Review - Big Hero 6

Big Hero 6 (2014), PG, 102 minutes - Big Hero 6 is the latest film from Walt Disney Animation Studios and is based on the Marvel property of the same name created by Man of Action in the late '90's. It marks the first Disney animated film to feature Marvel characters since it acquired the comic/film company back in 2009.

Hiro Hamada is a young robotics genius who has taken up entering and betting on underground robot fights because he is bored by the usual activities of a fourteen year old kid. In an effort to push Hiro in a more productive direction, his older brother Tadashi convinces him to apply to his university where he is a student in the robotics department. In order to gain admission, Hiro must enter the robotics exhibition, from which only the most impressive inventors are accepted into Professor Callaghan's program. Hiro's microbot presentation earns rave reviews and he is accepted. As Hiro, Tadashi, and their friends Go Go, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Fred go out to celebrate, a fire breaks out in the exhibition hall and Tadashi runs back in to try and save Professor Callaghan. That's when the entire building explodes. Hiro is understandably devastated. He keeps to himself, generally in a depressed state, until he accidentally activates Tadashi's robotics project Baymax (a personal healthcare robot). Around that time he realizes that he still has a part of Tadashi around after all. He gives Baymax some programming upgrades in order to help track down whomever caused the explosion. Solving that mystery becomes his priority and after an intervention of sorts from his friends, he accepts their help in locating and bringing Tadashi's killer to justice.

As you'd expect from a Disney Animation production, Big Hero 6 is animated beautifully. The voice over work by Scott Adsit (Baymax), Ryan Potter (Hiro), Daniel Henney (Tadashi), T.J. Miller (Fred), Jamie Chung (Go Go), Daman Wayans Jr (Wasabi), Genesis Rodriguez (Honey Lemon), James Cromwell (Robert Callaghan), Alan Tudyk (Alistair Krei), and Maya Rudolph (Cass) is also very well done.

Aside from the tragedy that entails the group's origin story, Big Hero 6 is a really fun film. Disney did a great job of combining an existing comic book property with Pixar-like heart to create an Oscar nominated animated film that should be enjoyed by just about anyone.

*****SPOILERS*****

- Even though this isn't a Marvel Studios film, I think they snuck in the usual Marvel film Stan Lee cameo.  It looked like Lee was in one of the family portraits in Fred's house.