Anyways, onto the review. There might be SPOILERS so be careful and be warned.
BIG HERO 6: A DISNEY FILM
Let's start by saying this isn't a reinterpretation of the Big Hero 6 so much as an entire re-imagining of the Big Hero 6. The only way I could sort of compare it would be if someone took Star Trek and made it a movie about 1600's privateering where Captain Kirk led his British roughs across the ocean to find new lands to bring into the British Empire and the only real connection to Star Trek is the ship is called the Enterprise, it took five years to do their job, Kirk had some sort of foreign first mate, and the crew used the stars to navigate the ocean. It's -that- wide of a difference. So if you're a fan of the comics and want to see the comics translated to the screen, I will save you the time: Don't go. However, if you want what is a passably enjoyable movie, do go.
The premise of the movie is simple, a man named Hiro Takachiho Hamada is a young precocious boy who goes through the loss of his brother and when he discovers one of his inventions (which his brother urged him to build) is being used by a mysterious masked villain, he teams up with his brother's magnum opus, Baymax the medical robot, and his brother's former friends and colleagues to stop this man using his smarts, his friend's smarts (really just their bodies), and the power of duty and determination to save the day. Though I apologize if I've spoiled the movie by saying Hiro wins at the end.
All in all, the movie was enjoyable. Disney's new Hyperion thingie works well as seen in the image above I couldn't center because I'm too dumb to figure out how (it IS set to center oddly enough), the music was good and Fallout boy has a song called "Immortals" you will here often, the animation was excellent, the voice acting was awesome, and the action was very well delivered. The studies of vinyl balloon robots was put to great use in Baymax's interactions with the world physically, his function, and how he even behaved. The character designs were all pretty unique, sharp, colorful, playful, and a pity we didn't see more of. Though a problem I had with the movie was the extremely cookie cutter formula it had. Everything about this movie was a cookie cutter. The story, the villain, even all the characters. Hiro is the detached boy who experiences tragedy and becomes something more through purpose and duty, Baymax is his cute and lovable sidekick, GoGo (not Tomago) is the rough girl who is all cold on the outside but has a heart of gold, Wasabi is the overly paranoid rule follower who shows symptoms of OCD, Honey Lemon is the mousey team player who wants nothing but the best for others, and Fred is the dorky extra who is thrilled by his dangerous predicament and provides much of the comedy relief outside of Baymax. They're all...ugh...adorkable (I hate that word). They're just so... ordinary for this sort of movie. There's no real depth to any of them. Even Hiro with his battle bot hustling loses character when he is turned student turned hero story loses depth, and it really all moves due to how the characters behave as opposed to how they grow. If you like witty, funny, well animated stuff without the cumbersome drama of growth you will love this movie. It's a movie for all ages, after all.
I just thought of a movie where there's comparable characters: How to Train Your Dragon. You can fill in the blanks there.
But going back to the story and characters, it was just all so ordinary, and what I was looking for was the awesomeness the characters from the comics had. Sure the comics were a parody of what the writer thought Japanese superheroes would be like, but they became so much more and were so interesting. Talking about the movie characters alone: Hiro was a man who lost his father and built Baymax (no brother involved) to basically replace said father, gave Baymax his father's mind waves, ridiculously cool transformations, and even a good personality that extended beyond pulling at heartstrings and comedy and even possibly shared some romance with Hiro's mom. GoGo Tomago (Leiko Tanaka) was a criminal who worked for several gangs and was given an exo-suit which possessed energy projection capabilities to be part of the Big Hero 6 in exchange for parole and that explained her hard and jealous exterior, not because she's some tsundere (manga cred, what up) who is hard on the outside and gooey on the inside, GoGo is just one tough girl all around and is unique in that regard. Wasabi no Ginger was a chef who utilized swordsmanship, shorts, sandles, and Qi energy blades which could render opponents unconscious. Honey Lemon was anything BUT mousey, was ridiculously confident, beyond smart as the inventor of a purse which utilizes wormholes to store anything infinitely and can pull it out from her purse, as well as being a gigantic flirt who was significantly more secretive (as she was a secret agent and all). Finally Fredzilla was nothing like his Fred counterpart (see below) personality wise. Fredzilla (who in the comics HATES that code name) literally channels a Godzilla like monster which appears and makes sound around him and enhances his physical power. Fred also is the least connected to his team, does not really want to be a hero, isn't all that comical, and just...well... he's a significantly more jaded, negative, cynical individual. He doesn't look to impress anybody, he doesn't want to really be a sign flinging mascot, he just wants to not have to deal with crap.
There is also the case of actually how the characters are portrayed. Now I'm not going to say, "This be racist!" because it's not, but this might be unintentional whitewashing of an entire team. Oh, I know, Wasabi is African-San Frantokyian, but is really more or less put in there to have racial diversity (GoGo and Hiro already were racially diverse), while forgetting the team is actually constructed of Japanese people. It's sort of weird, because Honey Lemon is more of a Japanese model who wears scant clothes and loves the camera, Wasabi is a portly middle aged Japanese guy, and from what I remember Fredzilla is also Japanese. I get Disney has to appeal to the widest audience and having an African-San Frantokyian is a good idea in that regard, but why not just leave him as distinctly Japanese and the chef of the school or something? That's what I mean by huge re-imagining, because none of the characters are anything like their comic book counterparts. I wouldn't say it's a bad thing, but maybe a missed opportunity to represent more Asian heroes since Marvel is already starting to branch out with big African-American (African-Falcon?) and women heroes already. I guess I would like to see the inspiration kept because the Big Hero 6 was a very Japanese (if maybe a little stereotypical Japanese) team and to strip that away sort of makes the entire title seem weird. Wasabi could've worked in the cafe with Hiro's aunt and maybe pulled him in as a secondary lovable sidekick/mentor guy. It's not like the rest of the movie wasn't filled with stock types, might as well put in a mentor. Okay, I forgot that Hiro lives in a blended family so it's not like there isn't any form of racial representation anywhere in this film. Let me reiterate, I just think a chance was lost here. Hiro got top billing most definitely and obviously is Asian, but I just wish more of the crew reflected their origins as well. I don't know, maybe I'm missing something here and I'm being an old man who dislikes change or something. Not that it would make this excusable but you know...whatever. I think. I'm really not sure what to add on that.
But don't let this dissuade you, or make you think there's some agenda either way. The movie is still good and fun. I'm glad my girlfriend forced me to see it (I don't normally want to go out to watch movies in the middle of the week), and I had fun even if it didn't meet what I was personally looking for. Variety is the spice of life, and while there's no variety in terms of other movies, there is variety in colors I guess.
Gonna use the Good/Okay/Bad system again. Slightly modified for movies.
Visuals: GOOD
The graphics were extremely well done as always with this sort of fare. The environment was gorgeous in this film, the characters were lush, the colors were vivid. All around it was a pleasure to watch. I really wish I saw this in 3D because this would have been amazing. How this ties to the Choreography was nothing short of a big treat.
Sound: GOOD
Truly it was. The music fit perfectly and was just loud enough without being too loud (I honestly thought the movie started off louder than Terminator Salvation, but it seemed to smooth out). The microbots and all the character's movements had a real vibrancy and oomph of satisfaction to them. Nothing felt underplayed here. Voice acting was excellent, and obviously especially on Robert Scott Adsit's side as Baymax. When characters sounded desperate and sad, they came off that way. It really was polished.
Choreography: GOOD
Fight scenes were fun. Watching the flooding of the microbots and how they interacted was absolutely out of this park homerun awesome. The teamfight was well done.
Characters: OKAY
You probably found it surprising I didn't label the characters as "BAD," but they really weren't. They were just okay, middle of the road, cookie cutter, run of the mill in many ways. They existed just to sort of be characters different from Hiro so Hiro simply isn't the only character in there. It's odd, but they're almost decoration who provide little to nothing else to the film but convenience. I would've really liked to have seen their personality quirks actually contribute to the fighting. They were like...I don't know, place holders for ideas. Basically to explain why certain pieces of technology exist and why they have them. Wasabi worked on plasma so he gets plasma blades, GoGo worked on electromagnetic discs so she got a suit reflecting that. But they were really all designed by Hiro and from then on served as being Hiro's extension. This was really my only gripe with this movie is just how wasted the characters felt. They were serviceable, I just wish they were more than that. The characters were very humorous though. In fact, you'd be forgiven if you thought the titular BH6 only ran on two modes: Quirky and humorous. It's odd, but everybody else seemed to have a little more depth to them in that regard. Still fun to watch them, though. Okay, I'm not being totally fair, the BH6 also had sad and anger specifically for Hiro. Also, more Mochi. They really wasted Mochi. Next time Mochi needs to be part of the BH6, but the team would be renamed Mochi and his BH6 but not change it to BH7 because that would imply the BH6 are Mochi's equals and not simply his subordinates. Sort of like Wolverine and the X-Men.
Designs:GOOD
Characters were extremely well designed. Everybody looked unique, from the stocky Wasabi to the laid back Fred to the athletic looking GoGo to the lanky Honey Lemon, etc. When in their costumes they are instantly recognizable and fun to watch when the characters are allowed to shine. Special mention obviously goes into Baymax who clearly got the most attention in this movie in focus, development, and design. From his ballooned body being an entirely "huggable design" as was the intent, Baymax is clearly the anchor visually with the diversity from being a healthbot to fightbot to herobot. He exudes a calming and inspiring effect depending on his form and that works out really well for the movie. However, my favorite design is the "Kabuki Mask Guy" who's real name is [REDACTED] and his design was truly the best in the movie. Honestly, how they married his black suit on black trenchcoat on black head cowl and his mask was chilling. Especially when paired with the robots he controls. He almost looks like something straight out of a professional villain's gallery considering he was an entirely original character. In fact, I'd go so far as to say he's the best designed villain in the entirety of BH6's very limited rogues gallery. Since Marvel isn't afraid to translate success to their comics, and I'm sure BH6 is going to get the Marvel NOW treatment, I hope the villain gets the transfer as well. It might not work out as long term villains need more than what this guy offered which only might work in the short term view of a movie, but a man can dream. God that design and power pairing was a stroke of genius, even more than the rest of the BH6 combined. Menacing, chilling, stoic, it was just really -really- well done.
Story: OKAY
Let's be honest, this movie is all about the visuals and few moments of heart string plucking. The movie feels fairly generic in regards to what happens in it, and everybody plays their part like a fine tuned puppet show. The story isn't bad by any means, but you see everything coming from 15 miles away. But that's the problem with so few characters and such high focus in a movie like this. You know everybody's involved and because of it you can quickly figure out who wears what hat. But like I said, this movie was a visual showcase which runs on thrills and humor. The story serves that function perfectly well, even if I wish it were more. "What are you expecting out of this movie, Mak?" I don't know. The reason behind human existence and suffering I guess. At least the answer to why I can't stop eating Kit Kat bars.
Pace/Consistency: GOOD
Story moved along at a nice clip with nice little turns throughout. I might almost say the movie felt a bit rushed at under an hour and a half, but I might be getting too used to the bigger blockbuster movies which clock in at over twice the time. I'm sort of glad this movie was shorter (God I wish the trailers and pre-movie film were), but a little longer would have given the characters not named Hiro more to do. Still, the pace and consistency were really well tuned and thought out. Fights didn't drag on and were satisfying, the story was brisk as well. You felt pulled along for the ride but not washed out into the street. But seriously, trailers and that pre-film "Feast" were just way too long. It was just... They weren't bad I guess, but I sort of got frustrated by how much waiting I had to do. It was like THIS SORT OF REVIEW of the Duck Dynasty game by the witty Jim Sterling
Rewatchable: SURE
I could see people wanting to see this movie again, and I'll probably buy it on DVD if for any other reason than how much my girlfriend enjoyed the movie. It's not overly long, it's not boring, and it's definitely not ugly. This was a well crafted movie that many people will definitely enjoy the heck out of. It's an all ages sort of show and will appeal to kids and adults alike. I say this because the audience was five to one in favor of adults at the showing I went to and everybody had a blast. Maybe except me because I'm bitter and old.
GRAND SCORE:
GOOD
Go out and enjoy the Big Hero 6 with friends and family today. Or you can be that person (guy or girl, I won't judge) who goes alone and makes fathers nervous because they don't understand your desire to enjoy things without others.
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| Pretty much sums up about how I feel about the character re-imaginings. |
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