Plot: There’s no guarding the galaxy from this mischievous toddler! So get ready as Baby Groot takes center stage in his very own collection of shorts, exploring his glory days growing up—and getting into trouble—among the stars.
Review: It has been eight years since Baby Groot debuted in the post-credit sequence of Guardians of the Galaxy. Dancing in a pot, the miniature version of the character became massively popular on a scale not seen again until Grogu appeared in The Mandalorian. With Baby Groot last appearing in 2017’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, he has since been supplanted by moody Teenage Groot. Now, here to reclaim his pop culture status as the cutest MCU character, Baby Groot is back in his own collection of short films. I Am Groot, which is formally billed as an entry in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is here to make you smile with five quick and rather trivial excursions into the life amongst the Guardians.
The short films that make up the first volume of I Am Groot all center on the titular little guy getting involved in all sorts of mischief and mayhem aboard Peter Quill’s ship alongside the other Guardians of the Galaxy. Of the five shorts, two have already made their debut in front of select screenings of Thor: Love and Thunder as well as at San Diego Comic Con. The five shorts are all presented with minimal dialogue outside of Groot’s trademark phrase which is credited as being performed by Vin Diesel. There is also a voice cameo from James Gunn in one episode as a smartwatch as well as a brief supporting role from Rocket Raccoon, voiced by Bradley Cooper.
Each episode of I Am Groot clocks in at less than five minutes which means audiences are not going to be learning much about the MCU as a whole nor discover any clues about the upcoming third volume of the Guardians of the Galaxy film series. Set between volumes two and three, I Am Groot is a throwaway little series with very little impact or resonance. While I would hesitate to say the series is bad in any way, it is also not very consequential. To be fair, the shorts are fun and they are cute, but with the full running time of all the episodes amounting to twenty minutes, it is hard to call this much of anything.
Taken for what it is, I Am Groot is an impressive feat of animation. The entirely animated production does showcase some impressive photorealistic work that makes it hard to distinguish what was filmed and what was created. Groot himself looks as good as he does in James Gunn’s films but some of the other creations in these episodes are clearly cartoons. The alien flora and fauna that Groot interacts with a look similar to Ego’s planet in the second Guardians film and are made to look inviting for the very young viewers this series is being targeted at. But, within the context of some of the plots, these stories are also designed for MCU fans who will appreciate some of the jokes that will go over smaller children’s heads.
Writer and director Kirsten Lepore, a very talented animator with a background in stop motion, does a stellar job of allowing each of these shorts to convey a full story arc from beginning to end with almost no spoken dialogue. That is a feat few are able to accomplish well but Lepore makes each of these a succinct short story that doesn’t leave the viewer struggling to grasp the message. The series also benefits from a great score from Daniele Luppi that distinguishes this series from the movies and makes it truly a showcase for Groot. Even Diesel’s limited involvement in the episodes allows them to feel more tangible than other animated fare but still doesn’t quite work as well as I had hoped it would.
I Am Groot is too short to be taken as more than a trivial entry in the MCU. Many are going to either ignore the series or write it off as a cash grab by Disney to sell more merchandise with Baby Groot emblazoned on it. I enjoyed what I watched and plowing through all five episodes in less than half an hour was fun but shallow. With the promise of more episodes on the way, I hope that Marvel Studios considers giving Lepore the range to tell a long-form Baby Groot story or make a full-length animated entry into the MCU. She is clearly a talent worth employing and this series, if anything, succeeds in being a solid resume builder for the filmmaker.
I Am Groot premieres on August 10th on Disney+.
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