Disney’s ‘Big Hero 6’ Engineered for Young Audiences

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Disney’s new movie Big Hero 6 was released Nov. 8 and so far it has fared fairly well at the box office, considering it was released at the same time as Interstellar. Although I am one to enjoy most kids’ movies, the Disney logic (which is actually a lack thereof) allows Big Hero 6 to be an excellent children’s movie, but that’s as far as it goes. The random and unnecessary events as well as the childish sense of humor of the movie balance with the likeable characters, Marvel feel and animation to make this a good movie, but not a great one.

The movie takes place in the fictional future metropolis of San Fransokyo, a combination of Tokyo and San Francisco. The main character, Hiro (voiced by Ryan Potter), is a 14-year-old genius in robotics who ends up attending the same college as his older brother, Tadashi (Daniel Henney), and adopting his health care robot named Baymax (Scott Adsit). When Hiro’s microbots that he created in order to get into the college are stolen and used as a weapon by a masked enemy, Hiro teams up with Baymax and his friends Fred (T.J Miller), Go Go (Jamie Chung), Wasabi (Damon Wayans Jr.) and Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez) to get revenge and stop the villain’s evil plans.

The story and action of this film definitely give off the Marvel feel, living up to the Marvel comics that the story is based off of. The creation and use of Baymax makes the movie similar to the Iron Man story, but the adorable character that Baymax is reminds me of Toothless from  How to Train Your Dragon. The action sequences are entertaining enough, but many conflicts occur that could easily be avoided, making older audience members frustrated with the lack of reason or planning by the characters. Even the reason for Hiro’s revenge could have been avoided, and we are never given an explanation for why it wasn’t. That aside, the apprehension of the masked man and the surprise of his identity were satisfying, though hasty. Overall, the story wasn’t as good as the way it was told.

Adding to the quality of the movie were the likeable characters and the animation. All of Hiro’s friends are smart, caring and quirky, matching Hiro’s nickname for them as “nerds.” It was refreshing and interesting to see a whole group of heroes who use their own inventions as powers, and this movie did a great job of inspiring kids to use their brains and become engineers. When it comes to Baymax, everybody loves him. He is a hilarious and adorable symbol of innocence and protection who may become as loved as Olaf from Frozen. The way these characters are visually portrayed is smooth and realistic enough to remind me of other Marvel films. The animation of this movie goes well with its mood and its story, making everything feel smooth and sensible when the story does not.

In the end, I’d have to say that Big Hero 6 was only satisfactory. I was disappointed with the lack of logic in the story and the sometimes too-childish sense of humor, but the quality of the movie deserves credit. Like everyone else, I adored Baymax, but I do not think that he was able to carry the entire movie with his loveable image and attitude. Big Hero 6 did its job of being an entertaining kids’ movie, but it was only satisfactory to my high school point of view.