“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” is a great movie. Nah, forget that ― it’s a Groot movie.
Right from the beginning, where Baby Groot dances while the other Guardians take on a huge monster, Lil’ Groot steals the show.
There’s one particularly memorable moment when Groot tries to break other characters out of captivity. It’s perhaps the highlight of the whole movie, so much that if “Guardians of the Galaxy 3” were just a three-hour extended version of that sequence, we’d go see it.
But as good as it is, one confusing thing keeps coming up: Baby Groot stops dancing when Drax looks at him. Why?
We thought we knew the answer to this after the first “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie. In that film, there’s also a scene where Baby Groot stops dancing.
James Gunn supposedly explained the reason in an past appearance on Doug Loves Movies ― because Drax thought it was a “loser” move. As Comicbook.com recaps:
There was actually a scene that we cut from the movie where Big Groot was dancing to “Livin’ Thing” by ELO. And it wasn’t such an elaborate dance. It was more that he was just moving up and down like this, and Drax was dismissive and gave him this look like he was a loser when he did that.
OK, so here’s the problem.
Gunn later said Baby Groot doesn’t have any of Big Groot’s memories. (Remember Baby Groot is a regeneration, after Groot sacrificed himself in the first movie.) If that’s the case, how would he know not to dance? Does Baby Groot somehow have a few of Big Groot’s memories? Is there a secret connection we don’t know about?
We learned we’re reading too much into it.
Actor Dave Bautista, who plays Drax, told HuffPost the reason Baby Groot stops dancing is simply “because Drax hates dancing.”
“He doesn’t like dancing. There’s a story that Drax tells about his wife ... and how they met at a war rally when everyone was dancing except her, and that’s his attraction to her that she wasn’t dancing,” Bautista said.
There’s no cut scene or moment that you missed. Baby Groot doesn’t secretly have the memories of Big Groot. Drax just hates dancing, so Baby Groot plays it cool.
Or as Groot would explain, “I am Groot. I am Groot ... I am Groot.”
Thanks for clearing that up, dude.
“Guardians of the Galaxy 2” is in theaters now.
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