February 24th, 2015 by Stinkhead
Buy Big Hero 6 (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD)
We’ve been waiting months to bring home Disney’s latest animated feature (and third highest grossing ever!) Big Hero 6. It’s a refreshing change from Frozen for the dude Disney fans out there… but don’t get me wrong, boys and girls thoroughly enjoy Baymax and his cohorts. But some of us take comfort in the lack of songs.
Big Hero 6 is a great superhero tale about a boy and his robot, who team up with his four friends to defeat a mysterious supervillain. You’ll fall in love immediately with Baymax, our unconventional healthcare companion. Click below for my review.
The Story
In true Disney fashion there is a bit of heartache when a significant character dies, but it’s balanced with adventure, humor, and a great hero arc. Our hero, Hiro, is a little directionless, having excelled too easily in school, he has taken to hustling robot fighters for money. His brother Tadashi encourages him to apply to the technical institute and actually use his talents to help people. He introduces Hiro to his inflatable healthcare robot Baymax, as well as his friends in the lab, each with their own quirks and talents. When it appears the kabuki-masked Yokai has harnessed Hiro’s microbots and is using them for evil, the friends team up and harness their natural talents and inventions to become super heroes.
I love that science and hard work play such an important role in the story, but they fit in organically. This film is different in that the heroes are all nerds, so it’s not a novelty to have the nerd put his inventions to work. In addition to rewarding perseverance, academics, girls in science, and acting unselfishly, they also kick in a “vengence never pays off” zinger. I found zero faults with this movie.
The look
Beyond the impeccable story, Disney Animation’s team fully embraced what CGI animation is capable of these days. You would not be able to bring to life the microbots or unique texture of Baymax’s body with traditional animation, or even CG animation from ten years ago. It’s refreshing when artists fully utilize a medium, and not just produce some garbage because they know you’ll pay money to watch it. Big Hero 6 is solid in both story and look, and it’s a thrilling ride the whole way through.
The extras
My son and I watched each of the bonus features. Jamie Chung the voice of Go-Go, hosts a behind-the-scenes feature that showed kids the process to putting the movie together and recording the voices. I found that even though I’ve seen hundreds of BTS bonus features, it was still fairly entertaining, but easy enough for my seven year old to enjoy. Now he’d like a career in computer animation. Or voice acting. The Oscar® winning short Feast is included, as are some deleted scenes in the form of hand drawn animatics. We also found the easter egg, which points out easter eggs from other Disney movies hidden in the background of the film. It’s pretty easy to find if you get to the Bonus feature menu and look all around you.
I can’t recommend this movie enough. It was one of my favorites from the entire year, animated or otherwise. If you don’t have kids, you’ll still fall in love with it. In this cluttered landscape of reboots and sequels, this movie if very refreshing. Yes, it is based on an obscure Marvel comic, but it’s really its own animal at this point. If you don’t take my word for it, ask the Academy, as they gave Big Hero 6 the Oscar® for Best Animated Feature. I feel it was truly deserved.
The toys
I know Disney took a bath with Bug’s Life merch, but it feels like they really screw up the merchandising on their films. Or maybe they don’t care. Frozen was a whole movie ago and they’re still selling Frozen crap everywhere. Where’s the Wreck-It Ralph merch? My family was in Disney world three weeks after Wreck-It Ralph was number one in theaters, and we could not find a single thing to buy. No action figures, no t-shirts, not even a keychain. This holiday season, tracking down Big Hero 6 merch was as equally daunting. Luckily we got the Snap-On Armor baymax and a 4″ scale Fred. I just got back from Toy Fair, and Bandai had a few more Big Hero 6 toys coming out, but not the tidal wave that is Frozen. Check out my Bandai Toy Fair gallery for some more pics. We finally got the 4″ white Baymax, who comes with the hairy baby, and we’re looking forward to the Hatchn’ Heroes coming out later this year.
So what are you waiting for? Buy this movie now! It’s one of the very best from 2014.
Big Hero 6 (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD)
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