Directed by Chris Williams (AKA the voice of Oaken in Frozen) & Don Hall, this would be Disney's first ever adaptation of a Marvel comic (although I have never read the comics nor am I a Marvel fan) despite the fact it wouldn't be marketed as a Marvel film, wouldn't be considered part of the Marvel canon & several people who worked at Marvel were consultants on it. Oh yeah, and the reason why characters Sunfire & Silver Samurai who were in the comics aren't in this is because of their affiliation with the X Men series owned by Marvel! Featuring the voices of Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit, TJ Miller, Damon Wayans Jr, Genesis Rodriguez, Jamie Chung, Maya Rudolph, Alan Tudyk (yeah, I'm guessing he's kinda like Disney's equivalent to John Ratzenberger at Pixar now) & James Cromwell, can some Disney magic bring Marvel to life in animation, or will it be mediocre & get a 6/10? Let's find out!
Story: Considering Disney had a really hard act to follow after Frozen, I have to say that this is a good follow up! And the only thing I shall compare to Frozen is the sibling relationships because I find it unfair to compare a fairy tale film to a superhero film which are completely unrelated! Anyway, the brotherly relationship between Hiro & Tadashi in the first act is really the heart & emotional centre of the film as it carries over to the relationship between Hiro & Baymax after Tadashi tragically dies (not really spoilers since he dies in the first act & was heavily implied in all of the trailers) & honestly, this is probably the best recent example of a heartwarming boy & robot relationship next to The Iron Giant (even though I think Iron Giant did it much better). And the fact they actually go into how Tadashi's death affects Hiro & his actions throughout is very well done & a rather surprising move for Disney! Anyway, as for the main plot itself, it's more of an origin story for the main 6 characters & how they became superheroes, similar to all of the other recent Marvel films out there like Iron Man, but also more simplified for children despite the heavy theme of death & losing a sibling. Honestly, this part didn't really interest me as much along with the third act getting pretty predictable partly thanks to the characters (we'll get to that in their section). The comedy is also great mostly because of Baymax & his hilarious lines/innocence or the physical comedy making me laugh so much throughout! It is also very interesting to encourage children to get interested in science & robotics & it's interesting to see how each field the characters study in be integrated into the action scenes. If there is one thing I had an issue with, it would mostly be the third act after the reveal of the villain, which is pretty predictable despite the twists (I don't know, after the third time, it seems a huge twist of who the villain is is now becoming a Disney cliche within itself), but I will say that the reasoning behind his villainy makes him surprisingly tragic during the third act. Considering it had a VERY hard act to follow with Frozen, I must say that with the combination of Disney & Marvel & a lot of heart put in, this has managed to succeed being a great superhero film for all ages!
Animation: Considering Disney finally mastered computer animation when doing Tangled, this is yet another amazing example of it! The character designs, while still having that classic Disney style to them also have a bit of an anime style obviously to pay tribute to the fact it's based on Marvel, rather it be the clothes or the hair on Hiro (oh yeah, the supersuits for the film are also very memorable as they manage to incorporate what field of science each character studies in). The character animation is also very well done in a realistic matter, but considering they added in robotics rather it just be Baymax or Yokai's microbots, it can get very creative & very useful during the fast paced action or chase scenes. Also, the special effects are also really well done But easily the best part of the animation is the backgrounds of San Franksokyo. While having the typical Western style of San Francisco with the architecture of buildings in Tokyo, it manages to have a very distinct & creative style which genuinely surprised me! The attention to detail is absolutely perfect on the texturing, especially during the fight scenes, the microbots whenever Yokai or Hiro controls them in chase scenes, or even just the detail in the architecture in San Fransokyo like in Hiro's & Fred's houses. I don't think I have any issues whatsoever when it comes to the bright & incredible animation as the combination of the US Disney style CGI & the Japanese influence in the designs have made it a sight to behold!
Characters: Hiro Hamada (voiced by Ryan Potter), a 14 year old robotics genius, while at first is a bit cocky with going bot fighting, can become a very sympathetic lead after his brother's death & trying to cope with it thanks to Baymax & considering he's starting puberty. Tadashi, Hiro's older brother, is a very likeable character & a more realistic type of older brother in that he doesn't want Hiro to throw away his future given how intelligent he is in robotics, and the relationship between them in the first act just makes it that much sadder when he dies (not really spoilers since that's in the first act & Hiro's main motivation throughout the film) As for the rest of the group, they can easily be qualified by their personalities, with Gogo Tomago (voiced by Jamie Chung) being stoic & specialising in electromagentics, Wasabi (voiced by Damon Wayans Jr) being neurotic almost OCD specialising in laser science, Fred (voiced by TJ Miller) being the fanboy type who's surprisngly very interesting once you see the post credits scene (of course, with an obligatory Stan Lee cameo like in every Marvel movie) & Honey Lemon (voiced by Genesis Rodriguez), easily my favourite being very adorkable & quirky specialising in chemistry. Actually, am I the only one who was reminded of the animated series 6Teen with the characters? Not just because they look similar with Gogo to Nikki, Honey Lemon to Caitlin, Wasabi to Wyatt & perhaps the most obvious, Fred to Jude, but their personalities are also rather uncanny. Honestly, the problem I have with all of them is that because they have specific personalities & quirks, none of them are given any dimensionality & feel like cliches! And then there's the villain, Yokai & he is such a great villain with his motivation making him surprisingly tragic once you realize what his main goal actually is. But the issue I have with him is that his reveal is pretty predictable once you get down to it (I won't say who, but let's just say they went the Frozen route by using a red herring voiced by Alan Tudyk) There's also Aunt Cass, (voiced by Maya Rudolph), Hiro & Tadashi's guardian & owner of a cafe in San Fransokyo, whose also likeable & can be funny with her eccentricity. And finally, there's Baymax himself, voiced by Scott Adist, who is easily the best character in the film! With his huggable design & being a nurse-bot, he is so so funny throughout thanks to his innocence along with being Hiro's emotional crutch when trying to cope with Tadashi's death as, well, that's his main goal throughout the film! With a likeable cast of characters, this is the cherry on the top for not only a great Disney film, but also a great superhero film in general!
Overall, Big Hero 6 is a charming animated film & another great addition to the Disney canon with gorgeous animation, a heartwarming yet action packed story & a cast of likeable characters! As for if it's on par with Frozen, I find that a bit unfair since they're completely different films with Frozen being a fairy tale film & Big Hero 6 being a superhero film, but I think they're both amazing in their own domain for very different reasons. I'd definitely recommend this to Marvel fans despite the obvious differences with the source material, or those that like the popular recent big budget superhero films like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor & The Avengers. As for the short that preceded the film Feast...well, I'll be doing a separate review of it cos I have A LOT to say about it! Oh yeah, and if you're ever doing fist pumps with people after seeing this, you might have random spouts of saying 'Ba-la-la-la-la' afterwards! But I'm just gonna be honest, I don't think this should've won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature because while it is really good, I don't think it's Disney's best & How To Train Your Dragon 2 I felt dealt with the similar themes much better & more maturely (it doesn't really help that Dreamworks is going downhill at the moment).
Story: 8/10
Animation: 9/10
Characters: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
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