"Hi. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."
14-year old prodigy Hiro Hamada (Supah Ninjas' Ryan Potter) is in emotional turmoil. His parents passed away when he was 3, and his older brother Tadashi (Mike Henney) is killed while trying to save someone from a burning building. Who can reach out to help? Why a kind healthcare robot named Baymax (Scott Adsit)! Baymax, a creation of Tadashi's, feels a need to help Hiro deal with his grief and help him get back on the right track with life. One day, Hiro stumbles onto some evidence that actually might make his brother's death....not an accident? Who could have done something like this? Hiro gathers some friends and builds some super-cool technology to try and save the day.
The animation, while not the most realistic I've ever seen, still works incredibly well. The combination of San Francisco and Tokyo into a hybrid town (San Fransokyo) is perhaps the most visually appealing piece. The skyline, complete with clouds and blimps, is absolutely a piece of art I would take a "mental picture" of. Some of the action scenes are also incredibly well-animated, particularly the climax scene which involves a lot.
The story is perhaps the film's strongest asset, actually. Unlike its other superhero movie brethren, Big Hero 6 takes the usual good vs. evil battle and twists it in very unexpected directions. It makes the ending of this east-versus-west mashup more emotionally satisfying and much more exciting. Plus, the film's pace is never unsettled, and its characters are given enough time for more than sufficient development (well, at least the main ones do).
The voice acting is solid all around as well. Adsit's performance as Baymax, however, despite its simplicity, easily stands out. He makes Baymax just as (perhaps even more) memorable as other Disney characters, such as Mrs. Potts and Chip from Beauty and the Beast, Timon and Pumbaa from The Lion King and Olaf from Frozen. He brings humor and heart to a character that seems one-dimensional. Also, Potter, who I watched every week on Supah Ninjas, brings a solid amount of emotion and sincerity to Hiro. The supporting cast works well too, with the stand-outs being Genesis Rodriguez as Honey Lemon, T.J. Miller as Fred, and the terrific James Cromwell as Professor Callaghan.
The music score by Henry Jackman is solid, though not fantastic. The directors made a wise decision making the screenplay's humor on the whimsical, clean, and genuinely funny end, rather than opting for primarily toilet humor gags or wink-winks intended at the adults (one passing gross gag notwithstanding).
The only problem I had with Big Hero 6 was that, unlike other Disney movies, this particular one has an unusually and annoyingly large amount of references to other movies. The climactic action scene has elements that reminded me too much of Man of Steel and The Avengers (though the twist on the plot offsets most of this). The Baymax/Hiro flight scene takes pages out of How To Train Your Dragon's playbook. There are badly-timed references to Frozen and the lost-in-space themes of Interstellar and Gravity. And is it just me, or does the repeatedly-viewed sketch of a bird badge seem to be too much of a reference to The Hunger Games (me and my friend both did the eerie whistle when we saw it)? Disney movies usually have their own sense of originality, so it almost seems too non-Disney to pull things (coincidence or not) out of rival studios' movies.
Since John Lasseter took over the reigns of all animation at Disney, something interesting has happened. Something really good. While Pixar continues to bring in high-quality product, Disney Animation has flourished in the last few years with big hits such as Tangled and Wreck-it Ralph, as well as last year's billion-dollar phenomenon Frozen. (In fact, its getting so interesting now that a family friend admits he can't tell some Disney movies from Pixar and DreamWorks movies now). To follow those up with a movie that reflects Disney's partnership with Marvel. That is kinda risky.
But, not so fast. Disney is proving more and more to make outside-the-box (or should I say, outside the mouse ears) ideas work. And Big Hero 6 does that and more. It is not just an entertaining movie, but it is stunningly more emotional and surprisingly more twisted than you might expect from an animated movie (especially for a superhero movie).
I'm not going to ruin it, but the movie's emotional points come from learning how to deal with loss, as well as the importance of showing love and kindness to those who need it most. In addition to that, the movie also serves strong, inspiring reminders of the emptiness of revenge, as well as the dangers of letting hurt, jealousy, and anger fester inside ourselves.
Comparing it to other Disney/Pixar movies, Big Hero 6 doesn't quite reach the delirious heights of Bolt, Lilo and Stitch, Frozen or Tangled, but it carries a level of heart, humor, and excitement similar to that of The Incredibles, How To Train Your Dragon and The Iron Giant. So, I guess you can say it feels like a Brad Bird movie in some ways.
With a lot of memorable moments, terrific animation and a fantastic story (some generic moments notwithstanding), Big Hero 6 is one of the year's best films to date.
Score: 8.9/10
Content Problems Families Should Be Aware Of:
Language: Name-calling, and one "Holy mother of megazon!"
Adult Content: None. Baymax starts going into a conversation about puberty, but is stopped.
Violence: Big Hero 6 is more restrained on the action violence than even The Incredibles. There is still some danger, and a few action sequences involve some minor animated destruction. The microbots and the bad guy can be a little intimidating for very young viewers. One character dies at the beginning.
Alcohol/Drugs: None.
Other: A couple of underwear jokes. The idea of Hiro losing most of his family will not be an easy one for very little kids.
