Big Hero 6 Review

Disney's latest animated feature film is the first one I can think of that features super heroes. I suppose this shouldn't be much of a surprise, since Disney bought Marvel back in 2009 and has been making tons of money with their Marvel Super Hero/Avengers movies. They have been championing Big Hero 6 (2014) as being from the creators of Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph, and those are some pretty good titles to compare to their new release. Does their first animated Marvel super hero feature hold up?

Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) is a fourteen-year-old robotics genius who lives in the futuristic city of San Fransokyo, and spends his time participating in back-alley robot fights. Hiro is learning to harness his genius, thanks to his brilliant brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) and his like-minded friends; adrenaline junkie Go Go Tamago (Jamie Chung), neatnik Wasabi (Damon Wayans Jr.), chemistry whiz Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez), and fanboy Fred (T.J. Miller). When a devastating turn of events catapults them into the midst of a dangerous plot unfolding in the streets of San Fransokyo, Hiro turns to his closest companion, a medical robot prototype created by Tadashi called Baymax (Scott Adsit). Hiro transforms the group into a band of high-tech heroes determined to solve the mystery.

I didn't know it at the time I saw the previews, but after Big Hero 6 hit theaters everyone started talking about how it's based on a Marvel miniseries. The team of heroes called Big Hero 6 are fairly obscure within the Marvel universe, but have had their own miniseries of comics. Spider-Man has called upon Big Hero 6 to help him fight Doctor Octopus, and for a time Wolverine's enemy, the Silver Samurai, was a member of Big Hero 6. Since this is technically a Marvel movie, you should stick around for a traditional post-credits scene, and watch for the king of cameos to make an appearance.

The characters in Big Hero 6 were adorable to say the least. I have no idea how they measure up to original comics, but I like the ones that were depicted in the movie. I said in my Real Steel review that child prodigy characters are very unrealistic and often indicators of bad writing. Hiro occasionally pushes credibility here, but he is still a kid; he's got the attention span, emotional maturity, inflated confidence, and insecurities of any adolescent, and these are incorporated into his character beautifully. Sure he's got a well-above-average skills with robotics, but he's still just a kid and the movie doesn't forget that.

Tadashi acts as more of a role model for Hiro than an actual mentor. Hiro has to learn some pretty tough lessons on his own. At one point, Hiro's desire for justice goes overboard and he makes some very serious mistakes, but he still didn't have a mentor to teach him what to learn from his mistake. I thought this was a particularly interesting bit of character development since Hiro had no one to help him figure out what to do with the experiences, and yet we still see him learn and mature as a young man and as a hero.

The other major character is Baymax. There is nothing about this character that isn't superbly lovable. The way he moves, talks, and interacts with the world around him is absolutely adorable. He resembles a semi-inflated balloon and looks so huggable. There were several clusters of small kids in the theater when I saw Big Hero 6, and nearly every time Baymax did anything at all there was an eruption of giggles from them. Baymax offers a compassionate and healing voice for those suffering, and a hug that can be felt through the screen. He sells the movie; it wouldn't have been nearly as fun without this irresistible blob of a roly-poly robot charisma. 

Big Hero 6 is a PG animated Disney movie and was chockfull of physical gags, funny characters, and silly jokes. There's also a lot of exciting super hero action and villain combat. There are also lots of hugs and love. It also features the kind of stellar animation we've come to expect from Disney. Big Hero 6 combines Disney wonder and charm with Marvel awe and action to deliver a movie that exhibits the best of both studios. While the action is good, it's the central character's heart that is the real appeal. Big Hero 6 has got something for everyone; there's a lot to enjoy in this movie. Kids will love the fun characters and silly stunts, older viewers will appreciate the action and animation, and everyone will love the heartfelt, genuine emotion these characters exude. I recommend seeing Big Hero 6 in theaters if you can. It's worth the ticket price. It's also worth getting a copy of on Blu-Ray when it becomes available.

Here's the trailer so you can get a feel for how Baymax was animated:

So, what do you think about Disney's first animated Marvel movie? I think it's good, but out of sorts with Disney's usual fare. Comment below and tell me what you think!

Real Steel Movie Review

When I reviewed Battleship I mentioned a few other toy products that would make fairly ridiculous movies. I didn’t really think of the “Rock’em Sock’em Robot” toys which features two plastic robot boxers mechanically manipulated by the players as movie material. However, boxing robots trying to knock each other’s heads off is pretty much the whole idea behind Real Steel (2011).

In the near future people became uninterested in boxing and similar sports, so a new sport was created; Robot Boxing features robots battling each other while being controlled by someone. Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman), a former boxer who’s trying to make it in the new sport, not only doesn’t do well, he’s deeply in the red from all his losses. When he learns that his ex-wife, mother of his son Max (Dakota Goyo), has died, Charlie goes to figure out what to do with his estranged son. Max's wealthy aunt Debra (Hope Davis) and uncle Marvin (James Rebhorn) want full custody, so Charlie asks Marvin for money so he can buy a new robot in exchange for turning Max over to them. Charlie reluctantly takes Max for the summer and together they build and train a champion contending robot with the help of Charlie’s child hood mechanic friend, Bailey Tallet (Evangeline Lilly). As the stakes in the brutal, no-holds-barred arena are raised, Charlie and Max against all odds, get one last shot at a comeback.

Real Steel was a corny amalgamation of cliché storytelling tropes. You’ve got the underdog sports player seeking self respect, who miraculously gets a shot at the championship title as seen in Rocky; powerful mechanical robots that fight with each other, very similar to those in Transformers; a weird sport in which the whole world is unanimously invested, like you would see in Pokémon or even The Hunger Games, and all the cheesiness you’ll find in every father-son bonding story. Technically, each of these aren’t bad, but they can be presented in such a way that makes your eyes roll when they exceed credibility or try to emphasize more drama than can be milked from such a concept. Real Steel didn’t manage to make any of it credible and it just comes across as cheesy. You’ll probably laugh at the movie more because it’s hard to take seriously rather than at the sparse moments of the comic relief.

More often than not kid characters are put in a movie to appeal to younger audiences, and they serve no other purpose than that. Truly illogical kid characters will be able to outwit adults who have years more experience and knowledge, have skills that even a child prodigy couldn’t realistically have without a couple of years of post-secondary schooling, and have keen insight to things far beyond their limited experience. For all that these characters can do, why not just have them be a young adult who has that kind of knowledge base and experience? Do movie producers genuinely think that kids will only enjoy movies that feature other kids in it?

That has to be the reasoning behind Max’s character being a kid. At age eleven he can speak fluent Japanese, understands complex fighting techniques, and how to program and construct advanced mechanical automatons. Max also gives useful advice to Charlie, who has been in robot boxing circles for years before Max was born. And get this; he knows how to do all this because he plays video games. Seriously!? I’ve been playing video games for well over 20 years and I can’t do any of that stuff! That really makes the script writer sound like an old fogey who believes that all these crazy newfangled video game and technology things somehow unlock hidden powers and knowledge in young people. This isn’t just a vague excuse to justify a child character who should more reasonably be an adult; it’s just bad writing.

The fighting robots were unabashedly fun, fortunately. The handful of robot boxing matches that the movie actually featured were engaging and exciting. The combination of real robots and CGI animation was seamless. The robots were well designed so no two looked the same, and they moved in such a way that felt like they actually had weight and mass to them. The fights were well choreographed so that it was evident who was winning, who had the upper hand, and why. The robot boxing matches were probably the only really good part of Real Steel; the characters certainly didn’t carry the story well.

Reel Steel is by no means an original film in terms of its base story. It’s so full of clichés, there is no way you haven’t seen this story before. At best it’s all the brainless fun of Rock’em Sock’em Robots while also flailing around to achieve the heart and drama of Rocky. Although the cast usually did a good job in their roles, they had some pretty lame material to work with. I hate seeing Hugh Jackman in such a corny role as this. It reminded me more of the “BattleBots” TV show from about 12 years ago. Personally, I don’t think Real Steel is worth watching but I could see it appealing to teen and preteen boys, Max’s irrationally implausible character aside. Even if you really want to see robots fighting, I’d try to borrow this from someone; I don’t think it is even worth the cost of a movie rental.

What’s your favorite fictional sports movie? The Hunger Games? Quidditch from Harry Potter? Podracing from Star Wars? Can you think of others? Comment below and tell me why you like these fictional sports!