As long as Disney have owned Marvel, there’s a been a gentle tick-tock in the background as to when both would come together to make a superhero film from comic book origins, and of all the properties available, no-one would have suspected it’d be the Big Hero 6. Not that where the characters come from is really a matter worth caring about, as this 3D animated cinematic adaptation cherry-picks any resemblance to any of the publications from the team’s 10-year print span. But still, Big Hero 6 is the kind of Marvel/Disney crossover we’ve been waiting for, with all the effervescent magic we’ve come to expect from Disney’s studios, meeting the slightly gnarlier heroism Marvel can now lend them. Despite not being the first superhero team we’ve seen with Disney’s stamp on it, this is one that dares to be a little different.
Bearing no shame in keeping elements of the manga aesthetic from the comic, Big Hero 6 opens in an East/West metropolis conglomerate known as San Fransokyo where Hiro Hamada, played by Ryan Potter, our young protagonist, is engaging in illegal robot fighting for kicks and cash. Hiro is an easy winner, brash, naïve and over-confident, but still withholding his innocence and right to be a child, albeit with a brilliant mind. He finds himself under-stimulated in the standard life of a teenager, until his brother, Tadashi, shows him medical marvel Baymax, and tells him he can study at the same university as his older sibling and gain respectable peers worthy of his intellect. At this university, tragedy strikes, and it comes down to Baymax, Hiro and his new circle of similarly minded-geniuses to investigate and gain redemption.
Underneath all the frills and fireworks that come with a heroic team-up film such as this, Big Hero 6‘s heart lies in family values, both simulated and otherwise. Hiro and Tadashi live with their single aunt (Maya Rudolph) who runs a café, and her over-bearing motherly-ness carries a sharp pang whenever she meets Hiro on-screen as he attempts to deflect her efforts to care for him, and her own duty of care makes an emotional analog with Baymax’s ceaselessly caring programming as Hiro immediately rejects both out of hand, re-programming Baymax to be a device of destruction. Hiro’s journey is one of obvious heroic redemption, but its also one of pro-actively engaging with and creating a family base. His anger becomes the lead detriment to the team’s construction, and it isn’t until he accepts that, unlike the back-alley robot fight clubs, he does not need to be alone to succeed that the group can come together as a unit, strengthening bot him and each other in the process.
The rest of the team, filled out by Fred (T.J. Miller), GoGo Tomago (Jamie Chung), Wasabie (Damon Wayans Jnr.) and Honey Lemon (Géneis Rodríguez), each bring a distinctive fighting style to the team dynamic, but more importantly, each has a unique personality that doesn’t fold into a bland stereotype after the first act. Though perhaps more time could be given to each back-story, the on-screen chemistry is felt and there’s a great desire to see each given more screen-time in the inevitable sequel. The great weakness lies in the very clichéd villain, whose motives and final reveal are so drab and predictable that they almost feel like a tacked on after-thought in a moment of “we spent all this time making the heroes, what will we do?” “Ah just grab one from the pile in the ‘Straight To DVD Villain Designs’ room.”
There’s a lot about Big Hero 6 that has a freshness to it; its a pallet cleanser for both Disney’s animation department after the powerhouse that was Frozen, and a superhero film that doesn’t take itself quite so seriosly. Co-directors Chris Williams and Don Hall are both new to a film of this size, and its plain to see they had a lot of fun constructing the world and the characters therein, with Henry Jackson’s score giving the whole production just the right bounce it needs to just fly by. Does it fall perhaps a little close to Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles for its own good? Yeah, a little, and the pandering for a sequel leaves the ending a touch deflated, but as the first of what I’m sure will be many Disney/Marvel collaborations in the future, this is as good a start as any.
Flawed but fun animation with plenty of heart. 8/10
