We Can Be Hiros

I don't usually go to movies because of the lack of diversity as well as the rising ticket price. On Saturday, I made an exception to see the new Disney CGI film Big Hero 6 at the Yonge/Dundas Entertainment complex. To get to the theatre, you have to ascend through several levels of stores and restaurants. Since I was already paying a premium, I decided to see it in UltraAVX instead of 3D.

The screen was quite large in this day of shrinking screen size. In fact, the whole movie theatre felt substantial (e.g., a going-out experience) including the reclining seats. I also thought that being able to reserve seats in advanced was a positive (since I was pushing it coming from a dinner in Koreatown).

The film centered around a teen named Hiro Hamada living in San Fransokyo. Although he was smart enough to design winning robots in underground bot fights, his brother Tadashi felt Hiro should apply himself and join his alma mater. After a tragedy killed Tadashi, Hiro joined up with the latter's colleagues to form a "superhero" team. One member of this outfit was an invention of Tadashi, a roly-poly inflatable robot called Baymax. Although meant as a "health care helper", Hiro re-purposed his new friend as an armoured fighter. Well, more or less, since Baymax acted better as a comic to Hiro's straight man.

The "superhero" and fight scenes were run-of-the-mill. The scenes that excelled were the interactions between Hiro and his new friend Baymax, and also with the other "nerds". I appreciated that the main protagonist as well as several secondary and bit-part characters were Asian-Americans, not only on-screen but also with the voice actors. Nothing special was made of their ethnicity outside of darker hair and eyes: no funny accents or fresh-off-the-boat jokes. The locale of San Fransokyo was more "exotic" with signage and buildings. But ever since Blade Runner, nothing says futuristic megacity than flying vehicles and neon kanji. One down side was the weak female characterization, though 2 of them were "kick-ass" but only in the tough-action-chick manner. Overall, this was a fun movie for both adults and kids.