Big Deal

The recent animated feature Big Hero 6 (2014) got a lot of love, and I can understand why - it's got a lot of the Pixar and Marvel stuff that Disney absorbed. It's set in a future San Fransokyo - a Japanized San Francisco. The hero, Hiro, is a kid who builds and fights robots - hustling in underground fights. His big brother goes to Robot College and built Baymax, a soft, inflatable medical robot. When big brother is killed, Hiro and Baymax team up with his classmates to fight crime (or something). Also, teleportation.

The team is kind of fun - a punky motorcycle chick, a candy cutie biochemist, a big fussy black man and Fred, the Shaggy of the group - not a scientist, but the school mascot furry suit wearer. He was my favorite until I realized how Scooby Doo he was. He does get some of the best gags, though, and his dad is played by Stan Lee.

The artwork is just great, especially San Fransokyo. It looks like a great place to live. Hiro and family live in a Painted Lady, with a coffeeshop on the ground floor where Hiro's aunt and guardian works. It has a nice, lived-in look, like the rest of the city. Semi-spoiler - the teleportation sub-space universe was also beautiful, full of floating clouds (tribute to Miyazaki?).

But in the end, we didn't really love this. I think a big part of it was the Shaggy problem - most of the movie seemed to be lifted from someplace else, not necessarily someplace awesome. So rather than something fresh, it seems like a very good episode of a TV cartoon show you can't quite remember.

Or maybe, as I've said before, we just aren't the target demographic. It was nice to look at though.