Thoughts on Big Hero 6

Feast

I have to say I'm really enjoying how Disney has picked up Pixar's habit of opening their animated films with a short. Mostly because so far, they've all been pretty amazing; Paperman, Get a Horse, and now Feast. This short was just so charming and adorable. It's impossible not to fall in love with Winston right off the bat. The animation and style of the whole thing is just spectacular, I could watch it over and over again.

 Big Hero 6 

When I come out of an animated film aching to get back to my desk and work on school projects, you know it's a good one. This film just made me so excited to be studying animation, and has only strengthened my resolve to work at Disney someday! Or any of those magical studios, really. The story follows young robotics genius Hiro Hamada, and his brother's robot Baymax as they try to stop the evil man in the Kabuki mask. That's the short version. The long version would require some spoilers, but even if those plots points are easily gleaned from trailers, I'd rather not give any of it away, just in case. Either way, the story itself was heartwarming, funny (and I mean, really funny, there was a lot of great humour in this movie), exciting and I gotta say, very well paced. The movie moves easily from action-packed car chases to emotional moments to montages without missing a beat. The whole flow of the film was great, I never wanted it to end.

 The relationship that develops between Hiro and Baymax is really the heart and soul of the film, and boy do the filmmakers know how to tug at your heartstrings. In more ways than one. The connection with Hiro is so easy, even if it may be difficult to relate to a 14 year old robotics genius. He is such an appealing and sympathetic character from the first moment you meet him, you can't help but root for him the whole way through, especially once he begins bonding with Baymax. I love Baymax. Nuff said.

 The rest of the cast, while entertaining for sure, didn't have as much development as Hiro and Baymax. However, I'm very willing to overlook this, as the film is clearly meant to show Hiro's journey and arc (which was great), and was not a superhero team origin movie (unlike The Avengers, in which the team had to learn to work together, and the story focused on their relationships with each other). They are there to support Hiro, and for that I think they are just fine. Their personalities are each unique and hilarious in their own way, and even if they are not vital to moving the story along in some cases, they do a great job of keeping Hiro's journey focused and moving along (and keeping you laughing). As for the villain, he's also really there to help Hiro along his path, and less as an actual threat. His identity isn't too hard to figure out (I called it from the moment we first saw him, it's fairly formula) but the secret isn't really the point of the story either. He's a pretty awesome villain though, and his microbots are sick (just an expression guys, they're not actually ill).

 The whole look of the film was great as well. San Fransokyo was a joy to explore visually, and everything just looked so refined and clean. No corners cut for this one. I also have to mention the design of end credits themselves. I loved how they were simply 2D drawings of the characters and locations. No animation, nothing too fancy. Just wonderful, colourful drawings.

 Overall, I enjoyed this movie so so much. And their overall respect (or disrespect?) of traffic laws. Sometimes its easy to forget it's even a Disney movie, since it's so different from anything they've done before, and I have to applaud them for that. See Big Hero 6 if you are any kind of sane person. It's just awesome.

Heads up, stay until after the credits end, the very last scene is FANTASTIC! I can't believe they put that in there!!

Star Rating:

5/5 stars