11/6/14

Big Hero 6

Before I start this review, let me mention "Feast," an animated short that is paired with this main feature. It stars an English bulldog named "Winston" (naturally); we watch him grow from puppy to adult dog, bond with his human and share both food and love. Animation just gets better and more heartwarming all the time! NOTE: This wonderful piece has been nominated for a 2015 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film....and just won!

Our main attraction is about a young science protégé encountering an extremely talented villain who uses the boy's own invention against him! This wonderful PG-rated Disney feature film has the usual array of film stars slumming as voice actors, so I'm going to skip my usual names and their credits. Instead I want to share what I think a child will learn from this film:
  • Sometimes a very smart older brother can trick his even smarter younger brother and the results can be very, very GOOD!
  • It's not that bad to be a geek.
  • It's fun to watch a robot learn to use his brand-new body.
  • Sometimes it takes teamwork to reach a goal.
  • Everyone has a talent to offer.
  • A single-minded robot can be extremely funny.
  • It's easy to get off track and forget your goal.
  • A bad guy may have a good reason to be bad.
This is a Marvel comic flick. We see the origins of various super heroes, we hear very funny character-driven banter between them, with NO insult humor; this is important to me! We see a LOT of vehicular mayhem on San Fransokyo's hilly (and narrow) streets, plus aerial mayhem when the main action starts.

Hiro is an orphan and Baymax the robot's attempts to comfort him when he suffers a loss are sweet and insistent. (Baymax is a Pillsbury Dough- boy-type healthcare provider designed by his older brother.) Our hero's pain is realistic and the animation is brilliant. We screened this in 3-D but I saw no compelling rea$on for the extra expen$e.

Again we had uninformed parents see the word "Disney" and bring toddlers to the theater. Again we had to endure disruptive departures as the little'uns were bored to tears. ...Sigh... The rest of us really enjoyed this one! In fact it has been nominated as Best Animated Feature Film for a 2015 Oscar.
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Here is a peek:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3839339545
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