Seeing
as how Big Hero 6 was recently released on DVD this past week, I figured what
better time than now to talk about it. I’ve heard that the film deviates quite
a bit from its original source material, so I’ll let you know now, I will be
judging this film as it is.
Disney has quite the track record
for making incredible film, after incredible film, animated, or live action,
narrative or documentary, Walt Disney Pictures sets the bar high for any film
studio looking to make a family film. That in mind, Big Hero 6 is perhaps the
world’s most okay film ever. It does nothing to undermine the superhero genre
of film, although the movie does nothing new with the idea of a superhero film
either. It’s still a highly enjoyable film, but even the most entertaining
movies can be forgotten as easily as they entered the public eye.
Although the Walt Disney Company may
own Marvel comics, and their movie studio, Marvel Studios, it still relied on
name recognition to turn in a large part of the film’s box office, or so it
feels. The characters are well played, and have nice designs, though we’ve seen
all of this before. A main character in a Disney film, “Hiro,” suffers great
loss and tragedy in the form of the death of his brother Tadashi, this sets
events in motion that lead to Hiro and his friends becoming super heroes.
Clichés and classic tropes plague
this movie when it simply isn’t needed. It incorporates the funny lovable
sidekick, Baymax, who can be added to Disney’s extensive library of lovable
sidekicks. It has a cast of outcast, or incredibly skilled characters. Though their
dynamic as friends is fun to watch it still leaves something to be desired in
this by the numbers style of filmmaking. It’s funny to see the big guy in the
green armor act afraid of heights, it’s funny to watch stoner humor, even in a PG.
environment where it’s more implied rather than explicit. But this would be
even funnier had the public not seen all of these different factors in dozens
of other films in the many years prior to this film’s release, from Spider-Man
(2002) to Harold and Kumar go to White Castle (2004).
Although this one point does not
carry the movie, one of the film’s saving graces is its main attraction,
Baymax. The big white robot with a non-threatening, huggable design, is really
very charming. Whether the character is being caring, unintentionally funny, or
the super team’s heavy hitter, the filmmakers really did something right when
they developed this character. Something that is rarely seen in recent films,
Baymax is a robot character that knows exactly who he is. He never acts human,
he never says anything like he wants to be more human. Baymax is simply just
himself, and that’s a nice dynamic for a robot in a children’s film that
interestingly turned up a character that had just as much heart as the human
characters in the film.
I must admit though Big Hero 6 did
hit a soft spot with me, and the film over all is worth a watch. Though the
ideas presented in the film are not all too original, there’s enough of a story
going on to keep the viewer interested as it moves from point A to B. Add the
fact that this movie holds the stamp of approval of Marvel Comics founder Stan
Lee, and you can just sit back and relax through the movie.
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