Big Hero 6

                At this year’s Oscars, I wanted How to Train Your Dragon 2 to win the award for Best Animated Feature.  It didn’t.  Big Hero 6 won instead.  I was disappointed, especially since Big Hero 6 had not looked very interesting to me when I saw the commercials.  For the most part I was willing to leave it at that, but my mom was curious as to what everyone was so excited about.  I must say, now that I have seen the film, I can understand why people like it so much.  It is a cute movie with strong characters that turn themselves into superheroes.  There’s not a lot to dislike.

                Hiro (Ryan Potter) is a teenage genius who is not quite sure what to do with himself.  He’s attracted to the underground robot fighting world, but his brother, Tadashi (Daniel Henney), knows this is not a good place for Hiro to be.  Determined to steer his brother away from trouble, Tadashi takes Hiro to school with him.  He introduces Hiro to his friends and shows Hiro the lab projects they are working on.  Then Tadashi reveals his own project to his brother.  It is Baymax (Scott Adsit), a compassionate mobile health care system.  When active, it takes the shape of a friendly balloon man.

                Despite how interesting all these different projects are, Hiro is not fully sold on going to this school.  Then he meets Professor Robert Callaghan (James Cromwell).  Not only is Professor Callaghan Tadashi’s teacher, but he is also the man who invented the parts Hiro is using for his fighting robot.  Once Hiro finds this out, he becomes determined to get into the school.  The only thing he has to do is come up with a project that will be impressive enough to gain admission.     

                Even though he struggles a bit at first, Hiro does come up with a project to present.  When he reveals it, everyone is amazed.  Not only does he earn an invitation to join his brother’s school, but there is also a corporation that is interested in the project.  The corporation is willing to give Hiro a lot of money for his idea, but Hiro turns it down and decides to go to school instead.                 

                Excited about how they will now be going to school together, Hiro and Tadashi decide to visit the lab.  When they arrive, they find the lab is on fire and Professor Callaghan is still inside.  Wanting to save his beloved professor, Tadashi runs into the building.  In his efforts to save his professor, Tadashi ends up dying in the fire.

                Heartbroken, Hiro locks himself up in his room.  He doesn’t want to see anyone and doesn’t enroll in school.  Instead Hiro keeps to himself until he gets hurt and Baymax springs into action.  Hiro does whatever he can to make Baymax go away, but Baymax refuses.  He is determined to make Hiro feel better, whether Hiro likes it or not.

                As Baymax attempts to improve Hiro’s wellbeing, Hiro discovers someone has replicated his admissions project.  This may not be a big deal on its own, but the project Hiro came up with is now being used to cause harm.  Hiro wants to stop whoever is doing this, but the only person he ever sees is a masked man.  This man is powerful and he is too much for Hiro to take on his own.  Thankfully Baymax calls on Tadashi’s friends and they join Hiro in his mission.  They turn themselves into superheroes and do whatever they can to take down the masked man.  What none of them realize is that what starts out as a good deed will turn into an act of revenge for Hiro, and he will take Baymax with him. 

                As fun as this movie was, there were a lot of sad parts.  Of course the saddest was when Tadashi died.  The shots of his hat sitting alone on his bed were very difficult to watch.  Then there was Aunt Cass (Maya Rudolph).  Tadashi’s and Hiro’s guardian, all Aunt Cass wants is the best for them, and she’ll do whatever she can to help them get there.  Unfortunately she ends up hitting Hiro’s brick wall of grief, which is very difficult to get around.  As for the other sad parts, they will ruin the story so I will let you discover them for yourself.

                The movie as a whole was very cleverly written.  There were a lot of funny lines and I liked that each character was distinct and unique.  The writers could have easily made all the friends in the lab very similar, but they didn’t.  Each one had their own characteristics and quirks, which was talked about in one of the disc’s bonus features.  It was fascinating to learn how each character was created and how their individual identities were formed.  After watching that feature, it made me appreciate the characters, and the film, even more.