BIG HERO 6
DIRECTORS: Don Hall, Chris Williams
VOICE CAST: Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit, Daniel Henney, TJ Miller, Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans jr and Genesis Rodriguez
CLASSIFICATION: PG V
RUNNING TIME: 108 minutes
RATING: 4 stars (out of 5)
Theresa Smith
BIG HERO 6 is bright, smart and just a little scary. Taking its starting point from a Marvel comic book, this animated adventure feature plays loose and fast with the original storyline, setting and characters to create its own vibrant world and origins story.
Set in an alternative future world in which San Francisco (post a large earthquake) has been rebuilt by Japanese immigrants as San Fransokyo, this city draws on a myriad architectural and social influences and contains lots of easter eggs for Marvel and Disney animation movie fans
The story is centred on robotics prodigy, teenager Hiro Hamada (Potter) and his friend Baymax (Adsit). Hiro’s older brother Tadashi (Henny) created Baymax as a plus-sized, inflatable robot to serve as companion and health-care giver, but Hiro has other ideas.
When their city is threatened by a mysterious bad guy with super-powers, Hiro kits out Baymax and his friends as high-tech heroes and it’s action a go-go.
Ultimately the family friendly film’s storyline is fairly simple – and there are some holes and inconsistencies that blow the plot out of the water if you really think about it – but the attraction lies in the interaction between the characters. Especially, the heart of the film is the touching relationship between Hiro and Baymax.
Early on the death of Tadashi is a surprisingly sombre moment, though not a surprise per se since the trailer shows how the film is sparked by the character’s death.
Hiro is a bit of a brat, a genius with a bent for robotics, while Baymax is totally loveable, huggable, charismatic and just about as adorable as a baby penguin. Baymax evinces an empathy that emotionally shell-shocked Hiro accepts, even as he pushes away all the people around him who are trying to help – from his loving aunt to his brother’s friends.
The solemn and sobering theme – Hiro’s need for revenge for the death of his beloved brother as opposed to Baymax’s persistent prime directive to heal – is what drives the main character’s personal growth and also makes this more a story about grief than superheroes. Still, it is also a fun introduction to some wacky characters – Tadashi’s college friends become the other members of the six- member team. There’s goofy, dinosaur-obsessed Fred (Miller); adrenaline junkie Go Go Tamago (Chung); neat freak Wasabi (Wayans) and chemist extraordinaire Honey Lemon (Rodriguez).
Oh, yes, the bad guy. Yes, there’s a creepy villain and an even more daunting (because of its simplicity) power behind the throne, and ultimately this is an animated Marvel movie. Teenager Hiro’s interaction with the four young adults teaches him about teamwork and harnessing your talents, it pushes the science and tech is cool angle and while it is a shameless crowdpleaser, it also draws on some slyly off-beat humour.
Walt Disney Animation Studios have been very quick to point out that Big Hero 6 comes from the same studio that created Frozen, Wreck It Ralph and Tangled. Drawing on all that experience the animation is top-notch – the flight sequence rivals that of the first time Toothless and Hiccup take off in How to Train Your Dragon and those crazy end credits are a hoot.
If you liked The Incredibles or Monsters vs Aliens you will like this.