Big Hero 6

Big Hero 6 [2014] is the Disney 3-D animated comedy action film that centers on Hiro Hamada, a 14-year old robotics prodigy, Baymax (an inflatable health companion robot) and an unlikely team of superheros.

5/5 graphics. Big Hero 6 transports viewers into a new visual realm and relatively individual style (besides its anime resemblance). The story is set in the futuristic city of 'San Fransokyo'. A little of Tokyo and San Francisco in one place. This explains the amalgamation of both Japanese and American components within the story and setting. It should be noted that Big Hero 6 is not a wholly original idea, and the animation is inspired by the Marvel comic by the very same name.

Baymax. Voiced by Scott Adsit, this lovable robot is animated to appear soft, cuddly and adorable, credit goes to the graphics and writing team on this one. Hiro's close friendship with Baymax is a highlight. Baymax can hold his own on the screen alone too, just strolling through the city streets, caring for others health and well-being. So yeah, he's cute and he knows it.

Expect to have a couple of teary moments. I won't describe or skim through details, out of utmost respect for those who haven't had a chance to see it yet. Since more serious topics aren't the usual in children targeted animation films, it's a nice change of pace.

Fantastic message for the young'uns. The main character Hiro (voiced by Ryan Potter) and the rest of the superheros team study robotics at the local university (including T.J. Miller from Silicon Valley and Damon Wayans Jr from New Girl). Reach your potential, practice non-violence and exercise sacrifice. That's just the tip of the iceberg. There are more spoiler-worthy ones that will be omitted from this review entirely. By the way, it's not 'preachy' in the slightest.

This movie is absolutely wonderful. It really reminds me of "Guardians of the Galaxy" which is probably the best movie of 2014. I just love how it so effortlessly mixed heartwarming emotion, with thrilling action, and laugh-out-loud comedy.

For a quick synopsis, the movie is about a young boy named Hiro who is gifted in robotics and has an older brother named Hadashi who he looks up to very much and for good reason. Hadashi is also a brilliant scientist who has built a remarkable robot named Baymax who has the ability to scan people and give them medical treatment and advice. There is also a group of Hadashi's friends, the funniest being Fred, and there's also a villain whose motives and identity are not revealed until the climax of the film. After a tragic accident occurs and after learning that it was a planned attack, Hiro, Baymax, and their new group of friends end up creating a rag-tag group of superheroes which they name "Big Hero 6". The only reason why I gave the movie an 8 instead of a 10 is because of the villain. I just feel like some of his actions and his overall attitude are a bit over-the-top evil and his motivations aren't successfully explained. With that said, this movie is truly for everyone and it has something that I think many animated movies have been missing lately which is a very good plot, and endearing characters that you learn to care about deeply. I also love how they didn't make Baymax too human-like. I really hate when movies do that with AI characters, I think it's a cop-out because the audience will obviously care for a machine if it acts and looks exactly like a human. I also hate how they overuse the whole "questioning of love" cliché with those characters. In this film, Baymax understands that love and friendship are important to people because those things are important to a "patient's" emotional well-being. Although he is a believable robot, you can still get attached to him just like Hiro does because he is such an adorable, lovable, sweet-matured character and it doesn't hurt that he looks like a big marshmallow.

Although the film introduces awesome new superhero characters and has some amazing action/battle scenes, what it truly succeeds in doing is being a thoroughly entertaining movie that tugs at the heartstrings, and makes you root for these great characters. I left the movie in awe of how it so effortlessly entranced me and brought me into it's unique world. I can't imagine anyone watching this movie and not loving it so, if you're reading this review to see whether you should watch it or not, definitely do, you won't regret it.

It didn't really hit me why I eagerly anticipate animated films each and every year, whether they be from high stakes studios like Pixar and Disney or low-key efforts from Blue Sky Animation or Rainmaker Entertainment. To me, every animated film is an opportunity to showcase different writing and directing talents, as animated studios rarely keep the same director for every single project. Sure you have directors like John Lasseter or Pete Docter that frequently direct films for certain studios, but often, you get a solid variety of films made by people you've never heard of and that provides for a film experience akin to watching a filmmaker's directorial debut.

I only noticed this when I reflected on the bulk of Disney's films at the turn of the decade, from the enjoyable "Tangled," to the joyous "Winnie the Pooh," the incredibly fun and, my personal favorite in years, "Wreck-It Ralph," and the beloved and cherished "Frozen," the studio has consistently churned out a wide variety of films from a barrage of talented people. Disney's latest, "Big Hero 6," as expected, is no exception; this is a briskly-paced and different film for the animation studio, as it adopts a structure more akin to the one we've seen Marvel take on in recent years, and creates a film from the ground up that keeps its morals in check and its checklist of adventures in mind every step of the way.

The film follows Hiro Hamada (voiced by Ryan Potter), a fourteen-year-old technology prodigy from San Fransokyo, a city built and thriving on technological innovation. Hiro, despite having the intelligence and time to spend on debatably more significant projects, enjoys the concept and strategy of "bot fighting," or the act of two small robots dueling until ones destruction. Hiro is kept in line and motivated by the work of his older brother Tadashi Hamada (Daniel Henney), a skilled engineer, who has created a tubby white robot named "Baymax" (Scott Adsit), who is designed to monetize the healthcare system in America by providing non-threatening and responsive care upon hearing the expression "ow" from a person.

In the midst of all this, Hiro gets in contact with Professor Robert Callaghan (James Cromwell), a renowned technology guru who becomes attracted to the fourteen-year-old upon viewing a tutorial of his invention of "mircobots." Microbots" are tiny, metallic links that swarm and fit together to create whatever the human mind can imagine, proposing immense innovations and efficiency in architecture and transportation. However, after tragedy strikes, Hiro's motivation flatlines, and it's only him, Baymax, and a group of Tadashi's loyal workers that can stop a potential threat to technological and scientific evil.

When Hiro and his band of inventors band together to form a group of superheroes, "Big Hero 6″ easily could've opted for a sound and lights show, disregarding all the potential morals and ideas it laid so neatly on the table. However, despite a narrative structure that reminds us of the many Marvel superhero films we've seen this year, "Big Hero 6″ keeps key morals in place, some of which are understanding the differences between external and internal pain, as brought on by the presence of Baymax and how unprecedented scientific innovations can be used simultaneously for good and bad. We see all of these ideas pan out and develop over the course of the film's runtime and never does the film become too rushed or too simplified to the point where lofty morals are sacrificed for rock-em sock-em action; the balance is delicate and well worth commending.

On top of great, sound morals, "Big Hero 6″ instantly wins thanks to a cuddly and lovable hero, Baymax, who finds ways to charm with his straight-forward nature and his strive to make everyone around him comfortable. Baymax steals almost every scene he is in, and meshes quite well with the other characters, working germane to their characteristics and never undermining the true force of Hiro as a character. The film, in addition, is predictably gorgeous, with eye-popping colors and wonderfully animated surroundings, effectively delivering the aesthetics as well as the morals in a neatly-wrapped package. "Big Hero 6″ may not rank as highly as "Wreck-It Ralph," but seeing as it operates on a minefield of pitfalls and destructive forces, the fact it succeeds this well is a small miracle in itself.

I did read before I went to see this movie that Disney would be testing some adult subjects, like the loss of somebody. Without putting out some spoilers, I might say that the movie really touched my boys. I have two boys in the age 6-9, and both of them had both laughter and tears during the movie.

It is a great action, comedy, drama package. Both my sons fell in love with Baymax, and if he where standing outside the cinema when we left he would have been given a big hug for sure.

The storyline is good, and as a father I had quite a few laughs myself and managed to stay awake for the whole movie. Many times going to the movie with your kids can be a snooze-fest, but this one actually entertained me as well.

A little over a year after I took my granddaughter Catrin (then almost three) to her first ever movie "Frozen" (which she utterly adored), I took her (now just four) to see this very different film from the same stable (Walt Disney Animation Studios) and I'm delighted to record that she loved it. We saw it in IMAX in 3D and we were both blown away.

Although this time the central character is a young boy - Hiro Hamada of the city of San Fransokyo - rather than two princesses, my granddaughter had no trouble relating to it because Hiro is so cute, his inflatable robot Baymax is androgynous, and two of his four friends - making up the six heroes - are very capable girls.

I reckon that "Frozen" plus "Big Hero 6" - with a few films in between - will give her a lifelong love of the movies.