Review: Big Hero 6

Set in the fictional hybrid city of San Fransokyo, Hiro (voiced by Ryan Potter) is a 14 year-old robotics genius but also a young tearaway constantly getting into mischief by entering illegal robot fights with battle bots of his own making. His concerned older brother Tadashi (voiced by Daniel Henney) manages to steer him away from a probable lot of legal trouble by showing him around the lab he works at under the avuncular Prof. Callaghan (voiced by James Cromwell). It is here that Hiro first meets Baymax (voiced by Scott Adsit), a medical assistant robot of seemingly inflatable exterior. He also meets Tadashi’s co-workers (voiced by T.J. Miller, Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans Jr., and Genesis Rodriguez), and is eager to join them and work under the brilliant Prof. Callaghan. The rest of the plot you will have to watch the film to discover. Maya Rudolph voices Hiro’s Aunt, whilst Alan Tudyk voices Prof. Callaghan’s more glory-seeking technological rival, a mega-rich CEO.

 

Although popular with seemingly everyone else, this 2014 Disney animated film from directors Don Hall (The 2011 “Winnie the Pooh”) & Chris Williams (co-director of “Bolt”) didn’t do a whole lot for me. I think this one’s exclusively for the kids, I can’t really see anyone older than that really finding much of interest here. The character of Baymax to me was a major miscalculation. Not only did I spot the twist with the character within 15 minutes (40 minutes in and a line of dialogue practically tells you outright), but the character isn’t remotely interesting or appealing. The idea of the robot is kinda cool (if a bit Johnny 5 to me), but the look is completely uncreative, bland, and uncharismatic. It looks like a Michelin man without any of the detail added in. Why is the robot full of air? A blow-up robot? How in the hell would that work? Who would want such a thing? It’s basically a white balloon with a computer inside. Think about that (Apparently there’s something called ‘soft robotics’, but I’ve got no idea what that means or how close Baymax is to something like that. I just didn’t buy it here). When some colour is finally added to him through modifications, it just makes Baymax look like an iMac instead of a meringue/balloon (Apparently Baymax is very different in the comics). Hell, even his voice is cliché and right out of 1984. I did laugh, though, when it got deflated and refers to the cat as a ‘hairy baby’. That was cute, and I also liked the amusing David vs. Goliath robot fight. However, getting back to the design, it’s only when the robot gets a final red and blue upgrade that it looks like a genuine improvement, because it finally looks somewhat robotic instead of a pool toy that’ll get you electrocuted if you go for a swim with it.

 

The character animation of the humans is awfully rubbery and cartoony, and the interiors look too clean and cartoony. The movements of the humans are also awkward to an almost “Thunderbirds” degree. The photo-realistic “Rango” was in 2011, why is character animation now going backwards? However, the film’s biggest strength is in the background/exterior animation which is truly stunning and colourful. I found the film’s American-Japanese hybrid world somewhat confusing and not quite explained well enough, but I can’t deny that the very Tokyo-esque ‘San Fransokyo’ is just gorgeous to look at, it’s a work of art. The other thing I really liked about the film is the excellent music score by Henry Jackman, bringing a touch of class to the whole thing. Although his character isn’t in all that much of the film, James Cromwell also adds something to the vocal department. He is, in fact, the only voice actor to remotely stand out. The rest are boring and nondescript, with special dishonourable mention going to Damon Wayans Jr. and whoever the fuck thought it would be a good idea to have the African-American character the scaredy cat of the group of super-nerds? I mean, why not just go ahead and name the character Stepin Fetchit while you’re at it? Meanwhile, I’m not sure when a leather jacket and some hair dye became the signifier for ‘cool chick’ but it has become a rather nauseous cliché at this point. I did like the brother-brother relationship at the heart of the film, and kind of wished it was emphasised even more because it’s really quite sweet. Unfortunately, a big emotional moment in the film is lessened by the fact that one character is practically a solid non-entity. The best moment in the entire film comes post-credits when a guy who normally turns up in cameos in live-action films of this sort of thing turns up in a cameo in animated form. Yes, that guy. It’s brilliant, the film itself is terribly overrated.

 

This felt like a dumbed-down, corny, Americanised ‘Happy Meal’ version of something frankly best left to the Japanese to do. They would’ve made a better stab at this kind of thing and it would’ve likely had more appeal to those outside of grade school. I think this is teen fare or one for anime/comic book nerds, but instead Disney have skewed it towards kiddie fare instead where the title team take a backseat to a cuddly “Short Circuit” meets “E.T.” by way of “Bambi” story for kids. Hell, they’ve even ‘white-washed’ the comic so that while it’s still got some Japanese influence, it’s set in a weird fictional Japan-US hybrid with mostly very American-looking and sounding characters. The comic was apparently set in Japan with entirely Japanese characters, so the fault definitely doesn’t lie with Marvel here (And indeed, this isn’t a ‘Marvel Film’ per se, merely a Disney film based on a Marvel product). Some won’t care about that and will be fine with a ‘kids movie’ that appeals solely to kids (and it appears I’m the only adult who doesn’t like it anyway, so what do I know?), but all I can say is that I didn’t get a whole lot of out of this. The exteriors are stunningly beautiful, however, and the film earns a point or two simply for being a pretty active film. Boring it isn’t, and it’s better than “The Boxtrolls”. That’s not all that much of a compliment, though. Loosely based on a Marvel comic book, the screenplay is by Robert L. Baird (“Monsters University”), Daniel Gerson (“Monsters University”) and Jordan Roberts (writer-director of the bland drama “Around the Bend”), from a story by Roberts and co-director Hall.

 

Rating: C+