Big Hero 6 2014
I remember seeing some ads for Big Hero 6, but not much else about it. However it won the Oscar for best animated feature that year and it ranks quite well among Disney’s releases, so I went ahead and purchased it when I joined the Disney Movie Club. I did hear that it was a superhero movie based on a Marvel property, but not one many had ever heard of before it became a movie.
The movie starts out well, introducing us to two orphaned brothers in a future, more Japanese version of San Francisco. They are both interested in robotics, the older brother studying in college and the younger brother as a hobby and an outlet for teen angst The older brother has developed an inflatable white robot that you see in the ads, who is a little naïve and clumsy, but is a great character: a big soft clown created to be nice. I won’t give away much else, but I like the characters and the big white robot. Then the comic book stuff kicks in and the whole movie becomes much more by the numbers as we go from seeing these characters develop to a big action movie. There is still some development going on, but it kind of lost me. It is a good movie, but I was hoping for a little more complexity. The side characters are pretty flat with questionable powers (seeming more of a danger to themselves than others) and some of the technology seems very unrealistic, though interesting (microbots). I also liked seeing the alternative San Francisco, called San Fransokyo for its Japanese influence. This is a fun movie, sort of a Marvel Junior for kids who are maybe a little too young for the live action Marvel films.
Following Pixar’s lead, Disney showed an animated short before Big Hero 6 called Feast. This is also included on the Blu-ray and is not to be missed. It is a funny, sweet and romantic story about a dog, adopted off the street and cared for by a bachelor who shares his food with him before getting a girlfriend. The film won an Oscar for best animated short.
Written: 01 Oct 2016
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital