Guardians Of The Galaxy: Animatronic Rocket Raccoon Is The Stuff Of Nightmares
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Well, this isn’t terrifying at all. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is full to overflowing with strange, unusual, and otherwise memorable characters, but none of them connected with audiences this summer quite like Rocket Raccoon (maybe Groot, but what the hell, he’s a big, goofy, good-natured alien tree who only says three words, and he dances, how can you not love him?). On the surface he may look cute and cuddly, but, as with a real raccoon, you definitely don’t really want pick him up and give him a squeeze. That won’t end well. But fortunately you won’t want to hug this talking Japanese Rocket android, because it is straight up horrifying.
Guardians director James Gunn shared this video on his Facebook page, adding, “Animatronic Japanese Rocket answers reporter’s questions and a little bit freaks me out.” That’s one way to say it, and it is certainly more polite and political than exploding with, “holy this thing scares the crap out of me and will haunt my nightmares until the day I die.” Such a reaction may have been a bit out of line, especially considering that he and his movie are responsible for making the furry little bastard something of a global phenomenon.
For the five or six of you who haven’t seen Guardians of the Galaxy, and, considering that over the weekend it became the first movie of 2014 to pass the $300 million mark at the domestic box office, there aren’t many of you left, Rocket (voice by Bradley Cooper) is, indeed a raccoon, though not in the usual sense. Sure, at first glance he looks like your average, everyday ringtail bandit, but he’s the result of illegal genetic experiments and, when he takes off his shirt, you can see the aftermath of the experiments he suffered in the lab. His trials and suffering add an extra layer of humanity to the character you don’t normally expect from an angry, anthropomorphic mammal that eats out of your garbage cans.
Along with Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), he’s also something of an intergalactic outlaw, bounty hunter, and car jacker, in a sense (he fond of stealing spaceships). He also has a wicked mean streak, a smart mouth, quick temper, and a penchant for heavy arms. Some of those get him in trouble on a regular basis, while the last one proves handy when he teams up Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), and Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) for some out of this world adventure.
If you haven’t seen Guardians of the Galaxy yet, you might want to check it out. And if you have, and are still waiting for Guardians of the Galaxy 2, which drops on July 18, 2017, you might want to consider going to see it again, if for no other reason than to banish the image of this terrifying animatronic Rocket from your memory.
