Don Hall (Winnie the Pooh) and Chris Williams (Bolt) bring the Disney partnership with Marvel over to the animation studios with Big Hero 6.
In this film we follow the story of a 14 year old robotics genius named Hiro (Ryan Potter, Senior Project). He lives with his older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney, The Last Stand) and his Aunt Cass (Maya Rudolph, The Way Way Back) (because his parents are dead, because it's a Disney animated movie) in the American/Japanese hybrid town of San Fransokyo. Hiro has been using his gift to win illegal back-alley robot fights. Tadashi thinks he is wasting his potential, so he tricks him into going with him to his "nerd school" to check out what he does. Hiro thought the university would be below him, but finds out just how cool it really is. While there, he is introduced to Hadashi's project, Baymax (Scott Adsit, We're the Millers). Baymax is an inflatable robotic "nurse". If in pain, he will inflate and scan & diagnose you. Then he will attempt to cure you and deflate when you are satisfied with his care. Hiro also meets several of Hadashi's friends. He decides he'd like to attend the university. To gain admission he creates a bunch of microbots that can be controlled with your mind to create anything you wish, which he enters at the university's annual exhibition. While at the exhibition a fire breaks out destroying everything. Hadashi runs back to rescue his professor and is killed in the explosion (seriously Disney, can no character have a whole family). Turns out it wasn't an accident. Hiro builds some armor for Baymax, and along with his new friends, goes out to find and capture the person responsible for his brother's death.
So, while Pixar has been steadily declining in my opinion over the last couple of years, Disney Animation Studios has picked up the pace. The last several movies have been quite good in their own ways, and this is no exception. This film may be formulaic, but it has heart and fun characters and good dialogue. Some of the side characters are maybe a little to stereotype-y, but Hiro is fleshed out really well and goes through quite the emotional journey. Baymax of course is the star. His lines are delivered just pitch perfect by Adsit. He is like a big, kind marshmallow that you just want to reach out and hug. Again, the plot may be formulaic, but the dialogue and the pacing keep it going and entertaining. The animation of course is visually stunning as well.
The real heart of the story is where this Disney film differs from most of it's predecessors. As I mentioned before, this has the oh-so-common Disney theme of losing a loved one. I feel like this movie dug deeper into this issue. Baymax, being the robotic nurse that he is, is there throughout the movie to help Hiro with his emotional pain of losing his brother after having already lost his parents when he was young (while also flying around in his new suit and generally being awesome). We watch for an hour and a half as Hiro goes through the 5 steps of grief. Other Disney films may show these stages, possibly even all five, but I think Big Hero 6 does it much more extensively. On top of showing the five stages, it really focuses on surrounding yourself with friends and loved ones when you are hurting from a loss. This is a wonderful film to show your younger children to start a conversation about grief and loss and how to cope with it. It helps that they encompass it in a superhero movie, so they can also thoroughly enjoy it as pure entertainment as well.
There is something missing from this movie that I just can't put my finger on, that makes it feel like it will not go down as one of the "classics". However, it is a solid, entertaining film that can proudly sit next to all of those said classics. Disney Animation Studios have been on a roll as of late, and if they can keep putting up this kind of quality I will happily anticipate their future endeavors.
Rating: ********-- (8 out of 10) [matinee]
Memorable Quote:
Baymax: Budda-ludda-ludda-la
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