You have to study the existence of Disney + as simple repository of projects that would previously go to YouTube as a curiosity, Disney Channel cut or DVD extra: series between one and five minutes that exist for the sole purpose of filling the catalog with various licenses and a rather questionable quality. ‘Dug and Carl’, ‘Forky asks a question’ or ‘Pixar Popcorn’ are, being generous, TikTok videos that do not justify the monthly fee. ‘I am Groot’ is the first Marvel series to join this trend geared towards kids but consumed by fans afraid of missing out.
Groot lives, cuqui follows
That’s right, let’s not fool ourselves. As much as adults are going to consume it, ‘I am Groot’ is a children’s series: Groot is cute in three or four minutes and, although he has a certain hint of bad milk, in the end everything ends well. He’s a kid doing kid stuff, regardless of whether it’s canon or not. In fact, there is only one appearance of another Marvel character and it is more anecdotal than anything else, so if your fear was to see it because of the loose fringes or because “everything is united”, you can forget: it has nothing to do with the UCM. Secondly, What did we expect in a children’s series that lasts a total of twenty minutes?
After the surprise that gave ‘Baymax!’, which could have fallen for nothing and yet is a miniseries created from the heart, I had some hope that Marvel would not keep the lowest common denominator in its first miniseries. And yet, here we are. Groot plays, draws, walks, gets angry and behaves like a little boy in adventures that are as technically perfect as they are artistically boring. One can only hear “I am Groot” a few times before stop looking adorable and start being frustrating.
Not even the staunchest marvelite is going to be able to scratch anything from these stories, which, Although it is true that they do not bother, they are not cute enough eitherfunny or adventurous enough to justify their mere existence. It is a simple extra that they are selling us as part of a shared universe and that really it’s a parallel path to try to get new followers in segments of the population that are not yet fully reached. The machinery running at full speed.
‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ kid-friendly
One of the problems with ‘I am Groot’ is that perverts the tone of its own saga. Making a children’s version of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ borders on the absurdity of the cartoon series for kids of ‘Robocop’ or ‘Attack of the Killer Tomatoes’: even though its children’s audience are children between five and ten years old, The ones who really care for the character are the adults. The miniseries is understood as entertainment and experiment on the part of Marvel, but does not work because it is an imposed experimentation.
Groot is one of the best characters on his team, especially in the first installment, where with just three words he made viewers cry. The conversion of him into a circus clown who does mischief it does not become undignified, but it does feel superfluous. This is a series that was born with the sole reason of fill out catalog, give something to talk about for a few days and move on to the next set on the menu, ‘She-Hulk: Lawyer Hulka’. Repeat adfinitum.
In a catalog full of wonderful cartoon series for children and youth such as ‘Amphibiland’, ‘Gravity falls’, ‘Bluey’ or, without leaving Marvel, ‘Avengers: the planet’s most powerful heroes’, ‘I am Groot’ falls far short. Beyond a couple of cool flashes (the end of the episode where he finds a civilization), it’s more an ordeal for parents What a series for the whole family.
We are not Groot
Perhaps, simply, I am not the target: after all, this is not a series designed for the bitter critic or for Marvel fans, but for the little ones in the family to have a great time watching Groot’s adventures, but I don’t think that’s the case either. Sadly, It is a stagnant and unfunny serieswhich without context is more like a scene eliminated because it’s heavy than something born organically.
The Disney+ model, which forces them to take out constant new products from the franchises that work for themends up eroding them, and ‘I am Groot’ is no exception: each chapter is made not by an author, a studio or an algorithm, but by a business decision that relies on absurd follow-up and the inexhaustible swallows of his followers.
With everything, it’s not horrible, nor is it worth falling on her nothing more than a very deep indifference. It is not a miniseries, nor a children’s entertainment, nor a joke or TikTok video: all of these have the heart and desire of someone behind them. ‘I am Groot’ is a product, with all the connotations of the word, to which the same affection has been devoted as to a mass-produced car. Effective? Of course. Memorable? Impossible.