San Fransokyo teen Hiro uses
his technical wizardry to hustle his way to winning in illegal robot
fighting matches. His brother Tadashi recognises Hiro’s genius for robot
building and encourages him to take up a place at the ‘geek school’ for tech
whizzes where Tadashi has built huggable big nurse ‘bot Baymax. When a tragedy
befalls Hiro’s family, he must band together with Baymax and other allies from
the school to take on a mysterious masked figure who is using Hiro’s microbot
invention for his own nefarious purposes.
This Marvel-Disney mash-up
looked insufferable from the brightly coloured and barely coherent trailer so
it is a pleasure to report that Big Hero 6 is a surprisingly heartfelt and exciting
family movie. Baymax might look designed to simply sell a shed load of merchandise,
but he is actually the film’s true wild card. While the rest of the characters
pass by in a blur of colourful enthusiasm, but will linger as long in the
memory as the flavour of bubblegum lasts, Baymax really is a keeper. It is
amazing how much the big ‘bot manages to swipe your heart away, even if many of
the best moments are half swiped and rejigged from the poignant moments between the young
John Connor and his robot pal, the T-800 in Terminator
2.
Nevertheless, it may not be
hugely original but Big Hero 6 is the most exciting animated action film since
The Incredibles. When Hiro and his team face off against the villain, the
stakes are high, but more importantly the idea of revenge makes Hiro himself
into the most riveting character on screen. There are huge set-pieces, some
decent laughs, but the best thing about Big Hero 6 is the ultimate question of
whether Hiro will really be a hero or if his thirst for revenge will get the
better of him.
Most impressive is the fact
that Big Hero 6 balances its origin story perfectly with the introduction of its
super-villain. There might be some awkward exposition to begin with, but its
snappy enough that the story pieces together like a well constructed robot with
a heart as big as Baymax’s.
Watch the trailer:
More recent reviews:
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