Summary

• Disney XD's Guardians of the Galaxy animated series falls short of expectations with repetitive storylines and odd animation choices.
• Unlike James Gunn's live-action franchise, the animation's mix of vintage music and childish humor doesn't quite hit the mark.
• While the series shines with quirky character moments and positive messages, it ultimately ranks low among Marvel animated shows.

Out of all the superhero properties that have graced the big screen over the last fifteen years, Marvel really did comic book fans a great service by reaching down deep and bringing Guardians of the Galaxy to the big screen. Before this movie, only the most hardcore fans were familiar with the characters of Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot. But it certainly didn’t take long for them to become household names.

With popular name (and now CEO of DC Studios) James Gunn sitting in the director’s chair, this rambunctious team not only succeeded with their first entry but went on to round out a trilogy of three films and become an integral part of the MCU. What most older moviegoers don’t know, but most children do, is that Disney actually adapted this goofy but loveable team for the small screen in the form of an animated series for one of their cable television channels, Disney XD. Unfortunately, this is where the trouble started.

Five months after the release of the first Avengers movie in 2012, the renowned House of Mouse decided to not only reboot one of its ongoing shows called The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes on Disney XD and change it into Avengers Assemble, but also ended up releasing numerous other Marvel-themed additions to the afternoon line-up like Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. and Guardians of the Galaxy (with the latter premiering after the former ended). Agents of S.M.A.S.H was something never seen before — Hulk, She-Hulk, A-Bomb, Skarr, and Red Hulk stop threats around the world.

On the other hand, the first Guardians of the Galaxy theatrical entry was just released a year before and this animated series was going to be looked at with a keen eye to see if it could compare. While it did last for three seasons, a great number of Marvel fans actually disowned this version of the revived Marvel team. Let’s decipher 2015’s Guardians of the Galaxy and figure out why that was.

Fan Service Wasn’t Enough

Unlike other Marvel properties, James Gunn’s live-action franchise always had a significant connection to music. Just some hits from the '60s and '70s included on Quill’s Walkman were "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Swede and "Go All the Way" by Raspberries. Even though the animated version does have a soundtrack of its own with the same style of music throughout (just twelve songs over seventy-nine episodes), the different themes of the show just do not mesh well together in this case.

The music is pop rock and blues funk from a bygone era in a cartoon with situations and jokes that are predominantly aimed towards a much younger audience. In a live-action space, these different age groups can be individually catered to with visual cues or underlying innuendos. The same cannot be done in an animated space. The best case in point highlighting this conundrum is how there is little to no romance between Peter and Gamora.

The Disney XD version of Guardians of the Galaxy admittedly goes deep into lore (as the other Marvel animated shows do as well). Thanos, The High Evolutionary, and Collector are the main antagonists of this show, which, on paper, sounds amazing. In reality, the viewer goes through many different types of fetch quests that result in repetitive stories. Every main arc revolves around an item. Whether it be a spartax artifact, a sarcophagus from Thanos’ base, Nova's helmets or an Asgardian sword, the most important aspect of the show always seems to be an item rather than a person. Granted, the intended demographic doesn’t leave much room for more emotional plotlines, but this really tended to fall flat when audiences were accustomed to a much more epic feeling on the big screen.

This Is No X-Men ‘97

Guardians of the Galaxy on the Marvel Universe programming block also suffered from very odd or downright mediocre animation efforts. Compared to the art style seen in something like Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, this was neither cel-shaded nor detailed. The visual direction left viewers young and old puzzled.

For starters, Drax has spooky whited-out eyes and Groot doesn’t have tree-like details. This might be another aspect that was leaned into for child amusement, but Rocket Raccoon is anatomically inflated in certain places (legs and feet) to look more amusing. This just doesn’t sit right with those who have seen this character in the movies. This four-year animated adaptation certainly wasn’t given the X-Men '97 standard in terms of visual appeal.

At the end of the day, not all is bad with Disney XD’s rendition of James Gunn’s Marvel films. More quirkiness from the characters shines through than ever before and the surplus of positive messages is a moral resource for children. With that being said though, there is certainly a reason why 2015’s Guardians of the Galaxy is usually ranked last among Marvel animated series. If you still want to give this series a chance, the entire three seasons are available for streaming on Disney+.