My previous meager knowledge of the Marvel Comics superhero team came from an X-Men video game that identified Sunfire as a former member. The rather dopey-sounding team name reflected a Japanese identity. Imagine my surprise that they would be getting an animated treatment that, from the trailer, looked very unlike other comic book adaptations these days. I wondered if this would be what Marvel fans had feared ever since Disney bought the company.
Well, as with many a modern Disney feature (more common with Pixar, which this isn't really), the trailer fails to capture the greatness. If I hadn't known the origin of the title, I would've thought that Baymax the robot was a "Big Hero" model with "6" as a numerical designation. We see one other teammate, early teen Hiro, and they don't show off any special abilities. I wasn't even sure that Baymax could speak. He can, quite well -- and while he doesn't match WALL-E in cuteness, I want one of him even more than I want a DreamWorks dragon.
In parallel-world San Fransokyo (San Francisco rebuilt by Japanese immigrants after 1906), genius Hiro makes a good first impression at a technical institute with his awesome invention, but a fiery explosion at the fair costs him his older brother Tadashi and, therefore, his desire to leave the house despite urging from his aunt and new friends. Fortunately, Tadashi left him a highly adaptable robot, programmed primarily for medical purposes but also concerned with emotional healing. Together, they discover that Hiro's invention was not lost altogether -- and that its secret user needs to be stopped, hopefully without compromising their ethics in the process.
OK, the trailer is accurate insofar as Hiro and Baymax get a lot more focus than Go Go Tomago, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Fred (hope you can handle odd names). Those four almost seem like an afterthought, squeezed into the plot with a little difficulty and few opportunities for heroic coolness. I assume they'll enjoy more importance in the almost guaranteed sequel. It's not like they aren't interesting in their own right; at least they have more character than most of the Furious Five showed in the Kung Fu Panda movies.
Whatever they were like in the comics, they now come across as a combination of the Avengers and the Scooby-Doo Gang, only partly because they're in college. The Guardians of the Galaxy would look down on them -- except that what they lack in superpowers or athletics, they make up for in unique technology of their own brilliant designs. (Well, four of them. Baymax doesn't do his own programming, and Fred's a silly mascot who dreams big.) I guess they balance each other about as well as the X-Men, and more credibly given the harder sci-fi. Truly, this movie was designed to tantalize people who love technological advancement, and not just in action sequences.
Another thing BH6 has over most cinematic superhero teams is diversity. Just having a second heroine puts them ahead of all but the X-Men to date, but look at the racial/ethnic makeup: half-Japanese, Korean, Black, Latina...and the one fully White guy is frigging Fred. It makes no difference for how characters behave. If any of them comes across as a potential unfortunate caricature, it's Wasabi, who, according to a DVD extra, went from a zen type to a relative wimp. Should we blame Damon Wayans, Jr.?
The biggest problem in my book is the pacing, or perhaps the length. It's not frantic like The Lego Movie; it's just that, well, those four of the six aren't the only elements given short shrift. San Fransokyo has a huge set that we hardly get to appreciate, loaded with background cameos that require additional viewings -- probably Disney's plan all along. Some of the villain's actions could use further explanation; I doubt he's simply mad. It's obviously geared toward younger attention spans than The Avengers. (Younger brains, too: Doesn't anyone believe in patents?) Still, I prefer that problem to its more common opposite.
After a predictably heartwarming ending, I agreed with the Academy that BH6 outdid even How to Train Your Dragon 2 and The Song of the Sea. But unlike with those films, the more I think about it, the more flaws and weaknesses I recall. I've revised my opinion. Nevertheless, if you're up for some visually festive family fare with a typical Disney mix of humor, poignancy, and adventure and a less typical level of nerdiness, you won't go wrong with it.
BTW, Pixar is looking less and less necessary by comparison. Maybe in a few years, Disney will subsume the label altogether.
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