Big Hero 6 has Disney franchise potential

With another holiday season comes another conveniently released children’s film featuring a lovable mascot character destined to be the most-sold toy of the season. Carefully crafted and tested in focus groups nationwide, this soft, huggable conglomeration of all things marketable is sure to win over children of all ages. The character can almost be  guaranteed to reach a solid spot on their Christmas lists (behind maybe iPads, toy cars and video games).

While it may, at first glance, look like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (I couldn’t resist the comparison) it is, in fact, the defining character of Disney’s newest animated superhero film, Big Hero 6.

Simultaneously returning to and reinventing the long-since beaten-to-death genre of the Superhero Origin Story, Big Hero 6 adapts a lesser-known Marvel comic series into a CGI animated cartoon. Directed by Don Hall (Winnie the Pooh) and Chris Williams (Bolt), the film certainly has a lot to live up to. In this age of a somewhat saturated superhero market, is it a fresh, inventive story, aching to be told, or simply an attempt to cash in on a popular market? In truth, Big Hero 6 feels like a little bit of both.

Big Hero 6’s central plot details the struggles of young Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter), a 14-year-old robotics genius living in the futuristic city of San Fransokyo. A dedicated builder of robots for underground robotic brawls, he is soon convinced to abandon that life when his brother, Tadashi, brings him to his college to meet his friends. Fascinated with the inventive machines developed at the college, Hiro soon invents a series of incredibly small, thought-controlled robots capable of linking together in any form imaginable to serve as his admissions project.

Disaster soon strikes, when a fire at the university kills Tadashi, leaving Hiro alone and depressed. However, when a masked criminal takes to the streets, commanding the very microbots Hiro had invented, Hiro activates his brother’s healthcare robot, Baymax. Refitting the robot with battle programs and armor, Hiro and his friends become the titular superhero team, vowing to use their technological inventions to halt the spread of evil.

Much of the film plays out like a very typical superhero origin story while laced with very typical Disney-isms.  Like most Disney protagonists, Hiro and his brother are orphans, their parents killed by the insidious Off-Screen Disease. Given how close Hiro and Tadashi appear to be at the start of the film, it seems that Tadashi is a goner and by the end of the first act audiences won’t experience any shock.

In fact, the earlier parts of the film definitely feel the weakest since the audience is bombarded with  exposition since the film needs to establish exactly how and why these people become heroes before they can actually get to the meat of the film.

The only thing sparing the film from typical origin story mediocrity is the character of Baymax.

Seeing Hiro and Baymax interact with one another is what really brings life to this film. Their dynamic is a very non-traditional take on the mentor-and-student character relationship. Hiro, on one hand, relies on Baymax both as the vessel of his plans but also as his last connection to his lost family. On the other hand, to achieve his goals, he must refit Baymax, a healthcare robot, which by its very nature is compassionate and pacifistic, with combat mechanics designed to harm Hiro’s enemies.

The relationship is an almost tragic story of a wounded man lashing out at the world while those who attempt to help him also start to lose sight of their true nature to help their friend. In many ways the film is darker than much of what Disney has released in the last few years.

Of course many of these elements are much too dark for a Disney film to want to explore to their fullest. As a result, much of this subtext is left unexplored, existing only at a surface level. With plenty of wit and slapstick masking them at almost every turn it’s easy for these darker implications to get lost in the bustle. While I wish the film had dared to be a bit more ruthless in its storytelling, the end product is still very charming and even heartwarming in places.

On a more technical level, Disney as expected delivers with all its usual levels of excellence. The computer animation within the film is on par with recent films like Wreck-it-Ralph and Frozen, but a bit more polished. The characters (when compared to those films) are a bit more cartoonishly rendered, making them look more visually appealing and less like moving plastic dolls. The film’s world is vibrant, active and captures feelings of both the real and the fantastic.

While some of the dialogue between characters can feel a bit forced and pandering in places, particularly with some of the humor, it functions well. The dialogue is helped immensely by an excellent voice cast that really gives life and personality to each character.

While not precisely breaking new ground, Big Hero 6 lays the groundwork for what I hope becomes a running franchise in Disney films. The story, while focused and complete, leaves itself open for nearly infinite expansion. It would be an excellent service to this world to see the continued adventures of the Big Hero 6.

Overall rating: 3.5/5