THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The 2010s was the prime decade for the superhero genre as many films based on Marvel Comics properties were the center of attention. One of the best examples was 2014’s Big Hero 6.
PLOT
The film takes place in the fictional town of San Fransokyo. It follows Hiro Hamada who lives with his Aunt Cass (Maya Rudolph) and brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney). Since he graduated high school at a young age, he has free time to compete in illegal robot fights. Tadashi encourages him to join his university after seeing the advanced technology he and his friends make. He succeeds in getting accepted after impressing Professor Robert Callaghan with the presentation of ‘microbots’, a swarm of tiny robots that can link together in any arrangement imaginable using a neurocranial transmitter. This joyful moment reaches its end when a fire occurs in one of the buildings on campus grounds. Tadashi goes in to rescue Professor Callaghan, only to die from an explosion shortly after entering the building. The only thing he left behind for his brother was his personal healthcare companion bot known as Baymax. Two weeks after the tragic event, Hiro finds one microbot from his jacket and Baymax goes to find its origin. Hiro follows the robot and they find an abandoned warehouse. They also discover more hidden microbots being mass produced and are chased away by someone wearing a Kabuki mask. Hiro thinks that whoever was wearing that mask could have started the fire to steal the bots. He programs Baymax with karate moves and builds him a suit to prepare for their new foe. They follow this mysterious figure to the docks but before they could get the jump on him, they encounter their group of friends who was called before leaving: GoGo, Wasabi, Honey Lemon and Fred. They all get chased by the masked man but are protected by Baymax as they escape. When regrouping at Fred's house, it is in discussion that whoever took the bots has to be someone they know. Fred takes assumption that it could be Alistair Krei (Alan Tudyk) who was turned down by Hiro to market the microbots. Aside from upgrading Baymax to track him down by scanning the city, Hiro has the gang join him in the adventure by giving them suits and weapons to defend themselves. Fred gets a battle suit that can breathe fire, out of inspiration to his fascination of alien lizards. Wasabi has plasma blades in his suit, due to the inspiration of of his experiment on laser induced plasma with a little magnetic confinement for ultra precision. GoGo gets electromagnetic discs to grant her suit speed and velocity, inspired by creating electromagnetically-suspended wheels on her bike. And Honey Lemon receives a special purse capable of creating chemical chemical weapons in the form of chem-balls, inspired by her creation of chemical metal embrittlement. As for Hiro, he creates a new suit for Baymax where not only is it able to fly but also a rocket fist. He has his own suit to grapple on to it when flying. After a successful flight test, Baymax is able to find a match to the masked man offshore. The team finds an abandoned Krei Tech facility and discover that Krei himself was working on teleportation research, but it ended tragically as a test pilot was lost in an accident. Just as the group thinks that Krei is trying to undo his mistake, the masked man attacks again. Hiro gets the jump on him during the conflict and is able to get his mask off, only to discover it to be Callaghan not Krei. He survived the fire due to the use of the microbots. Enraged that he's technically responsible for Tadashi's death, he removes Baymax's healthcare chip and orders it to kill him. He is able to get away unharmed when the group puts the chip back on. Enraged, Hiro leaves them behind and breaks down after repairing the scanners. The group catches up when Fred's butler hitched them a ride via helicopter. They show Hiro more footage of the accident via flash drive and discover more details. It is revealed that Robert's daughter Abigail was the pilot that got stuck in the portal and blames Krei for it. Robert goes after Krei himself at a public event and brings the portal to destroy a new Krei tech building before throwing him in. He is stopped by the titular team in battle once they deprive of the microbots and take the mask from him. As the portal remained open, Baymax detects Abigail alive and inside the portal. Hiro goes in with the robot to save her. Just as they leave after finding her in hypersleep, Baymax is hit by debris and his suit is damaged in the process. The robot however makes the sacrifice by using the rocket fist to thrust Hiro and Abigail out of the portal, staying behind in the progress. Once outside, Abigail wakes up and Robert is arrested for his actions. Some time later, Hiro finally enrolls in the Institute of Technology and moves into Tadashi's lab. He brought Baymax's rocket fist but discovers that his friend placed its healthcare chip at hand before thrusting. This encourages him to rebuild it and is relieved to discover that the original memories are contained. The film ends with Hiro continuing to fight crime with Baymax and company in honor of Tadashi. We also see a post credit scene where Fred discovers that his father is a superhero as well.
THOUGHTS
At first glance, I wasn't sure what to expect from this film because I had not heard about this team until the original teaser first released. I luckily had the chance to read the comics beforehand and was impressed of it, but was worried that Walt Disney would overdo it making it their own thing. But once I realized that change can be good, I stopped worrying. By the time I saw it in theaters in 2014, it wasn't a secret that I enjoyed this movie a whole lot. Many superhero movies have been entertaining for being suspenseful/epic, but this one stood out because it was plain fun to see. Directors Don Hall and Chris Williams knew that these characters were unlike what we've seen that point and overnight, they made this team just as special. Since the animation is expectedly outstanding, the same can be said of the cinematography by Rob Dressel and Adolph Lusinsky. I mean I always find fascination during the test flight sequence. It's easy to enjoy Henry Jackman's score as it creates the superhero atmosphere we're used to, but I can't get over the song 'Immortals' by Fall Out Boy. I enjoy hearing that song because to me, it sounds like it's defining what superheroes are all about, being able to maintain confidence no matter how tough situations can/will get. Like every other superhero movie, this wouldn't work without memorable characters you'll likely connect to an instant. The main character Hiro was a great character of his own right because Ryan Potter expressed him as one who is highly intelligent, but also free-spirited. He loses his compassion after losing his brother, resulting in anger to cloud his better judgment. Thankfully, he learns the error of his way and rights his wrong. Tadashi isn't here a lot because of his tragic demise, but his attempted rescue has a different impact for me. Yes it sets up his brother's arc to grieve for him but in my perspective, it showed that there is a hero in all of us and you sometimes don't need weapons/powers to be one. James Cromwell made a great surprise villain out of Callaghan. He is the complete opposite of Hiro where his actions are made out of anger but doesn't realize it until it's too late. Despite being a loving father, his grief took him down the path of ruthless and relentless decisions. If his daughter never came back, it is only terrifying on worse things he could've done. Lucky for Hiro, he had a vast array of friends who had his back from day one and never stopped no matter how different they were from each other. Jamie Chung made GoGo a standout because she was depicted as the toughest and and was most loyal to Hiro, due to quickly agreeing to be a hero with the group. Daman Wayans Jr. impressed me with Wasabi because he was the most grounded, due to his anxious attitude. He may be someone that prefers to plan ahead but when there isn't time, it is smart of him to react quickly and effectively. Genesis Rodriguez made me smile as Honey Lemon because of how she was the most sweet, observant & cheerful she was in comparison to the others. Seeing how she tells Hiro to not push her away shows how compassionate she is towards those she cares about. TJ Miller was the life of the party as Fred and I loved every second of it. I find relief that he didn't become an actual lizard like the comics presented him because that would've not worked in this narrative. Seeing how enthusiastic he is of comic books is a reflection of comic book fans like myself can be. The fact that he got to be a superhero like his dad is pretty cool. Speaking of his dad, Stan Lee's cameo in the post credit scene is a given for movies based on Marvel Comics but this one caught me off guard and I loved it because you can see that Fred has identical enthusiasm on poor laundry habits. Last but not least, the main reason we all love this movie is gonna be Baymax alone. Scott Adsit succeeded in making him adorable figure that is curious but is only concerned on fulfilling its duty as healthcare robot. I mean it is hard not to laugh at this this character for being unintentionally yet naturally funny. Hearing it say 'Ba-la-la-la' will be stuck in my head forever in the most positive. It is already smart enough with the medical information already programmed, which is impressive in Tadashi's part. This character is lovable mainly because due to the commitment of curing Hiro's emotional intelligence, it becomes artificially smarter and have a bigger heart than could've expected. Without Baymax, the boy would never understand that forgiveness can quell his pain and that is what made the character so great. Seeing Hiro's relationship with his friends including Baymax taught me the benefit of sharing your feelings with those who genuinely care about you. If you choose to continue boxing it up, eventual actions can be regretful. With Hiro taking his time to let it out, he would gain the healing he needed to regain his focus on right and wrong. If the DisneyXD series proved anything, nothing else can stop him from breaking his morals. This may be another timeless hit from Walt Disney but despite all the love I have for it, there will still a few story flaws I can't ignore. Since there are a lot of bot fights in the city according to Hiro, how did Tadashi find the right spot he went to? That city is big and I have a hard time believing the opening fight was local. While it is clever for Tadashi to convince his brother to join the university, how did Aunt Cass allow them to leave after the arrest? This could've been convincing if they skipped to the next day. It's cute that Baymax offers a lollipop, but where the hell did that come from? Does that come from inside him like the defibrillators? I can pick on how Hiro wastes paper and doesn't use his computer because he's wasting trees, but how does not know what Callaghan looks like? Does he just listen to his podcast and not bother to look him up? Because if that's the case, than that's weird. It's funny how Baymax casually follows the remaining microbot in public, but how did Aunt Cass not notice it leave? I mean this thing is not invisible. Lastly, it is also funny that offered the use of defibrillators, but it shoud've known from scanning that Hiro didn't have a heart attack. However, it is easier to enjoy the movie once you ignore all said flaws. To wrap up, Big Hero 6 is a great superhero movie that stood out from the rest, earning the Best Animated Feature Oscar in the progress. If you love this particular genre, watch it now.
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