Archive notice: This article was originally published on June 2, 2017. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
His Name
Groot owes his name to the Dutch. “Groot” means “big” in the country where everything sounds funny. Fitting for a superhero who can extend parts of his body. In context, the phrase would then be “Je hebt grote voeten” → You have big feet.
“I am Groot”
That is the only thing Groot can utter. Anyone who can understand the semantics of his statements beneath the syntax, however, such as Rocket Raccoon, can have thoroughly profound conversations with the Marvel tree hero. Groot’s original voice actor in the films is Vin Diesel. An easy job, you might think—the actor only has to learn three words of dialogue? Far from it: Before the voice recordings, Vin Diesel receives a secret dialogue book that specifies what Groot actually means. This allows Vin Diesel to deliver his words with the appropriately matching emotion.
Baby Groot Dancing
Hard to believe, but true: Baby Groot’s dance style is that of director James Gunn. He choreographed and also performed Baby Groot’s dance in the opening scene of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.” The data was partially captured with motion capturing, and a video of his dance was used as a reference for Baby Groot’s animation.
Baby Groot: Films vs. Comics
The Groot character also has to grow back several times in the comic-book series and begin as a small tree. But unlike in the film, where he has to learn everything from scratch like a normal baby and has no memories, in the comics he retains all the abilities he previously had as a large tree even after his new beginning.
Groot Prop on Set
David White, special-effects designer on “Guardians of the Galaxy,” created a real life-size model of Rocket and a bust of Groot; these props were used on set as lighting references. You can see what this bust looked like here.
DP Issue 04 : 17
The DP with Groot as the cover hero (a shot by Trixter) appears on June 23, 2017. The issue includes an interview about the film with Weta’s VFX supervisor Guy Williams, as well as a simulation workshop by Fuat Yüksel of Trixter.
