Disney Animation’s Big Hero 6 is a futuristic sight for sore eyes
REVIEW: Big Hero 6 is a refreshing mix of American and Japanese cartooning kids will love and parents will find refreshing
Big Hero 6 (PG)
Directors: Don Hall, Chris Williams
Starring: the voices of Scott Adsit, Ryan Potter, Daniel Henney, Genesis Rodriguez.
Rating: 3.5 stars
All those zeroes and ones really add up
Disney Animation’s summer release is a futuristic sight for sore eyes, a Pixar-esque tale of a young robotics genius and his heartfelt bond with one of his automated creations.
DISNEY FILM SECRETS: Big Hero 6 producer Roy Conli
Comic-book buffs will already know Big Hero 6 draws its name from an obscure title in the Marvel stable, but that won’t matter so much to the movie’s target audience of 13-and-under.
The striking setting of Big Hero 6 is the bustling metropolis of San Fransokyo, a sleek and shiny combo of San Francisco and Tokyo.
It is here we find teen tear-away Hiro (voiced by Ryan Potter), an orphan who lives with his aunt and older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney).
The self-reliant siblings both share a prodigious talent for all things scientific, as evidenced by Tadashi’s design and construction of a magnificent medical robot named Baymax (Scott Adsit).
The software inside Baymax - a portly, marshmallow-like being - is designed to focus on the healing of humans.
However, in the wake of a sudden tragedy, Hiro takes it upon himself to reprogram Baymax into something more aggressive and decidedly less nurturing.
Without giving too much away, the ever-resourceful Hiro is hell-bent on revenge, and Baymax is very much the secret weapon powering his scheme to get square with an imposing enemy.
A number of other youngsters with crafty technical know-how later pitch-in to help Hiro and Baymax, each of them boasting a special talent that transforms Team Hiro into a high-school science-lab version of The Avengers.
The breakout character of this beautifully designed affair is definitely the big-hearted Baymax, whose blobby appearance is at odds with the steely logical reasoning he regularly dispenses to his young human counterparts.
Visually and tonally, Big Hero 6 is a cleverly arresting hybrid of American and Japanese cartooning that kids will love in a heartbeat, and their parents will find resolutely refreshing.
Originally published as Disney Animation’s Big Hero 6 is a futuristic sight for sore eyes