Review by Vladi

Today we look at Disney’s Big Hero 6. Now before you run for the hills, allow me to give you some comfort. While Disney technically did this movie, it’s really a Pixar movie. Disney bought Pixar back in 2006. And while Disney seems to have made nothing but garbage in the twenty first century, Pixar picked up the slack as one of the best animation studios. Some of their notable works are the Toy Story series, Monster Inc.Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, WALL-E, Up, and Brave. Yeah, that’s those guys. Pixar did what Disney couldn’t do, and that’s producing relevant and fresh animated movies with a considerable amount of creativity and innovation. Now, without further kiss-ass, we delve into our movie!

Our story takes place in San Fransokyo (will get back to this later >.<), where we have our protagonist, Hiro Hamada, fourteen year old kid with intelligence far beyond his years and a strong enthusiasm for robotics. His older brother, Tadashi Hamada, and himself live with their aunt, Cass Hamada, since their parents died. Also, he has the most epic, awesome looking, badass, silky, spiky, black hair that a real-world gaijin like me can only dream of.  But, alas, I digress. Hiro’s passion for robotics has gotten him into underground bot fights, where he sharks opponents much bigger and older than himself for money. Tadashi doesn’t approve of the way his brother uses his talent, but he does the big bro thing, and stands behind his little brother, none the less.

Nerd School, from left to right, GoGo, Wasabi, Hiro, Tadashi, Tomago, and Fred.

In an attempt to better direct Hiro’s talents, Tadashi takes him to his college robotics lab, where he and his friends invent and innovate robotics technology. This is where Hiro gets introduced to Tadashi’s project, Baymax, a plus size cuddle bot, designed as a healthcare companion. Hiro’s eyes swell to the size of dinner plates when he sees all the cutting edge stuff that’s being developed at “nerd school“, and he decides that he wants to enter. To do so, he has to impress Professor Callaghan at the annual robotics exhibition. And so our movie begins. Oh wait, did I mention evil micro-bots guy with a Kabuki mask? Hmm, definitely shouldn’t have left out Kabuki mask bad guy. Yep, he’s in this, he’s awesome, and he’s scary. Ergo, go see this movie! Nah, there’s more.

“All right, let me get this straight. A man in a Kaubki mask attacked you with an army of miniature, flying robots.” Seems legit.

So, one of the main themes of this movie is the loss of loved ones, and how we deal with it. Baymax, being programmed to be a caregiver/first aid robot, is concerned about Hiro and is actively trying to help him cope with his loss. And yes, even if that means learning Karate, because… coping mechanism? Seriously though, the relationship between Hiro and Baymax grows as the movie progresses. Baymax isn’t just a superpower our protagonist gets to use, he’s also a strong influence on Hiro’s development and well-being. He really becomes Hiro’s guardian and best friend when he needs him most, and honestly, it’s very touching at times.

Tokyo and San Francisco’s love child, Fransokyo.

As promised earlier, SAN FRANSOKYO! So, what do you have when you take Tokyo and San Francisco, and you put them in a locked room with a bottle of bourbon, dim lighting, and some massage oils? The answer is our setting. The city in which our story takes place is literally a merging of the two cities I just mentioned. And it looks ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! Man, it’s creative as hell! I know it’s technically just backdrop, but it is so damn REFRESHING to see studios push that extra mile of creativity. Let’s create something new; let’s creating something fun; let’s create something colourful. Hey, god forbid, we might actually make something artistic! 11/10, great idea, great design, such enjoyable animation, much WOW! More of this in the future, plox.

Ahh, just one more.

Really? Nope, at least one more…

OK, last one… SO AWEZZUM!

This movie reminded me of The Lion King a little bit, in the sense that it has a theme that’s present throughout the movie, and it’s developed. A lot of animated films, and children’s movies especially, will focus on going through the motions of a successful flick – the super powers, the action, the cheesy lines, the necessary love interests, etc. This movie has very little of that, and is actually very, very, fresh. It has characters it wants to develop, themes it wants to look at, and it doesn’t cut corners getting there. It has its own story, it goes at its own pace, and it does it very well. There’s a quite a few good laughs in there, so long as there no jagged objects orbiting in Uranus, you should get a chuckle or ten. Fresh movie, good story, much feels, great design. I’d say this is the best animated film since How to Train Your Dragon, so it’s definitely worth a watch. You should GoGo see it (props in the comments below if you get this pun, if not, I will cry in shame)!

Robo cuddles ❤


Written by Vladi Ardenski


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