In the 90’s, Disney’s Animation Studio experienced their
‘Renaissance’ era, a decade which saw the release of some of their greatest
films of all time like ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘The Little Mermaid’ (which was
technically released in 1989), and my personal favorite, ‘The Lion King’. After
that, the studio sort of went into a bit of a decline, even deciding to stop
producing traditionally animated films at one point due to the rise in computer
animation. Now while I will argue that there are some ‘diamonds in the rough’,
like ‘The Emperor’s New Groove’ and ‘Treasure Planet’, for the most part the
Disney films of the early 2000’s are viewed as some of their lesser works.
However, it seems like the studio is in the midst of what can be described as
their second Renaissance as they’ve really been dishing out some truly
excellent animated films recently, including 2012’s ‘Wreck-it Ralph’ and of
course last year’s $1.2 billion grossing, two-time Oscar winning smash hit,
‘Frozen’, which I can easily say was the best film that Disney had made in
quite some time. For their next film, ‘Big Hero 6’, Disney takes advantage of
one of their recent acquirements; Marvel Comics, which they bought in 2009, now
serving as the distributor for Marvel’s main film studio. Though strangely, the
fact that this is based off of a Marvel comic has not really been focused on at
all in the marketing. Regardless, Disney succeeds in giving us yet another
excellent animated film that ultimately can best be described as being similar
to what the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are like; loads of fun.
In the futuristic metropolis of San Fransokyo, 14-year old
robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) dreams of being accepted into the
prestigious university that his brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) currently goes
to. With Tadashi’s help, Hiro develops a series of telepathically-controlled
microbots in order to try and gain an invitation to the university, which he
does manage to get. However, on the day he shows off his new invention, Tadashi
ends up dying in a fire, and resulting explosion, at the university. Sometime
after this, Hiro discovers that the microbots, which were thought to have been
destroyed in the accident, are now being developed by a mysterious man in a
kabuki mask. Looking to catch this mysterious person who ‘stole’ his idea, and
who may also be responsible for the death of Tadashi, Hiro and his brother’s
invention, a personal healthcare robot named Baymax (Scott Adsit), form a team
of superheroes consisting of themselves and his brother’s friends; adrenaline
junkie GoGo (Jamie Chung), chemistry whiz Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez),
laser-cutting expert Wasabi (Damon Wayans Jr.), and comic-book fan Fred (T.J.
Miller) in order to find this mysterious man.
Whereas ‘Frozen’ was a return to the old-school Disney
musical, ‘Big Hero 6’, as you might expect given that it’s a Marvel property,
feels very much like one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, albeit in
animated form of course. It’s more action-oriented than something like ‘Frozen’
and the action in this film is truly excellent thanks of course to the one
thing you can always expect from Disney; great animation, with plenty of
eye-popping visuals that both kids and adults will no doubt love. This film
maintains the same ‘fun-loving’ tone that their ‘cousins’, the Marvel Cinematic
Universe films, have and as I’ve said before, that’s one of the best things
about those films in general is that while they do have their more serious
moments, they’re not all serious. But like many of Disney’s greatest films,
this will also no doubt appeal to adults because the visuals are backed up by
solid writing and the film does hit the right emotional beats at just the right
moments, with some legitimately emotional scenes, specifically when Hiro
grieves over the loss of his brother and a key action near the end that of
course I won’t dare spoil here. But once you see this film, you’ll know what I’m
talking about.
But of course, this film’s writing wouldn’t been as good had
it not had good characters, and this film does have great characters. The
relationship between Hiro and Baymax is the heart of the movie and while the
character of Tadashi isn’t in the movie for very long, you can definitely sense
a real brotherly relationship between him and Hiro. Hiro is a likable lead and
Baymax… let’s face it, is the biggest standout character of the film. It’s just
impossible not to like this character who has what could kind of be described
as almost like a childlike innocence at times along with his devotion to help
his people. The other members of ‘Big Hero 6’ are also really great as well,
with each of the other four main characters getting their own chance to shine
in the film. As for the main villain, whose identity I will not spoil, it’s a
neat little twist as to who it turns out to be and overall it does make sense
from a story perspective. It is admittedly better than the villains from ‘Frozen’,
who were actually rather weak. However, with that film, I didn’t really view it
as that big of a problem just because the other characters were excellent and
the story was well-written and had a lot of heart which I felt at least managed
to hide the fact that it had some rather lackluster villains. Had the villain
in this been weak, it would’ve been the same effect; everything else around it
is so good that it wouldn’t have been that big of a problem.
It’s safe to say that Disney Animation is in its second
Renaissance thanks to films like ‘Wreck-it-Ralph’, ‘Frozen’, and now ‘Big Hero
6’. Taking full advantage of their acquirement of Marvel Comics, Disney
delivers a film that very much feels like an animated version of one of the
Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. It’s loads of fun, has plenty of eye-popping
visuals, and features a great cast of lead characters. Not only that, but the
film also has the right amount of heart that you would expect from the studio
behind such classics as ‘Pinocchio’ and ‘The Lion King’. I’ve heard some people
already starting to compare this film to ‘Frozen’, some saying that this isn’t
really as good as ‘Frozen’ while others actually favor this over ‘Frozen’.
However, I’m not going to do that here, not just because I’ve only seen ‘Big
Hero 6’ once (I usually wait until I see a film twice before I start attempting
to ‘compare’ films) but ultimately because both films are entirely different. ‘Frozen’
is a musical while ‘Big Hero 6’ is the animated equivalent of the MCU films and
I feel that it’s actually rather unfair to compare two films that really aren’t
that similar. Regardless, both films are fantastic, showcasing the fact that
Disney Animation has once again proven themselves to be a force to be reckoned
with in animation.
Rating: 4.5/5
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