By Lindsi Hebert, Staff Reporter.
Brought to you by Walt Disney Studios and directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams, “Big Hero 6” starts by introducing you to the 14-year-old child prodigy Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) as he tries to get accepted into an elite college in the city of San Fransokyo. Inspired by his brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) and Tadashi’s medical robot prototype Baymax (Scott Adsit), Hamada creates millions of nanobots controlled by a headset that read brain waves that will be shown at the college’s open house.
Things go incredibly well and Hamada is accepted into the school. This is also where things go south for him. Right after the open house, the building it was held in catches fire, and Tadashi races in to save his professor, Robert Callaghan. Unfortunately, Disney’s “tragic backstory” trope comes in to play and both Tadashi Hamada and Robert Callaghan die. This leaves Hiro Hamada with only his aunt to look after him because Disney seems to have a problem with main characters keeping both parents for a healthy amount of time. Tormented by the death of his brother, Hamada believes that the fire wasn’t an accident, and he needs the help of his friends and Baymax to find his brother’s killer.
This description actually makes the movie sound like a whodunit mystery, but it’s not. To stop the bad guy, Hamada ends up turning his friends and himself into superheroes who use science as their super powers. Picture a younger, less moody and less wealthy Japanese Batman. To start, Hamada’s character is actually outshined by some of his friends. They’re quirky, spunky and funny, and all of them are way more fun to watch than Hamada himself.
“Big Hero 6” was cute. Is it up to par with Disney standards? No, not really. Was it better than “Frozen? Yes, it was better by far (though you don’t have to try hard to be better than “Frozen”.) Does it beat out “Wreck It Ralph”? No, but it takes a close second. The animation is pretty, but there’s nothing spectacular about it until the end of the movie where things start to get real. That being said, I didn’t sit in the theater and count animation errors (lookin’ at you, “Frozen”).
The main character Hiro Hamada, being a 14-year-old genius, isn’t that relatable unless you’ve recently lost somebody close to you or if you are, in fact, Batman. Your children will go CRAZY over Baymax, though. He’s an adorable big balloon man who fixes booboos and is modified to be a butt kicking kung fu fighting robot. That’s pretty much every kid’s dream.
The only major problems I had with this movie were really just with the writing. I thought calling the city San Fransokyo was really stupid, and I wondered why they couldn’t just name it Tokyo. I also thought the twist at the ending was incredibly predictable. (Don’t worry, I’m not giving it away. Spoiler free, as always.) I know the movie is for kids, but if they’re able to think for themselves then they’re going to figure it out before it happens. You’re not going to be able to get away with pretty much the same structured twist in every movie. It was an appreciated try, but just like in “Frozen”, the twist falls flat. They also put a heavy use on montages throughout the movie. There was at least three, and some of them didn’t seem needed. That, however, is just a small technical thing that bugs me.
That being said, if you’re looking for a cute movie to take your kids to because the weather outside is frightful, “Big Hero 6” is a good choice. It’s cute, it’s fun, and the characters are nice. The movie will have something for younger kids (even if they’re babies and just stare at the pretty colors) and something for the older kids (heck yes kung fu robots!) and even adults who have the tiniest bit of inner child left inside of them will get a kick out of it. Hey, if you’re looking for something to do with your kids during the semester break, this is a good choice. On a scale of 1-10 gummy bears, with 10 being the highest, “Big Hero 6” gets a 6.5.
