Even though the movie is called ‘Big Hero 6’, the story is about a 14 year old Hiro and his brother’s cute and lovable healthcare robot: Baymax. The remaining time is unevenly distributed between the other four members of the team.

Big Hero 6 (2014)

The team is an awfully typical one where you have the main protagonist, a black dude, a tomboy, a nerd and a crazy one. Sticking to the stereotypes is what makes the team completely forgettable. The likelihood of you finding a kid who is a fan of ‘Fred’ or ‘Honey’ is guaranteed to be negligible. Most kids’ll probably forget this movie for the generic superhero flick it is.

Baymax is intentionally adorable and makes for an excellent viewing especially when you’re depressed or have hyper kids and toddlers to satiate. His robotic capabilities don’t seem far removed from where we currently are in healthcare and biped automation ( think Boston Dynamics). I noticed a few inconsistencies though:

  • Hiro’s brother Tadashi mentions that he’s coded over 10,000 medical procedures into Baymax. That seems like an really small number given the variety of possibilities that doctor’s have to deal with in healthcare scenarios.
  • When his battery is low, Baymax acts like an inebriated human which leads to a comical effect. This is not how any machine or computer responds to power shortages.
  • It is implied that Tadashi’s green chip gives Baymax his personality filling in the role of Tadashi after his death. Any smart 14 year old like Hiro would’ve considered taking backups and not relying on the only copy of the chip.

The other team members are completely helpless without Hiro and Baymax: not exactly a team is it? They could’ve entirely removed the team and used the extra time for much better things like:

  • Tadashi’s relationship with Hiro.
  • Callaghan’s contribution to the robotics community and improvements over Hiro’s mircobots
  • Krei’s teleportation project and the limbo where the original Baymax is left behind

The story also had a real shot at introducing hardware hacking and the hacker culture in general to a large and young audience. But instead it ends up belittling the amount of effort required to come up with the kind of technology portrayed in the film.

The airborne wind turbines and the hybrid city of San Fransokyo form the backdrop of quite a bit of cool artwork during the credits:

Big Hero 6 - Airborne Wind Turbines

That and the other superb visuals keep this movie going. The story deserves more love, character focus and less superhero trite.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (Average)