Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3may be towards the back end of the MCU’s Phase Four, but that won’t stop Disney from pushing one of its biggest characters, Baby Groot, until then. The latest of these attempts will be featured in Disney’s upcoming Avengers Campus attraction and it certainly looks out of this galaxy.
After all,Guardians of the Galaxyhas always owed a large part of its success and mass appeal to the kind of humor only a series of movies featuring a talking raccoon and an alien tree-like creature could pull off. The mysterious allurebehind James Gunn’sGuardians of the Galaxyformulais so big that the director is even going for something similar with King Shark in theSuicide Squad, who for all purposes is DC’s answer to Groot’s charm.
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So with Groot being such a masterpiece, it’s no surprise Disney’s own Imagineering Research and Development subsidiary has been working on an incredibly ambitious project that truly brings Baby Groot to life, and no, it’s not just some movie CGI. The work, codenamed Project Kiwi, consists of having a group of engineers put their brilliant minds to use to create a perfect roboticversion of Baby Groot, swaggy walk and all, and the results are truly something to be marveled by.
Just like most robotics prototypes that eventually surface for everyone to see, Baby Groot starts off as an unassuming piece of metal taking its first baby steps around the team’s office. However, what truly makes robot Baby Groot come to life are both his signature walk fromGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2and the prosthetic skin suit that goes on top. All that is missing is for the clip to have Electric Light Orchestra’s “Blue Sky” blasting in the background.
Funnily enough, whenever a video of the latest high-tech robots becomes popular, they don’t tend to be nearly as charming, just ask those headless robotic dogs that are out there. Perhaps the secret to making them more approachable lies in dressing them up as beloved Marvel characters, although the prospect of a moody backtalking teenage Groot sounds like a real parenting nightmare.
Groot and the rest of the Guardians were last seen inAvengers: Endgame, but fans of the group won’t have to wait until 2023 to see them again since theGuardians of the Galaxyare also booked alongside Russell Crowe forThor: Love and Thunder. With Disney engineers also being busyworking on a functionalStar Warslightsaber, there’s really no telling what they could come up with next.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3is in development at Marvel Studios.
