Credit: Inside the MagicMarvel Studios, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company and the production house responsible for the widely popular Avengers movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), has seen a slight decline in box office revenue and public reception in recent times. The Phase Four movies of the MCU, including Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), which marked the start of Phase Five, have not garnered the same level of positive feedback as previous Marvel releases. Nonetheless, despite the ongoing controversy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 appears to be on course to becoming a significant favorite among fans — and it’s even setting world records in the film industry.
Related: Fans Praise ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ For Being “Anti-Woke”
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the newest MCU film
The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s highly anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, directed by James Gunn, premiered on May 5th, 2023. This movie serves as the conclusion to the original Guardians of the Galaxy team’s story, based on the Marvel Comics of the same name and featuring John Murphy’s score. The galactic superhero squad had previously appeared in Marvel films such as Thor: Love and Thunder, Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019) as part of the Infinity Saga. Before the film’s release, fans enjoyed The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, a Marvel Studios Special Presentation that premiered on Disney+ and received favorable reviews.
Led by the gun-toting human and former part-Celestial Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), the Guardians are embarking on their final adventure through space. The team comprises Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) and Nebula (Karen Gillan), the daughters of Thanos, the tree-like Groot (Vin Diesel), the iconic talking Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), the vengeful Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), the empath alien Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Ravager Kraglin Obfonteri (Sean Gunn), Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stallone), and newcomer Cosmo the Spacedog (Maria Bakalova). This will be the last time they set off on an adventure together.
The film introduces us to Will Poulter as Adam Warlock and Elizabeth Debicki as Ayesha, who is referred to as his “mother.” Chukwudi Iwuji plays the role of the High Evolutionary, a villainous geneticist, and Nico Santos stars as his assistant, Theel. Daniela Melchior takes on the role of Ura, while Kai Zen portrays Phyla-Vell. The cast also includes Linda Cardellini as Lylla the Otter, Asim Chaudhry as Teefs the Walrus, and Mikaela Hoover as Floor the Bunny, all of whom are former cellmates and allies of Rocket Raccoon.
Related: Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord No Longer a Superhero In the MCU
The truth behind Marvel’s most heartbreaking scenes
Now, it appears like the real behind-the-scenes for some of the MCU’s most devastating moments has surfaced, courtesy of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3‘s director James Gunn. Unlike using CGI as many audience members and Marvel fans had theorized, it appears that Gunn in fact utilized a different approach to capture the reality of these living animal experiments.
Coming forward on Twitter, Gunn replies to fan Chris Miller, who asks “if the actors who did the performance capture for Floor, Lyla, and Teefs were the same as the voice actors”.
Gunn did not simply answer with a simple “yes” or “no”, but instead shared images showing the truth behind the scenes — that the actors for Lylla, Teefs and Floor were all present and accounted for during filming, participating in the motion capture for their respective characters. It’s a bit of a change seeing as James Gunn’s brother (and Kraglin actor) Sean Gunn has always portrayed Rocket Raccoon in the physical sense, doing the motion and face capture for the character while Bradley Cooper provides Rocket’s voice. The attached pictures depict the actors in the same formation as their respective characters in the film’s iconic “prison” scene, (from left to right and top to bottom) Mikaela Hoover as Floor the Bunny, Asim Chaudhry as Teefs the Walrus, Sean Gunn as Rocket Raccoon, and Linda Cardellini as Lylla the Otter:
Yes. Motion capture & voice actors the same, although Bradley’s voice takes over for Sean in adolescence. This is from the first day of shooting! #GotGVol3 #LyllaRocketTeefsFloor
Yes. Motion capture & voice actors the same, although Bradley’s voice takes over for Sean in adolescence. This is from the first day of shooting! #GotGVol3 #LyllaRocketTeefsFloor https://t.co/6RGp6vlf1x pic.twitter.com/6EEaZ7ubVb
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) May 14, 2023
That’s not all, though!
Gunn has even more adorable pictures to show, including one of him together with the cast in their brightly colored mo-cap suits:
More pics
More pics pic.twitter.com/7suCfW0TfR
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) May 14, 2023
Clearly, no expense was spared for this production to close off the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy! Seeing as it would have been easy for Disney and Marvel Studios to simply relegate the creation of these creatures entirely to their contracted VFX workers — there’s a clear indication here that Gunn made absolutely sure that these performances felt real and packed an emotional punch.
Seeing as these scenes showing Rocket’s old cellmates and friends resulted in the tears of thousands of Marvel fans the world over, it’s a testament to the power of hiring real actors to show real emotion — instead of simply relying on AI-generated CGI, as many movie-goers feared would immediately eclipse real acting.
What do you think of James Gunn having real actors playing the animal characters in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? Share your thoughts in the comments below!