is wild because of how much more convenient it is to use a cg dog that can be manipulated in post especially since this was filmed during guardians 3 which isn’t finished and they have to decide minor details later. Like he just accepts Rocket and groot but cosmo is too much?
I rarely agree with Aaron just picking arguments but damn if he’s right. If they’d used a real dog Eric would’ve just complained about the contrast between real and fake
Mark hamill cameo???
I don’t think it’s necessarily fair to compare it with Rocket and Groot because you can’t just get a real raccoon or tree man whereas you can just get a real dog
That being said I absolutely do agree with Aaron, using a CGI dog (especially when the CG is this good) is way easier than finding a dog that can do all the stuff they might need Cosmo to do as well as believably interact with CGI characters. Not to mention the nightmare that dealing with animal actors can be to a production
The answer to the Cosmo "dilemma" is that the Holiday Special was filmed DURING the filming of Guardians 3 (multiple shoots over the months of the sequel's production). Cosmo in Guardians 3 has a more significant role AND powers yet unseen
I don't think Nebula used force to retrieve the arm, but out of ANY of the Guardians, I believe she would be the most capable of obtaining it. I think this happened after everything we have seen so far, and I really hope they call back to it in the future. That is too big of a move to gloss over.
James Gunn stated in an interview that he used the Holiday special to show the audience what exactly has been going on with the Guardians since we last saw them in Thor (i.e. they settled in Knowhere, Cosmo, the sister revelation, etc." so that he didn't have to spend time in the next movie catching up the story. He put in easter eggs to accomplish that in this, which I think is a really smart idea!
My favorite thing about this. Was the spotlight on Mantis and Drax
The Holliday special was preparing us to later cry and suffer with the movie 😭
😢
I honestly didn't realize cosmo was CGI
This was definitely a happy moment for the Guardians as the third film will be their final adventure together!!
I love that this special confirmed that the Go-Bots are canon in the MCU. James Gunn wasn't able to bring Rom Space-Knight to the MCU but he was able to do it with the Go-Bots. Respect. 👍
Glad you guys recorded this before leaving for vacation!
I am so glad they added "Christmas Wrappings" by the Waitresses to the soundtrack, A truly underrated 80's band
The animation style you're talking about is rotoscoping. Basically drawing over actual video frames.
They used it in the LotR cartoon and in a huge chunk of older cartoons, including a lot of the Disney classics.
You guys should react to Undone. It's a pretty cool show done in that style.
I did not notice Cosmo was CGI at all
God bless, I've been waiting for this lol. Thanks guys, and a Merry Christmas to everyone at Blindwave!
I was thinking this would never come, THANK YOU SANTA!!!!
8:26-8:31 my freaking FAVORITE joke in the special. Always had that thought that he’s Space Kratos even after Guardians 1. Plus… I can actually see Dave playing him in live action. Lol
Edit: I forgot about my other favorite joke, Kevin Bacon watching Santa Clause vs. the Martians. Also, 15:43-16:03 um, TECHNICALLY, in the Friday film he was in, it wasn’t Jason, it was his mother. Still love the callback tho.
Last thing, I swear. I feel like the Gobots thing was a nod to the fact Marvel made Transformers comics a while back and there is a Marvel character who had crossovers with Transformers and I think Dr. Who called Death’s Head, but probably copyright stuff with Paramount/Hasbro, so Gobot instead. That being said, I wish that a Starscream cosplayer and not a Gobot so I can see Drax beat him up. Lol
Marvel is good at making Pop culture references.
Its Santa Claus Conquers the Martians not Santa Clause vs. the Martians
@@ChamarM my bad, it’s been a bit when I last heard the title
@@p0laris74yt8 lmao you must hate starscream so much!
@@prathapkutty7407 No, I love him, it’s just knowing his history of being, comedically or not, beat up by Megatron and others, it’s just be funny to me to see Drax do it.
I’m pretty sure this is my first ever comment on UA-cam just to say that you guys look adorable in your matching sweaters and it kinda made my night. ❤
cosmos cgi looked impeccable to me tbh, almost as good as rockets cgi. I see eric's point tho, but like y'all pointed out, its possible they have cosmo do some crazier things in GOTG3 that a normal dog wouldn’t be able to do
In general you always shoot/use reference for animation. Sometimes it's the actors, sometimes the director or any creative/animation senior and if they don't provide any, the animators record it themselves.
But there is a difference between Rotoscoping (which is this) where you draw your lines over footage on a new layer, or when you use it as a reference but do the animation by itself. Just very different approaches. You could see it as 2D motion capture.
Peter knows Kevin is an actor. I think Mantis was just trying to rationalize why Peter would tell them those stories as if it was real.
When CGI becomes so good that you think a real dog is a CGI dog.
I will watch this every year, it was so good! How can you not love it?
They filmed the special and the third movie together so even though Cosmo didnt do anything crazy in this special it is probably going to do crazy things in the movie. Like I am pretty sure Cosmo can levitate, its eyes light up, and all sorts of things in the comic.
Pom is so delightful as Mantis. Easily my favourite Guardian 😊
"Why are they crying?" I mean to be fair every time a space ship shows up on this earth some wild shit goes down.
possibly one of the greatest Christmas specials iv ever seen.both funny and heartwarming
While it was played for laughs here I do wonder if Mantis tapping into her anger more readily may be a sign of her developing her Celestial powers, and similar emotional control problems like her father.
guys thank you for the upload!! don’t listen to people complain about your movie choices I love discovering new things with you guys
Just subscribed to the raw rider service! This will be my first full length video with the crew! Woohoo! Don’t worry, I’ll be back for the discussion 😉
Yes! I was waiting for this!
I wasn't expecting Cosmo to be a girl but I don't mind as much as other characters because still an adorable doggo!
Plus voiced by Maria Bakalova who is an awesome human being.
The real dog Cosmo is based on was female. I don't know why the comics changed into a boy🤷🏽♂️
"I don't know what Christmas is! But Christmas time is here!"
I can see this becoming a true classic.
The Baby Groot show and this holiday special is definitely canon to the MCU
They are
@@GeekSquad24B ?
@@iceslayer1567 they are canon
@@GeekSquad24B Yes
Groot (from the neck down at least) looked so real I thought it was a guy in a suit
That James Gunn opened with the Pogues...just great!
The way ur jaws drop to the floor w buckys arm was hilarious 😂😂 i cried too btw, excellent reaction guys
I cant wait for guardians 3 to absolutely shatter our hearts after this happy special. my body is ready.
I don't know if it's the case for this production but I know there's been a Hollywood wide push to stop using "animal actors" from a 'cruelty' standpoint.
It's usually from the point of view of Apes, and other exotic animals, but it's also notoriously difficult to work with animals on set.
That may be why they went CGI for the dog.
it's still hard to believe you guys aren't 1 mill sub channel yet. you guys put a lot out there and i think you guys deserve more than 3 mill at least by 2022.
If you freeze gaurdians 2 when ego is showing peter the pods explaining his existence, you can see ego and mantis mother together. The pod where ego shows peter the different species and planets he come across. She's in the upper left hand corner. Big fan btw!
Choice to use The Pogues Fairytale of New York for Peter/Yondu theme was a great choice. Try and find a bar in UK where that plays and find someone not singing along-impossible-Even Drax would join in!! (Edit purely for drunk spelling issues)
The I Am Groot shorts ARE canon and we've been waiting for you guys to react to them
I’m with Aaron on the Cosmo conversation, if you’re going to have he dog do some wild stuff and have to interact somewhat believably with other CGI characters it’s just easier to make the dog CG than try to train a dog to do it
The animation style is called rotoscoping. It's where you film live action actors, then 'paint over' them with animation.
the alien creatures in the movie 'attack the block' are rotorscoped.( they look great too)
HOLY SHIT the guy on the right is James Wade. Can’t believe he does Blind Wave in his spair time.🤯
Yes, James Gunn did the rotoscoping animations because it reminded him of his childhood.
all people was dusted with thing what defines them ...bucky arm ,spidy suit, black panther suit ,strange cape etc
James Gunn confirmed on Twitter that yes, Nebula really did just go down to Earth and rip Bucky's arm off.
Groot costume makes me remember of the old 90's TMNT movies
That was CG apparently
This brings so much more meaning to the first guardians film, seeing all the little toys on the dashboard and the presents Peter gets Yondu. And yes, the the little green guy that Peter got him in the animation is there!
Isn't Santa Claus the most powerful Omega-Level Mutant in Marvel comics? Can't wait for the X-Men to join in, so we can see that for the next holiday special
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who shed some tears.
This was so incredibly well done in every possible way.
I love that Kyra Sedgwick actually voiced the phone calls.
Ok but what about the CG eagle in Peacemaker??? It looked amazing. Bet most people didnt realize it wasnt a real eagle. Was it unecessary?? LOL
50:40 They had this discussion after Infinity War and I believe the reasoning one of the Russos gave was that Bucky considered the arm as part of himself. It would have been weird if clothes disappeared and the arm didn't (even though when you think about it, yeah, it doesn't really make sense that clothes were dusted too).
Thanos didn't want someone stealing dead people clothes, He's is a considerate guy.
Thanos didn't want the Universe littered with everyone's belongings 🤣
YES IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS. so excited
this is so perfect. i never get tired of watching it all over again especially with my favorite reactors. fremulon!!!