Big Hero 6 (2014)
Directed by Chris Williams
A special bond develops between plus-sized inflatable robot Baymax, and prodigy Hiro Hamada, who team up with a group of friends to form a band of high-tech heroes.
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28 films that influenced Big Hero 6
What critics say influenced Big Hero 6
Meanwhile, there’s some seriously fun action scenes (without some of the darkness and violence of other superhero films) that recall “The Incredibles.”
As far as 'toons go, it's probably most reminiscent of Pixar's "The Incredibles," given that both are stories about superhero teams.
Even if we’re just limiting ourselves to discussing animated superhero features, it wasn’t long ago that Pixar introduced us to The Incredibles -- a film that actually borrowed a good number of plot elements from Alan Moore’s Watchmen , one of the densest comic book stories ever written.
So, too, does the movie create parallels with “The Incredibles,” Pixar’s brilliant yarn about a family of misfit superheroes; when the plot mandates that Hiro and his schoolmates “enhance” themselves for battle against a this new and dangerous villain, they step into the roles of skilled alter-egos using their knowledge of science to fuel the physics of their costumes and super powers.
Big Hero 6 may be a little too glib to reach the heights of The Incredibles or The Iron Giant , but if you can’t have Brad Bird, this is pretty much the next best thing.
There’s a “zombies are people, too!” plot thread in here that’s taken right from the frames of Return of the Living Dead, Land of the Dead, Fido, Shaun of the Dead, Warm Bodies and a handful of other zombie flicks that are each better than Steers’.
In that vein, this is something of a kissing cousin, and a PG-rated one at that, to a somewhat similar set up in "Terminator 2" where Edward Furlong's character ended up teaching Arnold Schwarzenegger's android about being human (including the use of various slang phrases), all while ultimately learning a thing or two about humanity from the 'bot.
They are reminiscent of those moments in Terminator 2 when John Connor taught an otherwise murderous machine to become a kinder, gentler automaton.
A big, inflatable buddy—he's like an air mattress with arms, legs, and a head—Baymax is a cross between Wall-E, E.T, the Iron Giant, and Arnold Schwarzenegger's benevolent protector in Terminator 2. He's sweet and a little simple—his programming requires him to inquire constantly if Hiro is suffering any physical or emotional pain, which, duh, he is, because he lost his brother—but he turns out to be the companion the kid needs.
It harkens back to 1996’s The Iron Giant, though San Fransokyo residents are seemingly unfazed about seeing Baymax walk around their streets, unlike the people in that film.
The core of the film is the relationship between Hiro and Baymax, which is similar to the 1999 film “The Iron Giant,” also about a young boy and a robot.
They’re quite a pair—one not seen in movies since 1999’s The Iron Giant—though Hiro isn’t battling crime as much as he’s simply trying to move on from his brother’s death.
Like the robot pals in The Iron Giant and T2: Judgment Day , Baymax winds up exceeding his original programming — but where those robots were weapons humanized by bonding with a young boy, Baymax is a caregiver who becomes weaponized.
The movie is like a variety pack sampler of previous ’toon tales, with obvious lifts from The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, How to Train Your Dragon and Scooby-Doo.
In a blend of The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, Hiro and Baymax bond while also teaming up with Tadashi’s classmate friends (the film is refreshingly free of jabs at science “geeks”) to solve the mystery of the fire and the Kabuki mask-wearing fiend who’s stolen Hiro’s world-changing invention.
Beyond the fanciful implication of its original material – a comic book series that I never heard of prior to this undertaking – the movie also finds traces of inspiration from “Real Genius,” an obscure ‘80s comedy that effectively helped launch the career of Val Kilmer.
Baymax belongs to Hiro (Ryan Potter) and Tadashi (Tadashi), a pair of robotics and engi-nerd orphans straight out of Revenge of the Nerds or Real Genius.
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Except for Baymax, and possibly Hiro, the team members are rudimentary sketches of clumsy or foxy nerds; the amiably doltish Fred, for example, is simply a pale copy of Shaggy, the Scooby-Doo sidekick voiced by Casey Kasem .
Sure, it’s got robotics and superheroes, but it also has plenty of emotional resonance and, of course, merchandising gold in the form of an oversized, huggable vinyl balloon of a Personal Healthcare Companion that bears more than a passing physical resemblance to the star of Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro.
Appropriate for a movie that spans the divide between East and West — the action occurs in a San Francisco/Tokyo megalopolis called “San Fransokyo” — there’s also a debt owed to the art and characters of Studio Ghibli’s vivid fantasies, in particular the giant magical caregiver of My Neighbor Totoro.
(As voiced by “30 Rock’s” Scott Adsit, the character serves as a walking comedy routine — a throwback to the way Paul Reubens played things in “Flight of the Navigator” a generation earlier.)
I'm not talking about myself, necessarily - I tend to be like Emperor Joseph II in Amadeus , only instead of hearing "too many notes" my eyes start glazing over at the sheer tonnage of cool shit on the screen.
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Baymax evidences the same kindness as the robot played by Robin Williams in Bicentennial Man whose mantra is "glad to be of service."
Big Hero 6, which is directed by Don Hall (Winnie the Pooh) and Chris Williams (Bolt), is the product of the ruthlessly calculated mating of two giant brands — Marvel, owners of the comic book superhero team on which the movie's loosely based, and Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disney's flagship of animated features going back to 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.