Sorry for the dumb question but how does the GPU execute Javascript? Or is it done in a declarative language specific to the GPU?
The GPU doesn't execute Javascript. It runs small programs called "shaders", written in GLSL (the OpenGL shading language), which are compiled on the fly by the graphics driver to something that can be actually executed on the GPU.
for small videos it's fast enough http://www.barbafan.de/html5video?video=tron
Instead, this uses WebGL/OpenGL. So the pixels are copied once from the video directly into the GPU memory, and they are processed in parallel there before going straight to your screen. Much, MUCH faster.