"As a lifelong lover of Marvel comics, space epics, and raccoons, this is the movie I've been waiting to make since I was 9 years old," said director James Gunn.
He was talking about Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
Among the Guardians (which feature Chris Pratt Vin Diesel and Zoe Saldana) is a talking raccoon named Rocket Raccoon. He’s voiced by Bradley Cooper. Let that set in.
Rocket’s first appearance in a comic book was in 1976 in Marvel Preview # 7. It took him almost 40 years to find his way to Hollywood. Probably because he’s a raccoon. Gunn says that “for you to believe a raccoon can talk (and blow up and shoot tons of stuff) we need a well-rounded actor.” So, with that being said, what else do we know about this cybernetic, half-machine, half-raccoon, angry beast?
1. Rocket Raccoon has accumulated “over fifty charges of vehicular theft.” He’s escaped them all.
2. Rocket probably suffers from OCD.
3. Rocket has strong senses of smell, hearing, sight, and touch. He’s also really fast. So basically he’s like any raccoon.
4. Rocket is anthropomorphic. He’s the most human raccoon you’ve probably ever seen. He talks too, unlike that dopey raccoon Meeko from Pocahontas.
5. Rocket captained the ship Rack’n’Ruin. His first mate aboard was Wal Russ, the talking walrus.
6. Bradley Cooper said he’s kind of like Joe Pesci from Goodfellas.
7. Rocket has a “cybernetic skeletal structure, enhanced phalange and metacarpal bones, and a genetically augmented cerebral cortex.” You know, just like Bradley Cooper.
8. Rocket’s best friend is Groot, a tree who doesn’t say anything aside from “I am Groot!”
9. Rocket teamed up with the Incredible Hulk to overthrow Judson Jakes, a devious mole. (Yes, this is real.)
10. Director James Gunn used a real raccoon to help capture what a raccoon looks like when guarding the galaxy.
11. His trademark? Rocket skates.