An Otherwise Perfect Movie Marred by Disney Feel-Good Contrivances

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 2015)

Now, let me say that I am a HUGE Disney fan. Two of my Top 4 favorite films (Muppet Treasure Island at #1 and The Great Mouse Detective at #3) are both fun Disney family films that I happily watch again and again. I feel that Disney's film quality has dipped a bit since they went entirely the 3D animation, but I still think they put out great stuff. Anyway...
I didn't give this much thought when I first saw the trailers. Ever since I was so horribly disappointed by Muppets Most Wanted, I made a rule not to go see a movie unless its trailer got me interested. Big Hero 6's trailer did not.
However, after hearing all the positive reception it was getting, I finally decided to go see it no more than two hours ago at my local college theater. And, for the most part, this reception was well- warranted.
All of the characters are likable and memorable, which is the essential part of making a movie work: if no one likes your characters, no one will care what happens to them and therefore no one will care about your story. Baymax and Fred, who are easily my favorite characters for how lovably awkward Baymax is and how much of a fanboy Fred is, are probably the best of the cast. I can relate to both, and I love just how mindlessly optimistic Fred is about everything he does, even when he's in immediate danger.
The story is pretty simple: Hiro suffers a tragic loss, wants to apprehend those responsible, and recruits his friends to help him. Like the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, the story's nothing special, but you came for the characters, so it's adequate.
However, what's NOT adequate are two of the most bullsheit Disney "bad things don't happen here" decisions I have ever seen.
SPOILERS BEGIN HERE.
The first comes during the climactic battle with the main villain, who is out for revenge after his daughter was sucked into a wormhole machine. As the wormhole machine starts to collapse in on itself, a scan from Baymax reveals the daughter is still alive within the pocket dimension of the wormhole "in hypersleep". WHAT?! First of all, this revelation comes completely out of nowhere. It was never set up, "hypersleep" was never even mentioned during the movie, and as such it comes off like Disney didn't have the balls to leave a tinge of sadness in their movie. And they had the groundwork laid out so well! It was never said outright that the daughter was dead, per say, so that ambiguity could've been enough to warrant the villain being sympathetic. But, no, can't have ANYTHING bad happen in a superhero movie, right?
This leads to the next bit of asinine Disney bullsheit. While Baymax and Hiro (who didn't build a superpowered science suit for himself some reason) try to escape the wormhole, Baymax's thrusters get damaged and he is forced to sacrifice himself via Rocket Fist in order to get Hiro out of the wormhole at the cost of his own escape. This, you'd think, would be a very tragic but also perfect way to cap off Baymax's arc throughout the movie, right? WRONG! As it turns out, Baymax was somehow able to eject his hard drive with all his programming on it (without us seeing him do it) during the time he was dodging debris and pushing a pod inside the wormhole. When I saw him drift off, I was pretty saddened despite being miffed about the previous hypersleep contrivance. Then, this new contrivance slaps us in the face since Disney never allows any kind of bittersweet ending to its movies (*cough* Muppet Treasure Island *cough*). Plus, it makes Baymax's final farewell completely nonsensical, since by the movie's own logic, Baymax should not care about Hiro's wellbeing, having ejected that part of his programming. Stupid Disney executives...
But the last bit that was distractingly off-putting in this movie was when Hiro first has a shot at catching the bad guy, and he tells Baymax to kill him.
I'm sorry, WHAT?! I know he's torn up about his tragic loss, but this seems so out-of-character for him. He always came off as a tragic but still energetic character. Him acting so blood-hungry came out of nowhere. It was never foreshadowed or built up to, he just suddenly wants the villain's head on a spike. And I know the villain kind of pushed him to it when he hits Hiro with the "Too bad, so sad, who cares?" bit about his loss, but that still doesn't excuse Hiro from lowering himself to the villain's level just so the movie can draw parallels between him and the villain during the climax.
SPOILERS END HERE
With all that said, I still think this is a good movie with plenty of potential for sequels. I'm just glad they didn't try to push another movie in their post-credits scene.
On that, I would've rated this movie a star lower, but thanks to Big Hero 6, STAN LEE IS NOW OFFICIALLY A Disney CHARACTER. WOOHOO!