Middling animation for Disney

Rating: 4/10 (15 June 2017)

I was eager to watch this movie because it's abundantly clear that its aesthetic is influenced by anime/manga, a genre I'm not particularly familiar with, but appreciative of the art style all the same. And on that aspect, this movie definitely delivers. It's a cute, modern-day city that combines Japanese and American elements and that has an almost accolade-worthy devotion to racial diversity. But unfortunately, pretty much every other aspect of this film is stuff that we've seen before. I know that Disney, even without the high standards set by Pixar, is capable of producing stirring and classic features to this day. I would probably be more impressed with this film if it came from Dreamworks (and truth be told, it would probably be way funnier if it had been), but coming from Disney? Nowhere near the stature of Zootopia or even Frozen, as polarizing as that movie is. I enjoy superheroes and comics, but I feel like the film was massively bogged down by predictable action sequences and a generic, clichéd plot. The characters, while likable, are given so little time to develop that when they suddenly go into battle and are masters of acrobatics and combating bad guys, it's laughable. The stoner archetype Fred, however, was pretty funny, and Baymax had some chuckle-worthy moments too. People are lauding Baymax for giving this movie a heart, but I would argue that he was just the means to facilitate the message, for really it was Hiro's brother's legacy that lived on through Baymax that helped Hiro overcome his grief. It's touching, for sure, but frankly, Hiro's brother is just given too little screen time for the audience to truly connect to their relationship.
Probably the most confusing aspect to me was the villain. At first, the movie seemed to be espousing the merits of intelligence by encouraging engagement in technology, which is great. But then by the end, mixed messages of capitalism over education are seemingly established, which, political affiliations aside, is a confusing thing to assert to young children. This is all accomplished through a bizarre and convoluted villain twist that is the exact opposite of what we were set up to believe was very obvious, which is kind of annoying because the filmmakers deliberately knew that the audience would fall for their tonal framing. But regardless, the villain's storyline comes to an unnecessary and confusing end. Hiro literally sacrifices Baymax to save the antagonist's daughter...only to have them not even get an opportunity to reconnect as he's led away to jail. But then, the movie brings back Baymax from the grave, pretty much negating any plot development or message the audience could have garnered from that scene. It's a giant mess, and the surrounding scenes just can't excuse it.
I know I sound extremely negative here, but yet I still don't think this was the worst movie I've ever seen, and there's certainly more suspect and condescending media children could consume (I do think this film would mainly appeal to a young child, as its dialogue and story can be quite infantile at times). It had some humorous parts and a sincere heart, but it's just not quite enough to salvage the messy, overdone plot and underdeveloped characters. Disney can do better.