I Am Groot’s Disney Plus release method

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been producing outstanding content for the Disney Plus steaming platform. Its newest show, I Am Groot, is presented as five individual shorts, rather than a connected series.

With the release of the uproariously delightful MCU entry, I Am Groot, some may be surprised that each segment has its own title page that needs to be accessed one at a time. That is because I Am Groot is distributed on Disney Plus as a series of separate shorts, as opposed to a miniseries with an ordered number of episodes.

All of the previous Marvel Cinematic Universe content created exclusively for Disney Plus has been released in the latter format, which means viewers select the specific show, such as Ms. Marvel, which begins with episode 1. After each chapter, the next one will start playing if you wait 20 seconds without touching the remote. And if you stop watching the season, the next episode will be cued up in the service’s “continue watching” section.

Since I Am Groot is being treated like isolated shorts, audiences must select each one individually, without the next entry starting 20 seconds after the prior has finished. This is exactly how Forky Asks a Question entered Disney Plus upon the premiere of the streaming service in November 2019. The Toy Story spinoff had ten “shorts”, however each of those dropped in consecutive weeks, whereas I Am Groot has expeditiously supplied all five “shorts” at one time.

Pixar’s other Disney Plus short series, Dug Days, branched out from the animated film Up. Dug Days also had five episodes, but it was released as a miniseries in September 2021, and therefore contained episodes that played one after the other, although they all came out on the same day. Likewise, Baymax played out episodically, but could also fall under the “shorts” classification, since each segment was about ten minutes. The Big Hero 6 series hit Disney Plus less than two months ago, with all six episodes unleashing on June 29.

Even Frozen’s minute long Disney retellings, entitled Olaf Presents, groups all five parts under one title page, instead of as detached shorts. And Disney Plus gives fans the option of watching the entire run together with each piece attached back-to-back as one longer “short”. To find this selection, you have to go to the series page and scroll down below the fifth episode; the compilation is placed where a sixth segment would sit.

So, while I Am Groot’s release method is atypical, it does have precedent with Forky Asks a Question. Other Disney Plus shorts are handled the same way, such as Pixar’s SparkShorts series. Although, those are considered animated short films, which completely stand alone as each one is produced by its own team of filmmakers. With all three of these productions, Disney Plus does leave you with a catalog of “suggested” titles displayed on screen after a short is viewed. Therefore, when one of the I Am Groot chapters concludes, the collection of the other four shorts will neatly lay out on the screen immediately afterward.

Marvel already announced that they will be developing additional installments of I Am Groot. How much do you love these shorts? Are you excited to watch more of the adorable tree-like being? Let us know in the comments below.