Drama
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a little like its titular character. It’s painful. It gets under your skin. And it just might leave a mark.
If you really think about it, a fair amount of time passes in between Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Avengers: Infinity War. In fact, the time period is roughly four years, during which Guardians member Groot grows from adorable “Baby Groot” into angsty “Teen Groot.”
Here’s what that means: For four years, the Guardians are out having their own adventures that we never get to see, and they were bringing the growing Groot along with them. And while he isn’t old enough to tag along on the grown-up missions, he does go on his own Groot-sized adventures!
Through its 10 episodes, I Am Groot shows us some of those tiny adventures. And when I say tiny, I mean it: These episodes are shorts that don’t even cross the five-minute mark.
Given these vignettes’ brevity, we don’t have time to see any big heroics or hear any good morals. But that also means the content issues are likewise few and far between. Beyond a bite-sized amount of violence and some mild toilet humor (and one other mildly questionable scene in Episode 4, noted below), this is probably the cleanest we’ve ever seen any Guardians-based content.
And that makes I Am Groot something we can, ahem, root for.
Baby Groot, upset at being outdone by another plant, learns how to walk.
Groot hits himself a couple times in his revenge against the inanimate plant.
Groot encounters a village of tiny aliens.
An animal is snatched up by a bird. Groot harasses the tiny aliens, and they return fire with lasers that cause Groot to fall to the ground. Groot flatulates out a leaf. Groot accidentally steps on the alien village in his excitement, though it appears that the tiny aliens are fine.
Groot encounters a shape-shifting alien that teaches him how to dance. Groot sends the creature out of the airlock.
Groot finds a mud puddle, and after bathing in it, realizes that it makes him grow leaves. Groot shapes the leaves into various outfits and hairstyles, one of which is a Victorian-style dress.
This scene feels a bit like a tip of the hat to Bugs Bunny doing similar things in old Looney Tunes cartoons. Still, it could also be interpreted as a brief progressive nod to the notion of gender fluidity in our current cultural climate.
Groot takes the fur off an animal to use as a scarf.
Groot grabs items around the ship to help him create an art project.
Groot steals Drax’ soap while Drax is showering, though nothing is seen. Groot explodes a bomb to make glitter.
Groot finds an alien bird egg, but it imprints on him when it hatches.
Groot and the alien bird belch. The bird also frequently defecates rainbow-colored droppings, some of which Groot steps in.
Groot accidentally attaches a prosthetic nose to himself, opening himself up to a new world full of smells.
Groot smells a toilet. He also sneezes on a comic book and smears the snot around the pages. Later, he belches.
After landing on a snow planet, Groot has a day of play out in the snow. But his robotic snowman soon goes rogue, and the snowman shoots lasers at Groot.
An ice cream spaceship flies near the Guardians’ ship, and Groot scrambles to find money before the ship leaves.
Groot plays with a male action figure and a can of food he uses as a female. He makes the two objects “kiss.”
Groot bites a moldy pepperoni. He breaks a claw machine, and, in his excitement to get ice cream, smashes his ship through the ice cream spaceship.
Groot enters an ancient temple, unaware that his actions there are profoundly important for the universe.
According to 5th-dimensional being The Watcher, Groot is about to fulfill a prophecy. In the temple lies the “last seed of Drez-Lar.”
“Legend says the seed will emerge from the hallowed ground and usher the universe into a glorious new age,” The Watcher says.
Groot intentionally sets off every trap in the temple, though the dangers never touch him. Eventually, what The Watcher describes as “godly rays of light” point Groot towards the seed, but Groot lets the seed fall into lava, causing the temple to collapse on him. Groot emerges from the rubble, and The Watcher realizes that the prophecy’s “seed” is a metaphor for Groot himself.
Oh, and also, Groot urinates offscreen.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a little like its titular character. It’s painful. It gets under your skin. And it just might leave a mark.
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