851. Big Hero 6 (2014)

Starring: Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit, Jamie Chung

Director: Don Hall, Chris Williams

Running Time: 102 mins

Big Hero 6 is an American film about a teenage boy who forms a strong bond with a huggable robot called Baymax, and how those two team up with a group of friends to become a band of hi-tech superheroes.

Right, it’s clear that Disney’s Second Renaissance is still in full swing, because this is an interesting and certainly entertaining film, but I just don’t think it can reach the heights of Frozen. Whilst it was definitely an enjoyable film that held my attention, I felt that the story was lacking in any genuine emotion, the two main characters were irritating, the direction the plot took in the end didn’t work, and it all just seemed too much like a toy advert for my liking.

Let’s start with what was good about this, and the main thing was that it was entertaining to watch. The story is light enough for you to get through without becoming too critical of some of the glaring plot holes, so wherever the story didn’t really hold up, I was too busy enjoying some of the cool action and great gadgets to really care.

Also, the plot does have some interesting ideas to it. It kept me engaged for the full runtime, and although I wasn’t loving the experience of watching it, I was intrigued enough to think about the characters and the technology, which, although are totally preposterous, are still cool enough to simply enjoy.

However, the way that this story is executed just doesn’t work. It’s full of Disney clichés, and is often hugely predictable, and although Frozen did have the same problem, at least that was in itself a stereotypical princess movie, which knew it was playing with all of the normal orphan/damsel in distress clichés, and even tried to go beyond that, whereas this is just a bit safe, formulaic, and at times slightly too simplistic to be exciting.

That’s a bit of a shame, because the film starts relatively strongly looking at the gadgetry and inventions of the main characters, and it really highlights a very original tone. However, once it descends not only into a generic Disney film, but an annoyingly formulaic superhero movie, my real interest was lost, as well as my fantastic feeling for the originality that was so apparent at the beginning.

I was also not so amazed by this because of its two main characters. The teenage boy, Hiro, was pretty insufferable from the beginning, and any of his development later on seemed quite fake, whilst Baymax, the allegedly cute and cuddly robot, was a distracting and very dull character, and did not endear me at any point.

Finally, I have to say that this most annoyed me because it felt so much like a toy commercial. Whilst I was a big fan of The Lego Movie, that was something that was deliberately being a blatant advert, whereas this, with all its excessively bright colours and countless different outfits for the same character, was just really irritating to see shoved in my face.

Overall, this gets a 7.4, because it’s not a bad film at all, it’s in fact very entertaining and interesting, but it just falls down to some annoying aspects that came with a frustratingly clichéd and safe story.