Summary:
In the futuristic metropolis of San Fransokyo, teenager Hiro Hamada is a child prodigy and genius who is bored with his life and spends it time fighting in robot arenas and gambling. His older brother Tadashi convinces him to use his brain and invent something truly wonderful, but shortly thereafter a fire claims Tadashi's life. With Tadashi's friends and his final invention, a robot nurse named Baymax, Hiro will form the superhero team Big Hero 6, apprehend the perpetrator of the fire, and learn the lessons of loss and acceptance along the way...
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Walt Disney Animation Studios have certainly been on a role these past five years. Let's take out our notebooks and have a little history lesson to explain why I think this is a big deal.
The Walt Disney Studios company has many branches that handle their various properties, but the main one is Walt Disney Animation Studios. This part of the company is the one that created Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs waaaaaay back in 1937. Snow White launched what is regarded today as the Disney Animated Canon; main theatrical features of WDAS that are considered some of the best animation the company has to offer. Between 1937-2014, 54 of these movies have been released to various successes. I will explain in a separate blog entry about the history and varied eras of WDAS. I fear if I explain it now, on top of this review, it'll be far too long.
But in short, I freaking love Disney. Yes, they have produced and created stuff I absolutely despise on both television and film, but as far as their Animated Canon goes? I really dig it. I grew up watching these movies, and remembered lines, characters, songs and scenes from them. I think, even more as adult, I appreciate them more because now that I am older I can really see how they are made and the hard work put into them. Heck it's because of a Facebook review of Frozen that I did last year that got me into movie reviewing in the first place. You can find the review here, if you're curious:
Pre-Blog movie review: Frozen (Originally written November 29, 2013)
Ever since Frozen's monumental success, my love for Disney returned, and gave me much more anticipation for their next hit. And that movie is the subject of today's review: Big Hero 6.
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Marvel's Big Hero 6
Like almost every other entry in the Disney Animated Canon, this movie is based off a pre-established work. Disney's Big Hero 6 is based off the Marvel comic book of the same name. Said comic book was written by Steven Seagle and Duncan Rouleau in 1998. This Japanese-based team appeared in a handful of stories since then, but they are certainly no big-namers like Spider-Man, the X-Men, and The Avengers. After their final published book, they remained dormant and forgotten among Marvel's other lesser-known properties. I have no real opinions on the comic itself as I've never read it.
For a while after Disney acquired Marvel, there was speculation on whether or not Disney would make a movie based off one of its properties. In 2012, Disney officially announced that one of their future projects would be an adaptation of a Marvel work, and Big Hero 6 was it, making this movie Disney's first movie based off a Marvel comic, and first superhero movie (Not counting Pixar's The Incredibles). Of course, as per the norm, Disney took the property and put their own spin on it, changing details and giving that Disney feel while several Marvel staff served as creative consultants. Despite the Marvel origin, make no mistake. This is definitely 100% Disney, so don't expect the heroes in this movie meet the Avengers.
Disney's Big Hero 6
To follow up on my original Frozen review, I will be much more organized for this one. I shall be judging the movie based on the following categories: Story, Characters, Themes, Music, Animation, and have a conclusion with a numbered score. But to give a non-spoiler summation of my thoughts: I liked it, it was very enjoyable. The two main characters are just perfect, the story is fun, entertaining & tugs at your heartstrings, and the animation was great. The side characters could have used a little bit more development, the music was nothing to write home about, and some may find the plot twist of the movie a little predictable. I wouldn't call it an "amazing" movie, but I felt it was great, and it continues Disney's current successes on their animated movie front.
Story:
The story takes place in the metropolis of San Fransokyo (A combination of San Francisco and Tokyo) and follows a young teenage genius named Hiro Hamada. He graduated high school at an early age but doesn't know what to do with his life and feels going to college would be a waste of time. So instead he uses his robotics knowledge to build a robot that wins him gambling money in illegal underground robot fights. After a particularly nasty incident, his brother Tadashi saves him and berates Hiro for wasting his life. To inspire Hiro, Tadashi takes him to his school and introduces him to his friends: adrenaline junkie Go Go Tomago, laser expert Wasabi, chemistry whiz Honey Lemon, and comic fan Fred. Hiro later meets Tadashi's teacher, Professor Callaghan, and Tadashi's pet project: A robot nurse named Baymax.
Inspired, Hiro attempts to get into the school by creating a robotics presentation. He invents Microbots: tiny swarms of robots that have many applications and are controlled by thought. Hiro gets into the school, but a fire breaks out and Tadashi and Callaghan are killed. A mourning Hiro shuts himself off from the rest of the world until one day, Hiro discovers one of his Microbots still active. With help from Baymax and Tadashi's friends, they discover a masked villain that stole the Microbots, and started the fire that killed Tadashi and Callaghan. After a narrow escape, they decide that, with Hiro's genius and the others's own abilities, they will form their own superhero team to counter the threat of this villain and discover who perpetrated the fire.
Along the way, they discover who really started it, and an enraged Hiro wants revenge. After failing to claim the villain's life, Hiro is saddened until Baymax shows him how Tadashi is never really gone. Accepting the loss, Hiro and his friends return to confront the villain once more. In the process of defeating the villain, Baymax is lost, until sometime later Hiro rediscovers how to rebuild him. With their first adventure behind them, the team vows to become San Fransokyo's protectors.
I felt the story was good for the most part. It had a very strong start that showed just how bonded Tadashi and Hiro were. It's especially good as a follow-up to Frozen, which was at its heart a tale of sibling love. So, it was nice seeing that theme carry into this movie too. Tadashi dying was expected, but sad, and really ties into the theme of the movie. The second act of the movie is also pretty strong with Hiro and Baymax confronting the villain for the first time, and getting their friends involved and their subsequent first fight was also good, rife with character interactions, humorous moments, and very sad and chilling scenes.
The third act...I kinda felt this is where the movie dropped a bit. While it did have good action, seeing all of this superheroing after the first two acts of the movie were so strong on character, it just didn't feel right. "Rushed", I think, would be the right term to use for it, and I'll explain why later. But overall I felt the story was strong, just not as strong as it had the potential to be.
Characters:
The real meat of the movie is the interaction and bond between the characters of Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter, Supah Ninjas) and Baymax (Scott Adsit, 30 Rock). Both of them have strong personalities, strong moments in the movie, and are part off what makes the movie so good. Now of course the idea of "a child and his pet" in movies is not new (Old Yeller and The Iron Giant come to mind), but the key to making old ideas seem fresh is to either have a new take on the idea or to make the same concept just as entertaining. The relationship between Hiro and Baymax is the latter.
Hiro rediscovers Baymax
Hiro Hamada is characterized as being a genius at robotics, but he is still just a 14-year old. As such he goes through typical teenager stuff and has quite a snarky bite to him. The good thing is that while he is smart, he doesn't lord his genius over others or is boastful. He is also socially awkward, which is perhaps one of the reasons why he doesn't want to go to college. Losing Tadashi would be a big blow to him, but as the movie progresses and with the help from Baymax and his friends, he learns how to truly appreciate and understand how somebody lives on in spirit and memory after they have gone, and emerges from his shell and becomes more confident.
Baymax is a robot, which you think might not allow him to be a memorable character, but he most certainly is. Baymax is a robot nurse, and was designed by Tadashi to have an adorable, huggable appearance to help ease the patient. His robotic voice, mannerisms, and literal mindedness contribute to his appeal to the audiences. Like any good robot story, Baymax slowly learns how to interact more with humans, and it leads to some very hilarious scenes and heart-wrenching ones. His literal minded-ness stays true though, and in the end when he willingly sacrifices himself to save Hiro's life, he tells Hiro that he will always be "here". Baymax is most definitely the mascot of the movie and the character everybody remembers. It is my hope that Baymax will join the likes of The Terminator, R2-D2, Mazinger Z, and Optimus Prime as one of pop culture's greatest robots.
A "real" Baymax at the movie's premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival
Hiro's brother Tadashi Hamada (Daniel Henney, My Lovely Sam Soon) is not in the movie for very long, but his character serves a number of purposes: He's Hiro's inspiration for going back to school, he created Baymax, and his death drives the protagonists to search for his killer and become superheroes. Another character is the Hamada brothers's aunt, Cass Hamada (Maya Rudolph, Saturday Night Live). She serves as their mother figure after their parents died, and does her best to be a parent despite owning a popular café and not knowing much about raising kids. She has even less screen time than Tadashi and probably could have been cut out of the movie. She's there mostly for the humor, but her snarky attitude and demeanor is certainly there.
And then we have the four friends of Hiro and Tadashi, and this is one of the major points where people are divided when it comes to the movie. One, the characters have almost stereotypical personalities and stand almost a little too out when they are with Hiro and Baymax. Two, these four do not really have a lot of character development or story focus to them. Despite the movie being called Big Hero 6, it's really only two of them that get the most focus: Hiro and Baymax. The other four are almost an afterthought, and seem like they were just runoff from the comic. It's apparent that Disney played up the bond between "the boy and his robot" more so than the actual team.
While I can agree with that, I'm kind of happy with what we got. Better, I think, that we got a movie that managed to fit in some character development for the other four instead of risking trying to develop all six of them at once. I also have to disagree with these four being stereotypical. I think that, while they are not all that strong in character department, they have strong characteristics that make them just as memorable as Baymax if you're that invested. Go Go Tomago (Jamie Chung, Once Upon a Time) is a mechanical engineer with a chip on her shoulder and is a woman of few words. Wasabi (Damon Wayans Jr, New Girl) is a plasma engineer with slight OCD and is a neat-freak. Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez, Days of our Lives) is a chemical engineer with a perky, bubbly personality and a passion for her degree. Finally, Fred (TJ Miller, How to Train Your Dragon) is a comic book nerd that is not properly enrolled in the school, but serves as its mascot operator and has an enthusiasm for science. All four of them have their moments in the movie, and serve to help Hiro and Baymax in their quest. Again, could've gotten more attention, but I was satisfied with their presentation in the movie.
Hiro meets Go Go, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Fred
Themes:
The main theme of the movie seems to be the acceptance and handling of grief & loss, and the ability to continue as life goes on. This is exemplified through Hiro, Baymax, Tadashi, and our villain of the movie. Hiro loses Tadashi early on in the movie, and Baymax by the end (though he does get rebuilt) and loss of a loved one is one of the motivations behind the actions of the villain of the movie. There is one scene in the movie where Hiro forces Baymax to turn violent and attempt to kill the villain, only for the four friends to get Baymax back under control. Hiro breaks down afterwards after discovering who the villain really is, and mourns Tadashi's loss until Baymax shows him video footage of him. Through Baymax, Hiro learns that someone can truly live on in spirit long after they're gone, and by the end of the movie emerges as a stronger character. Baymax learns to become more human, and learns how to not only treat physical injuries, but mental ones too as he tries to "cure" Hiro. When Baymax sacrifices himself he express sadness that he will die, but is able to detect that Hiro is "cured" and has learned to accept loss, which pushes his resolve to save his life.
The second aspect of the movie is less of a theme and more focused on the genre: superheroes. And as I mentioned previously, this is where people may scratch their heads. Because it was originally based on a Marvel property, people might have been expecting something up to the levels of the likes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or perhaps expected the movie to focus a lot more on the actual team than just Hiro and Baymax. As explained, it has less to do with that and more on the bonding of the two. It makes me wonder if Disney was forced to include them in because it was based off a comic. It does have superheroing action to be sure, but it mostly concentrated in the third and climactic act instead of being balanced throughout the movie. Again, I don't really mind too much, but I can understand why people dock points off this movie for not focusing on superheroes in a movie that features superheroes.
Music:
Because this is not a Disney musical (Like Frozen, Winnie the Pooh 2011, Tangled, and Princess & The Frog before it), there's not much to say on the music itself. Incidental and background music we have is OK, I guess. The only major song to note is the movie's tie-in song, Immortals by Fall Out Boy. It is played first in the movie when the team is getting their hero gear ready, and during the credits. It's a pretty catchy song, and it's nice to have Fall Out Boy contribute to a Disney movie, even though some are complaining that Fall Out Boy attaching themselves to this "ruins their image".
Music video for the movie's tie-in song, Immortals
Animation:
A really huge pet peeve of mine when it comes to Disney is when people complain about the current CGI movies and want them to go back to hand-drawn, 2D animation. I respect other peoples opinions when it comes to things, but when you have people complaining for no particular reason other than "New stuff stinks!" or else just hating on anything new, I draw the line. But I think, ever since Tangled came out, Disney has been doing really great CGI work. Big Hero 6, with its really unique backgrounds that blend American and Japanese architecture and miscellaneous objects, gives it a real pop. This is definitely a good looking movie, both during daytime scenes and nighttime scenes. And any who are still complaining about the animation should just accept it and move on, because that is what the movie is aiming to focus on in its themes.
Final thoughts:
All in all, Big Hero 6 is just a great and fun movie. It has its problems and drawbacks to be sure, though. How much they bother you though ultimately depends on how willing you are let them going to bother you, and if you're part of that crowd that doesn't mind the problems, then you're in for something enjoyable. If you're not, well, it's a good movie to kill an hour and 30 minutes. For comparison's sake, it's nowhere as good as Frozen, but it continues to show that Disney is still going strong in this new era of films, and has no signs of slowing down.
My score: 4.1/5
