Just in case any of you Guardians of the Galaxy fans forgot about Baby Groot, he's back to remind you of his adorable existence. Now that you've got him back on the brain, remember the end of the film when the sentient tree creature got his moment in the spotlight as he danced to Jackson 5's "I Want You Back?" But what was with Drax trying to catch him? Why would Baby Groot not let Drax see him dance? That's what we're about to find out.
In a recent sit down with Doug Benson for his podcast Doug Loves Movies (h/t ComicBook.com), James Gunn received some questions about the totally awesome and now-iconic Baby Groot dancing scene—specifically about what the deal was between the tree-like creature's not letting the Drax the Destroyer see him bust a move. Here's what Gunn had to say about the situation:
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. Dancing is ludicrous to Drax. I don’t think he understands it. If Drax owned a town, if he was a mayor, the first law would be no dancing. But yeah, so at the end of the movie, little baby Groot didn’t want to get caught dancing, because he would kill him.
So there you have it, folks. Drax made it abundantly clear in a deleted scene that dancing is not appropriate where he comes from... that said Baby Groot, being the wise little observant individual that he is, took note and hid his dancing from the caveman-like beast so as not to get his butt kicked. Let's be honest, his hiding his dance moves from Drax also raises the adorable level a few more points. Here's a reminder, if you haven't seen the actual clip in awhile.
Thanks to Doug Benson, we also learned that Gunn was indeed the person who did the actual motion reference for Baby Groot. That's right, when we're glued to little Baby Groot breaking it down, we're actually being fascinated by James Gunn himself (underneath all the cute tree root animation, of course). If you want to see what it actually looked like before all of the CGI wizardry, check out this clip of Gunn reenacting the Baby Groot dance.
With all this talk of Drax being anti-dance and poor Baby Groot needing to hide his rythmic talents away, we can't help but think the 2017 GOTG sequel must call this back. Will Baby Groot have since grown his confidence level and be able to dance like nobody's looking? Further, will Baby Groot or big Groot be able to get Drax to loosen up a bit and maybe even join in in Guardians of the Galaxy 2? Maybe we'll be graced with an entire ensemble dance? We've already seen Baby Groot hide while dancing to Jackson 5's "I Want You Back." I'm thinking the perfect followup may just be the full Guardians crew doing Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Think about it.
