Shocked at the Hate this film is receiving from the General Public

Rating: 7/10 (2 June 2015)

It is no secret we are in a new Disney revival era, just as we were in the middle of the Disney Renaissance in the 1990s. The release of The Princess and the Frog seemed to see to that, almost acting as the Little Mermaid 20 years later. Then along came Tangled with it's memorable songs, lovely animation, strong female lead and darker plot(characters being stabbed, hung etc) paralleling Beauty and the Beast. Which was followed by Wreck it Ralph, the film everyone was excited to see just as they were Aladdin, (many video game characters in one place/Robin Williams as the Genie-RIP) And then Frozen came along and everything exploded! Love, constant singing of the songs, quoting, cosplay, fan tributes, merchandise, as well as many similar plot points- is definitely the Lion King of the 21st Century. As most of those who grew up in 1995 will be aware that after the highest grossing 2D Animated film of all time was released, Disney decided to do something new. They released their ambitious project of Pocahontas, the first historical Disney film, telling of the Native American princess and her life as well as her meeting with John Smith. It received mild reviews from critics and even less complimentary reviews from the general public who said it wasn't as interesting as The Lion King and messed with history. Big Hero 6 is the Pocahontas of this decade. As Frozen was such a huge hit, skyrocketing it's way to highest grossing animated film of all time, it only makes sense that it would be hard to top that.
Big Hero 6 is based on a Marvel comic of the same name. It takes place in the fictional city of San Fransokyo, in an alternate universe where America helped Japan to rebuild after the earthquake in the 1920s, supposedly changing history so that the Second World War never happened. The city is new and modern and filled with burgeoning inventors creating robots to benefit mankind. One of these is a 14-year-old tech prodigy named Hiro Hamada, who attempts to get into a special "nerd school," however after the death of his older brother Tadashi, Hiro's plans are cut short. He eventually finds comfort in a nurse bot Tadashi made for him named Baymax who has little emotion but is programmed to love and care. When Hiro discovers a masked villain has stolen his microbot inventions, he teams up with his friends from the tech college to create a superhero task force to hunt him down. The good things about this film are VERY GOOD. The animation is lovely and the city is a unique style of both the US and Japan, for example my favourite piece of architecture was the golden gate bridge redesigned to look like a scarlet Shinto temple-how cool is that?! Second the characters all seem very genuine. Hiro is a real 14 year old boy who is smarter than most his age and who becomes very passionate and nerdy when he talks about what he loves. Tadashi is a kind and caring older brother, but he still teases Hiro and occasionally gets caught with him by the police after an illegal robot fight. The Aunt who takes care of The story is nice and surprisingly mature, especially since it deals a lot with death and loss. Tadashi's death is one of this saddest deaths I've seen in a Disney movie in a while. There is a fire in the tech college and Tadashi runs in to save one of the professors and in turn loses his life after a fiery explosion. The aftermath is heart wrenching-pictures and flowers being laid on the steps of the building, everyone in black, dressed up for a funeral for Tadashi in a rice paddy graveyard. The wake at the house. After that it does go back into cutesy again but still doesn't shy away from the harshness of sudden death and the impact it has on families. Once Hiro discovers the professor Tadashi tried to save is alive as masquerading as the Kabooki mask villain, his anger takes over causing him to change Baymax settings to killer mode and nearly dooming everyone. The bad things are actually quite minor. As an adaptation it does need changes. Some are small, like Wasabi being African American instead of Japanese however I do like the students who later team up with Hiro and they don't get enough screen time! II like Gogo Tamago and her rebellious streak, I like Honey Lemon and her chemistry obsession. Much like the Incredibles I wish there was more focus on the other team members instead of just two. The only thing that bugs me about this movie-I mean REALLY bugs me-is actually the fact that Baymax lives. I know that sounds horrible, but Hiro had already learned that death could happen to anyone so first of all Baymax being dead for months before being reanimated was really unnecessary. If anyone needed to learn about death it should have been Baymax himself, robots do learn even if they don't show emotion. I think it's the same as Frankenweenie, I wasn't pleased they reanimated Sparky because Victor didn't learn his lesson that bringing dead things back to life was wrong-and the townspeople of New Holland encouraged it! So is it a bad film, or a really terrible one? Of course not. It's a fantastic film. It's very very sweet, sad funny and there's a lot of Disney care put into it. I don't think it deserves such a bad rep from reviewers on here. This film is perfect for 6 and up. I say the best way to watch it is with your family and kids in your living room.