The Weekend Review: Big Hero 6

In which I review a selection of last weekend's entertainment.

For as lackluster of a job as it actually is, working for AMC is not without its benefits.  Being able to see any film that I want to for free lead me to seeing The Book of Life while it was still in theaters and kept my wallet from bearing the burden of seeing Interstellar.  Most recently it got me to go to Big Hero 6: a film that I probably would have waited before its DVD release to see otherwise.

Fourteen-year-old Hiro Hamaada is a robotic prodigy who wastes his genius on hustling participants of illegal, back alley robot fights.  Hating to see his little brother's talents squandered, Tadashi Hamada convinces Hiro to enroll in the Sanfransokyo Institute of Technology by introducing him to his eclectic group of friends and their current scientific endeavors.  But after Tadashi dies in a fire at the university, Hiro becomes convinced that it was no accident.  He retrofits Baymax - his brother's health care robot - into a super-powered fighter and joins with his brothers friends - electromagneticist GoGo, chemist Honey Lemon, laser spectroscoptist Wasabi and school mascot Fred - to bring his brother's killer to justice.

Although some have lauded Lucy as the most thematically pro-science film of the year, that honor unreservedly is held by Big Hero 6.  While most superheroes are creatures of physical prowess - think Superman, the Incredible Hulk and Thor - the Big Hero 6 are all defined by their intellectual attributes.  With the possible exception for Fred (whose heroics are based on his experience as a costumed mascot for the university), each character's powers are derived from the scientific discipline that they study.  Gogo's Flash-like speed and agility are based on her research in creating frictionless electromagnetic axles; Honey Lemon's versatile assortment of chemical bombs are based on her research as a chemist; Wasabi's light saber-like blades are based on his study of lasers; Hiro's integration with and upgrades to Baymax are based on his uncanny knowledge of robots.

The film also gives us the best justification of superheroics since Uncle Ben's famous mantra of "with great power comes great responsibility."  Before Tadashi can run into the burning auditorium to rescue people that he knows for a fact are still inside, Hiro grabs him and begs him not to go: it's obvious suicide.  With quiet resolve, he tells his little brother that "someone has to do something" before running in to his death.

The rest of the film deals with Hiro coming to terms with Tadashi's death with startling frankness for a PG-rated film.  When he accidentally activates Baymax, the robot insistently gets to work at improving Hiro's emotional state: helping him uncover the mystery surrounding the fire that killed his brother and assembling the Big Hero 6.  He does the latter not as part of a crime fighting crusade, but because contact with friends and loved ones can help Hiro work through his depression.  His insistence that "Tadashi is here," coupled with the test footage of Tadashi building Baymax, is perhaps the best realization of the lasting legacy of loved ones since The Lion King's revelation of "you see, he lives in you." 

The characters are all uniquely well-written, ranging from overly personal, emotionally disinterested, obsessively compulsive, lackadaisically zen and interpersonally distant.  Even Baymax, a character whose every trait is defined by pre-programmed responses, is as endearing and as memorable of a character as his human companions.  In some ways, however, this highlights the one problem that cropped up with the movie: its brevity.

Disney seemed so hyper-focused on how long a children's movie aught to be that they were blind to how long this one in particular should have been.  It's the same templated mind-set that nearly resulted in "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" - a cinematic highlight that went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song - being cut from The Lion King for runtime concerns.  I can't help but feel that an extra fifteen or twenty minutes would have made the film perfect: giving us more time with Tadashi's friends before he died, watching them interact with the ambitious young Hiro and more fully displaying their commitment to him as being something better defined than as an abstract obligation to a deceased friend.

I cannot wait for a director's cut of the film to come along and solve that one issue that I found with the film, because everything else about it is no less than fantastic.  It is a mature film that handles mature themes deftly enough that they can be understood and internalized by a very young audience without fear that it will be too much for them.  Hiro's first flight with the newly upgraded Baymax is as thrilling as hiccup's first flight with Toothless and Baymax's physical comedy is on par with WALL-E's wordless humor.  It is as exciting as any other film to come out this year and is easily one of my favorites of 2014.

The best way that I can endorse this film is to simply describe the how the seven-year-old that I saw it with reacted.  He was on the literal edge of his seat the entire movie: wide-eyed and mouth sluffed open.  He thrillingly cheered during the fight scenes - so much so that we had to quiet him down - and reflexively noted how sad Tadashi's death was.  The smarter-than-necessary script kept him constantly trying to predict what was going to happen next and who the villain in the Kabuki mask was.  He left the theater excited and smiling and completely enamored with the cuddly white robot cum superhero.

As for myself, I give the Big Hero 6 an incredibly high 8 out of 10, with the distinct potential that a longer cut of the film will bump it up to 8.  In a year of uncharacteristically strong animated features, Big Hero 6 is easily one of the best.  Although it's not quite up there with The Lego Movie nor The Book of Life - at least right now - it is an absolute must see for children, families and superhero fans.

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