Marvel Studios’ cosmic adventure Guardians of the Galaxy hits theaters this weekend in the U.S. and rolls out abroad over the next month or so, and while it’s standard practice for the film to be released in multiple languages, one aspect of the new film’s global translation is being approached from a unique angle. Vin Diesel has opted to record the voice of his digitally created character in the film, Groot, in all of the necessary languages for foreign markets.
In a video that started making the online rounds this week, you can watch Diesel record Groot’s lines in Spanish, Mandarin, French, and various other languages. Of course, it’s worth noting that Groot’s entire dialogue in the film is limited to one sentence, “I am Groot,” spoken at various times with different intonation depending on the context. (In Marvel’s comic-book universe, the alien nature of Groot’s tree-based body makes everything he says sound like “I am Groot” to most species’ ears.)
As if seeing Diesel say, “Yo soy Groot,” about 50 times with various affectations and accents wasn’t enough to make for a hilarious video, the Fast & Furious actor does most of the line-reading while wearing stilt-like equipment to make him Groot’s size in the film. Why? Because he wanted to “see what it felt like to be a seven-and-a-half foot tree” and to be prepared in case he needs to do any motion-capture work in the future, of course.
Honestly, mere description doesn’t do the video justice. You just need to watch it.
Guardians of the Galaxy hits theaters today, August 1.
