Hiro (yes, our Hero is named Hiro) Hamada is a teen genius – 14 and already graduated from high school. Raised by his aunt Cass and his considerably older brother Tadashi, Hiro has yet to find direction for his genius and when we meet him is making money by hustling in "bot fights" – robot combat duels with significant money riding on them. His cockiness almost gets him in serious trouble, since he doesn't recognize that tricking people involved in illegal operations doesn't just get you a stern talking-to. Fortunately big brother Tadashi shows up in time to keep Hiro from losing a few teeth or worse.
Tadashi is about as bright as Hiro, fortunately, and realizes he needs to get through to his brother, and does so by getting him to go to the laboratory where Tadashi works, ostensibly just as a side trip but in reality to show off the incredible work being done by students at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology.
The ploy works; Hiro's absolutely stunned by the group of brilliant students and their work, ranging from a plasma cutting matrix made by Wasabi to the magnetic levitation wheels by Go-Go and the chemical wizardry of Honey Lemon (all the names are in-house nicknames) as well as Tadashi's own project, the healthcare robot named Baymax, and his reaction is that he has to go to this school.
Admission to the school depends on demonstrating that you have what it takes, and Hiro racks his brain for something that will prove, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that he's good enough to run with the best. Finally, one of his old battle-bots gives him an idea, and he runs with it, creating what he calls "microbots" – very small robots which can function in directed masses to perform virtually any task that the wearer of the appropriate controller helmet can imagine. These are somewhat similar to the nanotechnological "liquid metal" of the T-1000 from the Terminator series, though much more discrete (each one is about half an inch long and maybe an eighth of an inch thick) and individually having a fair amount of power storage.
His demonstration wins the crowd, and the attention of Dr. Robert Callaghan (in charge of admissions to the Institute) as well as entrepreneur Alistair Krei; an exchange between the two indicates that there's bad blood between them, but the overall tone is positive from both men as to Hiro's invention.
But the night that should be a celebration is shattered when the exhibit hall bursts into flames. Tadashi, knowing Callaghan is still inside, sprints in to save him – and the entire building explodes. Not only is Tadashi killed, and presumably anyone else inside; Hiro's microbot project is destroyed, the only remains being a single microbot.
Hiro is broken by the loss; even the other students, who've come to see Hiro as their little brother as well, can't get him out of it. Even the discovery that Tadashi's robot Baymax is still active barely gets much out of Hiro.
And then the single microbot begins to respond to signals that shouldn't exist…
Big Hero 6 is a grand salute to comics, manga/anime, sentai, and all of modern pop hero culture; it takes all the tropes and uses them, plays with them, and occasionally switches things around, and does so with energy, abandon, and wide-eyed wonder that makes this one of the movies fully worthy of the hype that surrounded it.
Hiro is an excellent shonen protagonist, with enough flaws to challenge him to surpass them, and become the hero he really wants to be. His teammates cover the expected traits – the Big Nice Guy, the Tough Girl, the Chick, the Clown – but do so with panache and their own unique traits that make each one stand out beyond merely their costumes. They're well enough done that I can't really decide which one I like best.
Baymax – the marshmallow-like healthcare robot who becomes the Big Bruiser of the team – is especially well-developed. It is never stated that Baymax has emotions, or that he doesn't; but as time goes on his behavior grows more complex and nuanced. This is partly Hiro's doing; in order to get Baymax to help him accomplish his goal – find the guy who stole his microbots and (presumably) was responsible for the death of Tadashi – he has to frame the requirements in a way that makes Baymax accept this as part of Hiro's healthcare. Baymax does have psychological treatment data, and so this does work… to an extent. But it also means that Baymax comes to understand Hiro, and through him people, far better than Hiro realizes… making Baymax more than the automaton he was when we first meet him.
The major villain, who has stolen Hiro's microbots and is using them for nefarious purposes, is actually quite terrifyingly vicious; he makes it clear that he's willing to kill young people who happen across his secrets, and damn near succeeds twice. Yet even he has a past, and one that may not excuse, but explains, his actions.
It is interesting that, ultimately, even though the group become a superhero team, Hiro himself has no special powers – no blades, super speed, etc. Unlike the typical shonen hero, he's not the frontline man, nor the one who will be battling the Big Bad hand-to-hand in the end. He has armored himself for protection, and given himself communications, because his power is his mind. He's not a warrior – he's a strategist, and as he gets beyond his personal problems and starts to really think, this becomes brilliantly clear. The others are also extremely bright, but Hiro's at least a step above them, and they all realize it – and have no problem being his weapons in the fight against evil.
Oh, and like many movies of today… wait until after the end credits for a final and most amusing scene…
This is one of the most fun movies I've seen in a long time, and I recommend it as highly as possible!
Thank you for the review, I’ve been prevaricating over whether to put this on the list of things to watch, and your description of the story seems like it is something well worth watching.
I really wish I’d seen it in the theater; I suspect it’d be even more awesome there. Certainly there are a lot of sequences which would very much benefit from that.