When we think of the word “movie magic,” we often think of the work of hundreds of people that managed to bring Jurassic Park‘s dinosaurs, Avatar‘s Pandora, and other wondrous impossibilities to life on the big screen, but there’s no harm in saying that movie magic can be defined as any of the many ways a film can tickle one’s brain.
With that in mind, sometimes people just read into things a teensy bit too hard, and though it’s all in good fun, we can’t help but wonder how we wound up in a world where a grammatically-challenged baby raccoon gets taken as a vehicle for a Singin’ in the Rain reference.
Despite his recent step back from the DC side of Twitter, it seems James Gunn is still happy to answer questions about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, although he probably didn’t anticipate clarifying that a young Rocket’s understandably poor grasp of English syntax was literally just some contextually-appropriate, charming characterization and not a sly nod of the head to one of the most iconic musicals of all-time. There goes that dream.
Gunn’s no stranger to sneaking in whispers of the greats, of course; Vol. 3 contains a 2001: A Space Odyssey reference in the form of those colorful spacesuits, after all. Nevertheless, dissecting a film like this one with a particular breed of cultural lens probably isn’t going to yield very much for anyone. Best case scenario, you get a drop of dopamine for what are most likely imaginary connections, worst case scenario, James Gunn himself dashes your dubious deep dive.
Indeed, if you’re really in love with a theory, it might be best not to ask the mastermind to confirm it, because chances are they’ll probably debunk it instead.