[1][9] Around then, Marvel Studios' head of streaming, television and animation Brad Winderbaum chose Kirsten Lepore to direct the shorts, which would have "little-to-no dialogue".

[5]: 2  Marvel Studios was looking for a way to return to the Baby Groot character after his appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.

[3] Lepore drew inspiration from her son, and said the series uses science fiction elements to explore Groot's regular childhood moments.

[21] Lepore was also inspired by Looney Tunes as well as a Buster Keaton style of smart, physical comedy, which Feige and Winderbaum were also excited to explore.

[10] Marvel Studios was able to create animatics more easily given I Am Groot is shorts, allowing them to "play with bits and... concepts" to see what worked and find the identity of the series.

Lepore noted their idea for this short was one Marvel Studios chose, which she felt was "sort of giving us that blessing to go ahead and pursue it" and his appearance it allowed them to "write some pretty fun ridiculous things"; Indiana Jones served as a reference for this episode.

[26] Joshua Meyer from /Film likened this to the Team Thor mockumentary shorts which he called a "funny bit of apocrypha that isn't essential to MCU continuity".

[27] Other members of the Guardians of the Galaxy do not appear in the series, outside of Rocket, as the creatives were interested in focusing on Groot and "getting to know his character better" while also exploring the fun of seeing "what he does when nobody's looking" since "that's where he gets into the most trouble".

Bob Bergen, Terri Douglas, Scott Menville, Kaitlyn Robrock, Fred Tatasciore, Kari Wahlgren, and Matthew Wood provide additional voices.

[5]: 6  Other original designs for the series included Iwua, the shapeshifting alien, and Snoot Pin Bongo, a squirrel-like creature inspired by the Star Wars character Salacious Crumb.

[23] In the second season, the short "Groot Noses Around" features a 16-bit fighting game, informally known as Beach Fighters, that was created by pixel artist and animator Jon Davies.

The creatives liked this since it helped balance the runtime of the shorts without having "a minute-and-a-half opening" along with "a five-minute credit sequence", with Lepore calling it the perfect design for Groot.

[32] Visual effects and animation for the series were created by Luma Pictures,[10][33] which was joined by Trixter for the second season short "Groot's Snow Day".

[36]: 6:31–7:13, 7:43–7:48  When talking to Lepore, Gunn compared Baby Groot's poses and facial expressions to emojis due the character's face just having eyes and a mouth.

Licensed songs in the series include "In the Hall of the Mountain Queen" by Raymond Scott in "Groot's First Steps", which Lepore noted instantly gives the short a "really weird flavor, this spacey, early electro feel", "Ran Kan Kan" by Tito Puente in "Groot's Pursuit", and "You Can Get It If You Really Want" by Jimmy Cliff in "Magnum Opus".

According to Variety's Trending TV chart, it amassed 231,000 user engagements, which measure the combination of tweets, retweets, likes, and hashtags, the second most for the week of May 30 to June 5, behind the Netflix series Stranger Things.

[40] The short "Magnum Opus" debuted at the El Capitan Theatre, appearing before select screenings of the MCU film Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), from July 18 to 24.

[47] I Am Groot was the third highest streaming series for viewers in the United States for the week ending August 14, 2022, according to Whip Media's TV Time.

The website's critics consensus reads: "He is Groot, and that novelty alone ought to give MCU fans a rooting interest in this slight but fun series of hijinks.

[10] Brett White from Decider likened the series to Looney Tunes with "mayhem in the best way possible" and called I Am Groot "a damn delight from beginning to end", saying, "Each short zips along at a perfect pace, deploying sight gags that hit their mark every time."

[52] Nick Schager at The Daily Beast was positive on the shorts, saying their "brevity prevents it from growing stale, and yet given that each chapter runs only four minutes, a little extra time might have let it playfully elaborate upon its conceits".

[53] Reviewing the second season, Luke Y. Thompson at SuperHeroHype gave it 5 out of 5 saying, "These shorts may not advance the grand Marvel sagas forward, but as snippets of a space kid's story, they're both remarkably photoreal and perfectly charming.