Big Hero 6 [PG]

Hero Hamada is a thirteen year-old genius whose world is turned upside down when his brother loses his life in a terrible fire. All that remains of Tadashi is Baymax, a large medical robot he designed to help people. When Hero discovers that the fire was no accident, he rallies his group of college nerd friends to help him find the culprit, but the desire for revenge threatens to turn change Hero and blind him as to what is truly right. 

This is the first crossover of Pixar and Marvel studios, which means, Marvel fans, that Stan Lee has a cameo and there’s a reward for people who wait until the credits finish rolling. 

Admittedly not the greatest achievement of Pixar to date, though the realm of mid-transportation was something pretty amazing to behold, Big Hero 6 is nevertheless a film that sticks to Disney’s protocol of delivering loveable characters, moral lessons, and drawing laughter from the mouth and tears from the eyes. I laughed, I almost cried, and I did find this movie really cute and enjoyable; it definitely stands as a great little family movie that piques the child in all of us. 

Hero Hamada is a thirteen year-old genius whose world is turned upside down when his brother loses his life in a terrible fire. All that remains of Tadashi is Baymax, a large medical robot he designed to help people. When Hero discovers that the fire was no accident, he rallies his group of college nerd friends to help him find the culprit, but the desire for revenge threatens to turn change Hero and blind him as to what is truly right. 

What I think I really love about Pixar is its focusing on specific subcultures and aspects of societies. In this case, the robot and manga love that is mainly associated with Japan, but has spread across the globe to Western audiences. Our heroes are intellectual geniuses, whilst at the same time being quite vibrant and colourful characters with nicknames such as Go Go, Honey Lemon, and Wasabi, what’s not to love?! The movie also celebrates this meshing of age groups, as Hero is really just an accelerated high school student whose friends are all college kids. At times the story does become a little predictable, but with such an eclectic range of characters literally racing and ‘hiyah’-ing around the place essentially becoming superheroes in their own rites, a predictable plotline can be ignored. At the end of the day, it’s a very cute little movie about friendship, doing the right and good thing, and accepting help: all-important lessons that can often get lost within the hurly-burly of modern society. 

The animation is up to par with every other movie Pixar has created, so much so that sometimes we can see the occasional sly allusion to a few of them. 

Featuring the voice talents of Scott Adsit, Ryan Potter, Daniel Henney, T.J. Miller, Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans Jr., Genesis Rodriguez, Maya Rudolf, Alan Tudyk, and James Cromwell, Big Hero 6 is a fun, cute, and stirring little Pixar achievement. Filled with action, adventure, smarts, friendship, drama, loveable characters, and comedy, it’s not Pixar’s greatest cinematic achievement, but it’s adorable and moving nonetheless.