Baymax will be your new favorite thing this year

Rating: 7/10 (13 November 2014)

2014 continues Disney's animation streak with the Marvel comic adaptation Big Hero 6. Big Hero 6, set in the fictional metropolis of San Fransokyo, tells the story of Hiro Hamada, a prepubescent robotics inventor who teams up with a group of college grads who are blurring the line between science and magic to fight crime in their beautiful bustling city as the superhero team Big Hero 6. Hiro and his hipster friends comprise 5 of the 6 members of Big Hero 6, with the 6th member being one of the most lovable robots to grace the screen in years; Baymax. Baymax is a big plushy healthcare robot whose adorable naivety and soft squeaky appearance will make kids fall completely in love, and they'll be raving about him until their parents buy them that $80 Baymax action figure. Well played, Disney.
By no means is Big Hero 6 just a well marketed cash grab that will lead to countless toys, video games, and probably even TV shows. Yes, it most certainly is that because Disney has a job to do, but Big Hero 6 is first and foremost an exciting CGI adventure that never lets up on the action, the humor, or the spectacle, and even carries enough emotional weight to well up a tear or two. Just like its robot protagonist, this movie is just plain lovable. It's enjoyable from start to finish in almost every aspect.
The CGI is nothing short of astounding, as is to be expected from Disney. The design in everything from the art, architecture, and especially characters is fantastic. The city of San Fransokyo is one of the more beautiful cities ever rendered, but the beauty of the scenery doesn't even stop there as our characters visit mysterious islands and mile high worlds of air balloons, all providing unique and constantly changing visuals. The technical work of Big Hero 6 deserves an indefinite amount of credit for the world pulled off here.
And if you're not falling in love with the scenery you're hopefully falling in love with the characters instead. Each unique character comes with their own wildly entertaining personality fueled by a cast of fantastic voice actors including Ryan Potter, Damon Wayans Jr., Genesis Rodriguez, and Silicon Valley's always hysterical T.J. Miller. 30 Rock's Scott Adsit, with the help of some voice modulation, provides the voice of Baymax, whose voice has just enough robotic charm to be one of the most believable and adorable AI's in years.
My only issue with Big Hero 6 comes in its writing mainly, and in part from its story line. There were a number of times where I was reminded that I was watching a kids movie when characters would do things like reiterate points from before, just to make sure the audience hadn't forgotten. There were moments when things were over explained and over emphasized so that everyone was able to keep up. The fact that this is a kid's movie makes these little screenplay transparencies slightly more forgivable, but they still irk me. The story holds strong for the majority of the film, but the third act introduces some elements that seem to come out of nowhere and could have used more setup to allow them to carry more weight, All in all it works though, and the film ends on a great big happy note that sets the stage for endless franchise milking.
Big Hero 6 is worth the watch, no matter what issues it has. It is a solid 102 minutes of fun that will astound you visually, make you laugh genuinely, and might even draw up some tears at the beautifully sentimental moments between Hiro and Baymax. Disney continues to strike gold at their animation department, and I have a pretty damn good feeling this isn't the last we'll see of Baymax and the rest of the Big Hero 6 team.