It’s worth noting right up front that the clip being discussed here — which was released by Marvel Studios this week via Yahoo Movies — comes from the very end of Guardians of the Galaxy, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet, you should go buy a ticket right now, see it as soon as possible (because it’s fantastic), and come right back here to watch the clip. Don’t worry. We’ll stick around.
Good? Okay, then…
It’s difficult not to appreciate Marvel’s willingness to release this particular scene (embedded below) featuring a ridiculously cute Baby Groot dancing to Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” while Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) sharpens a massive knife in the background. Even though the scene is a bit of a spoiler for the film, it’s quickly become one of the most talked-about moments, and inspired quite a few industrious fans to create their own (dancing and non-dancing) versions of Baby Groot.
Related: Who exactly is Peter “Star-Lord” Quill’s father? It’s not who you might think…
“It was initially written as a tag for the very end of the film,” said Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn in a statement released with the clip. “But after we shot it, it worked so well I wanted to put it at the actual end of the film so none of the audience would miss it.”
More than anything else, the decision to release the clip is a great example of the way Marvel not only listens to the conversations surrounding its films, but more importantly, reacts to the conversation.
And while there was much speculation that Groot voice actor Vin Diesel provided the motion-capture performance for his on-screen counterpart, Gunn confessed that he was the model for Baby Groot’s slick dance moves.
“Baby Groot dancing is 100 percent me,” he confessed. “I was too embarrassed for anyone to be there, so I made everyone leave the room and I set up a camera and I videotaped myself dancing. Then I sent the video to the animators and had them animate over that. I begged them not to leak the video! Two of my closest friends came to an early screening and said ‘Hey, I recognize those moves! That’s you dancing, isn’t it?!'”
Guardians of the Galaxy is currently in theaters and has already grossed more than $330 million at the global box office.
