HERO, HEART AND HUMOUR

MOVIE

Big Hero 6

Scott Adsit, Ryan Potter

Director Don Hall, Chris Williams

Review Ray Chan

DISNEY’S Big Hero 6 is set in a pan-Pacific technopolis called San Fransokyo, setting the scene for a mix of American and Japanese influences throughout the movie.
    And just like that curious mix of cultures, the studio seems to have surgically implanted the plush heart of a Pixar movie into the lumbering mechanical body of a Marvel property.
    Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) is a wayward boy genius whose equally gifted brother is killed in a freak explosion, leaving Hiro with a well of grief and his sibling’s masterwork invention, a robotic “health care companion” named Baymax, who’s amorphous, affable and emphatic.
    The initial scenes between Hiro and his new-found wide-eyed (in more ways than one) associate are among Hero‘s best, but the film shines with its climax, a smash-and-fly action fest involving Hiro, Baymax, and four research buddies who equip themselves as tech-assisted warriors to take on a masked supervillain controlling millions of tiny swarming micro-bots and a giant portal to another dimension.
    While all this kicks up a lot of narrative sediment, the story offers respite and knows when to pull back. Hiro’s sadness over his brother’s passing infuses every decision and emotional juncture in the film, and Baywatch’s non-violent programming offers an endearing counterpoint.
    At times, Big Hero 6 gets a little too noisy for its own good, but that doesn't drown out its many quieter charms.


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