Movie Review: Big Hero 6

Big Hero 6 (2014)


The special bond that develops between plus-sized inflatable robot Baymax, and prodigy Hiro Hamada, who team up with a group of friends to form a band of high-tech heroes.  Short synopsis of Big Hero 6 taken from IMDb.com

So what else was there to see in the theater right now, besides kid flicks?  I could have gone to the latest Hobbit movie, but anyone who knows me or has read much of my reviews could tell you that wouldn't have happened.  I liked the Lord of the Rings trilogy, despite its flaws.  But after seeing Jackson and Del Toro's nuisance of a film, Desolation of Smaug, in the big box theater, I vowed I'd not be taken in again at that price. 

And so here I am, reviewing a film I didn't think I'd be seeing until it came out on video, if ever.  Was it any good?  The short version is: yes, I thought so.  Let me explain why.

I had planned to take my family out to the movies sooner or later, and go see Into the Woods, which I had pegged as the film that my wife and daughter would be most likely to want to see.  So when gift card money and a fortuitous morning off coincided, I was sure that was what we were gonna see.  As I have already alluded, I am not particularly driven to see anything in the cinema right now.  There are a couple of flicks I'd catch if they were in the cheap seats by now, such as Unbroken, but I'm not chomping at the bit.

I had vaguely heard that Big Hero 6 was based on a comic book, and have heard Stan Lee's name tossed about in association with it (he made a brief cameo in the film).  I can safely say the Disney film had less noticeable breasts.  Yeah, that's something at least. / Source: hollywoodreporter.com

Where was I?  Oh yes, today (actually it was January 12th, but it's semantics).  Forgive me, I got off track again.  Anyway, when I mentioned the plan to my wife, she said she didn't want to see Into the Woods in the theater, and suggested we look at other options.  Kid-friendly options.  I groaned.  I think it was an internal groan, but it was likely vocalized as well.  My wife checked the movie times and suggested Big Hero 6, which she said I would probably like too.

So off we went to a 12:50 AM showing.  It was 12:46 when we left home, mind you, so we missed the previews.  No big loss, I imagine.  The cartoon preceding Big Hero 6 was called Feast, and it was pretty amusing.  And then the film began.

By way of quick rundown, we have a fairly stereotypical modern Disney story of a kid who is really good at something (robotics, in this case), a non-traditional family unit composed of brother and aunt, and some pretty on-screen visuals.  For the plot, it's the old "unusual kid saves the day"-theme.  Our hero, named "Hideo," I believe (sometimes it sounded like "Hero,"  sometimes it sounded more Japanese) lives in San Franciskyo, an interesting take on what San Francisco would be like in the near future if it began truly dominated by Neo-Japanese culture.  I could dig the ethnic feel, though I'd have banked more on a Chinese culture overlay, myself.  That's where the world seems to be going.

So kid and brother get into some hijinks's early on, and we get a feel for the brotherly relationship these two have.  Older brother wants younger brother Hiro (I have since been corrected on the name)to come and join him at what the younger refers to as "Nerd School," a tech institute.  In order to get into the school, Hiro has to wow the director of the facility.  He manages to do this using microbots, a collection of miniature robots that work collectively to do tasks and pretty much make normal humans into near-superheros.  Pretty neat idea, I agree, though nothing truly remarkable.  It's only the limits of current robotics and manufacturing technology that is keeping us from doing that very thing in this day and age.  But soon now.  You mark my words.  It'll be coming along soon enough.

Speaking of technology, animated movies are sure taking up theri fair share of computer power.  Big Hero 6 took almost eighteen times as many rendering hours as Tangled did.  Not that I can adequately describe what a rendering hour means, but I know it has something to do with computers. / Source: cgmeetup.net

Anyway, a mean old mega-tycoon, named Krei (that's Kray, but it isn't spelled that way, of course) comes along at the tech show in which Hiro unveils his microbots and offers Hiro a chance to come work for him, but the director of the institute says he'd never encourage anyone to work for Krei.  The implication: Krei is bad.  Our movie's villain is unveiled... or is he?

Segue into a fire breaking out, and older brother goes back in to save the director, but BOOM - fire burns the place down and bro is killed.  Director guy too...  we think.  Hiro is all bummed out, obviously, but then he discovers his late brother's last invention.  It's a robot paramedic of sorts.  Named BayMax.  For better than half the film, I thought its name was "Beta Max," and I got a decent kick out of that.  A clever idea to recycle the name of an old technology that never went anywhere (even if it was superior to its competition), in a 2014 kid's flick, don't you agree?  You don't know what I'm talking about?  Google it, I suppose.  And never mind me while I feel old, over here.

Where was I?  Well not to give the whole story away, but Hiro, BayMax, and the older bro's friends from the institute go off to hunt down a bad guy who has stolen Hiro's microbot tech and is using it to do...  well nothing particularly illegal, at first.  He's broken no laws, except perhaps copyright ones (did Hiro get his microbot design copyrighted?  I'd bet not).  But by the movie's end, this guy will be supervillain material, and so it's good we went out to stop him from being nefarious and what-not.

The film was genuinely interesting to me.  From what I could tell, the technology showcased was 90% near-future foreseeable.  Stuff like we see in the film will be possible someday soon.  Of course, the idea of matter teleportation, which features int he film's climax, is still a ways out, but not beyond conceivable.  Heck, I would not be the least surprised if the U.S. government wasn't funding labs that are working on such technology right now.  But funding something, no matter how much money and effort you throw at the problem, doesn't mean quick solutions.  I'd bet we've got fifty years before practical matter transit is for real, vs. probably ten years before robots of the type in the film start showing up out of labs.


Fist bump.  Bah-lalalala.

The interactions between the characters, especially the dynamic between Hiro and BayMax, is what drives the heart of the film.  Really, the whole thing was well done.  We've got all the major points here, with a modern "kid" film's humor, action, borderline abnormally big-eyed characters, good voice acting, and plot that is neither too juvenile for adults, but not too complex for kids to follow.  The only truly annoying part of the whole film for me was that I was hungry, and the wife and kid were hogging all the popcorn.  But then, that's what dad is for.  Hold the bucket and make sure the family gets enough.  And I didn't end out badly; I got a full bucket refill sitting at home as I type these notes.  Sweet deal, huh?

OK, I started wandering again.  Big Hero 6... worth the big box theater price?  Yes.  It'd been just as good, in my opinion, in the cheap seats, but it wasn't a disappointment to me that we saw it where and when we did.  For a film that has been out since mid-November, I expect others agree with my overall chain of thought here.  You could do worse this time of year than to catch Big Hero 6.  Latest Hobbit movie, I'm looking your way.


The parting comment:


Yes, I realize this has nothing to do with the movie I just reviewed.  But since I'm poking at Jackson's Hobbit trilogy, might as well poke some more.