Big Hero 6 Review.

Children’s animations can often be very hard films to make. They are a balancing act between a good well told story, an energetic pace, amazingly animated visuals, great jokes, interesting characters, and if you do all of this you also need to make it work for both children and adults. Whilst Disney Animation have been doing well recently with the likes of “Wreck It Ralph” & “Frozen” neither of those films are anyway near the quality of their latest motion picture “Big Hero 6” .The film is actually a result of the Disney Marvel partnership as the film is very loosely based of a Marvel Comics property with the same name.

The film opens with beautiful wide shots of the colourful and detailed. “San Fransokyo” (A cross between San Francisco and Tokyo). It is in this bustling metropolis hidden in the backstreets we find our main protagonist “Hiro” taking part in an illegal “Bot Battle”. Hiro has designed his own robot which is impressive and demolishes the competition. Whilst Hiro can hold his own in the robot battle ring though once he is out the streets he is cornered by thugs. Soon his brother comes to his rescue him. From this opening five minutes we get a very neat idea of who Hiro is, he’s bright but doesn’t know what to do with himself and keeps getting into trouble. Throughout the rest of the film Hiro proves himself as a fascinating complex character still learning who he is. (Most of the film is dealing with how Hiro manages how to grieve and his struggle with preventing himself from taking ideas about revenge too far). Hiro’s brother (Tadashi) takes him along to his own university lab and introduces Hiro to his friends who later form a key part of the story. It's here Hiro finds inspiration soon he is fighting for a place at this elite academy by showing off his new robot invention. On the day of the presentation however tragedy strikes his new technology is taken from him and  he also suffers a much more personal loss.

It's after this point Big Hero 6 really picks up. It becomes a story about grief and the way that we cope with it. Hiro’s arc of loss and the desire for revenge is mirrored by the arc of the villain as well. Initially Hiro shuts himself away but soon Baymax enters his life. Baymax is a large white inflatable robot whose only function is to care. As such Baymax is committed to aiding Hiro soon Hiro unites with his brother's friends and slowly comes to terms with his loss.

I previously mentioned the Marvel connection. Interestingly enough it also has another connection in the form of the third act. Like with many Marvel films the final act finds our heroes in a large battles where people are flying around in fast snappy sequences with lots of intercutting between characters. In other films this may be troubling as it means a loss of character or stake yet in this film it really works we get a true sense of who these characters are and because it is a film about grief  you really do believe these characters might come into some danger and you like them enough that you hope and care about their individual survival.

Big Hero 6 is one of the best animated films I have seen in a while a heartfelt tale of loss and friendship presented in amazing snappy visuals with characters who really feel like interesting fun people.

Five Stars 

Big Hero 6 is released in the UK on January the 30th