Big Hero 6

I want to stress up front that I did enjoy Big Hero 6.  It's funny, well-drawn, and has some very nice moments.  The reason why I want to stress this is that I'm afraid this review may slant a little negative at times.  It's enjoyable, but also heavily flawed, the key flaw being that there's just nothing that really stands out about it.  In the shadow of seeing The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, this movie comes across as being nice, but kind of standard.

This is the first animated feature collaboration between Disney and Marvel, and given their track record with live action films, you immediately expect big things.  Unfortunately, what we get here is a fairly standard superhero origin story that follows a pretty rigid formula, where a young man suffers a personal family loss, and with the help of his friends, decides to use his talents and gifts toward fighting evil.  You would hope that given the freedom of the animated art form, that the writers would be willing to dream up some big ideas, or at least turn some of the ideas present in all origin stories on their head.  The only new idea to come out of the film is Baymax (voice by Scott Adsit), a lovable inflatable robot who kind of resembles the Pillsbury Dough Boy if he for some reason decided to bulk up and become a superstar wrestler in the WWE.  He gets the biggest laughs, and has been designed so likable, he's practically a merchandiser's dream.

The story is set in a futuristic city that merges the styles of East and West called San Fransokyo.  The initial shots of the city are stunning, and immediately stir our imagination with the possibilities, but instead of allowing the audience to explore the setting, it's mainly used as forgettable backdrops in various action sequences.  Our young protagonist, named Hiro (Ryan Potter), is a 14-year-old whiz kid who is wasting his mechanical genius in underground robot fights, until his older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) takes him to college one day, and shows him what some of his friends and him are creating under the guidance of the wise robotics teacher, Professor Robert Callaghan (James Cromwell).  During his visit to the school, Hiro meets Tadashi's friends, including the no-nonsense Go Go Tomago (Jamie Chung), the sweet natured chemistry expert Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez), the big and equally big-hearted Wasabi (Damon Wayans, Jr.), and the goofy and comic book obsessed Fred (T.J. Miller).  Tadashi also shows his brother the robot he's been working on - the previously mentioned Baymax, whom Tadashi has built as a healthcare robot to help people in need.

Hiro falls in love with the college, and with the creations that his brother and his friends are working on, and decides that he must apply there. (He graduated from high school at age 13.) In order to get in, he must build his own robotic design and impress Professor Callaghan.  He does so with his genius microbot invention - tiny robots that can fuse together to form just about anything.  Before Hiro can celebrate his victory in getting accepted however, a mysterious fire breaks out in the science hall building, killing both Tadashi and Professor Callaghan.  After a lengthy mourning period where Hiro shuts himself away from everyone, he soon begins to suspect that the fire was not an accident, and that his brother was actually murdered.  Not long after that, a mysterious supervillain wearing a kabuki mask is seen around the city, using Hiro's microbot invention for his own evil purposes.  This inspires Hiro to gather up his friends and the Baymax robot, and create a team of superheroes, using his mechanical skills to create super powered suits and weapons for all of them.

The ad campaign for Big Hero 6 is mainly emphasizing the lovable Baymax robot, and for good reason, since he seems to have been built to sell toys.  But at it's core, the story really is about the bond between the two brothers.  One nice aspect to the screenplay is that the death of Hiro's brother does actually impact just about every decision he makes during the course of the film.  The death is not just used as a plot device to get Hiro on the path to fighting crime, and then forgotten about.  There are also some very nice and funny moments between Hiro and Baymax.  The robot has been designed as a sensitive and caring nurse robot, and when Hiro tries to reprogram him to be a flying and fighting superhero, there are some hilarious moments with the robot trying to come to grips with his new program.  The other characters who make up the superhero team (Tadashi's college friends) are woefully underdeveloped.  They mainly exist to race around during the action scenes, showing off their new powers, throw out some one liners, or add exposition to the plot.

That was my big issue with the script.  Outside of Hiro and his robot companion, nobody gets to be all that interesting.  We learn early on that Hiro's parents died when he was three years old, and that he now lives with his Aunt (Maya Rudolph).  But, shortly after she is introduced, she is pretty much forgotten about, and serves no purpose.  Likewise, the villain who is supposed to be behind all the trouble never comes across as someone we can truly hate.  His motives are all but non-existent for a majority of the film, and when we finally learn his identity and his intentions, they are shoehorned in with a last minute plot revelation.  The movie seems far more interested in the action sequences that are big and grand, but also kind of loud and nonsensical.  The action is well-drawn and executed, but it doesn't have any "wow" factor, nor does it feature anything we haven't seen in the glut of superhero movies that have come about lately.  You would think that the animators would try to create some original or new sequences.  After all, there hasn't been an animated superhero action film since Pixar's The Incredibles 10 years ago.  That should be more than enough time to dream up something new.

Big Hero 6 is enjoyable enough as it is, but because it feels so familiar and underdeveloped at times, it just never comes across as being special.  I don't know if there's enough here to make a franchise, but I'm certain that Baymax toys will be popular this Christmas, and I have a sinking feeling that's all the Disney Studio cares about.  This is a movie that feels like it was somewhat creatively grounded because the filmmakers had the marketing people breathing down their necks the entire time.

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