Big Hero 6 follows the adventures of young genius Hiro.

Big Hero 6 (2014)
Certified: PG
Duration: 92 minutes
Directed by: Don Hall, Chris Williams
Voices of: Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit, Daniel Henney, T.J. Miller, Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans Jr, Génesis Rodríguez, Maya Rudolph, James Cromwell
KRS Releasing Ltd

In San Francokyo, 14-year-old genius Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) is only interested in one thing: building small robots and entering these into robot battles against others who are older than him. His parents died about 10 years ago and he and his brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) were raised by Aunt Cass (Maya Rudolph).

Tadashi goes to the ‘nerd school’ of Prof Robert Callaghan (James Cromwell). Hiro sees what the students there are doing and decides he wants to enrol. The students include Go Go Tomago (Jamie Chung), Wasabi Ginger (Damon Wayans Jr) and Honey Lemon (Génesis Rodriguez).

Hiro’s project of a group of microbots that can be changed into anything by the commands given through a brain-reading device is so impressive that it receives the attention of both Prof Callaghan and Alistair Krei (Alan Tudyk), a rival of the professor.

Then tragedy leaves Hiro detached from anything that happens around him. This leaves a lot of people disappointed until, by mistake, Hiro finds Tadashi’s project: a robot called Baymax (Scott Adisit), which has been programmed to help those in medical need.

Baymax believes Hiro needs help and wants to cure him. Meanwhile, a masked villain appears and he seems to have gotten Hiro’s microbot invention and is wreaking havoc. Hiro and his friends together with Baymax must turn into heroes and face this villain. This way they learn about who they really are and what they are capable of.

Disney seems to be again entering a new shiny age of animation. After the classics the company produced during Walter Disney’s life there came two decades of more misses than hits. The 1990s was an incredible turnaround, with Disney producing modern classics such as The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and The Beast (1991) and The Lion King (1994), among other very good films.

Disney seems to be again entering a new shiny age of animation

The new century brought about average to interesting movies, but Disney was being slapped in its own backyard by the movies that Pixar was delivering. Now it seems that Disney is back on a roll, and I believe that the move of John Lasseter from Pixar to Disney as the chief creative officer is leaving its mark. Movies such as Tangled, Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph have again brought Disney back in contention for the top of the roost.

Big Hero 6 continues along these same lines and, inspired by the Marvel 1998 comic book series, which I have never read, is a veritable rollicking ride. It manages to combine the superhero aesthetic with Disney sensibilities without at any point seeming to be over-sentimental.

Big Hero 6 has another advantage – as a movie it seems to have been well researched. The robotics are designed and construed to look quite real. For an animated film about robots and superheroes to feel and sound credible is a high accomplishment in its own right.

This is also evidenced in the alternate reality of San Francokyo, a mix and play on a merging of San Francisco and Tokyo that makes for an unusual setting. This is done without the film losing its sense of magic, excitement and, most of all, fun. Overall, the film takes its time to build both characters and ambience, and in this way the formula of Big Hero 6 works even more effectively.

Most of all, the film also shows that by being a bit inventive, one can still find ways and means of twisting and tweaking formulas and come up with a movie that can actually surprise and delight its audience, both young and old.