A little while ago I entered a competition through Fatso.co.nz to win tickets to a special advanced screening of Disney’s Big Hero 6. I wasn’t expecting to actually win tickets so it was a lovely surprise when I found out I was one of the people to receive a pass!
I will be writing a more in-depth review after Christmas, but I just wanted to do a quick write-up of the highlights before the holidays.
Big Hero 6 is the 54th film by Walt Disney Animation Studios and is the follow-up to last year’s hit film Frozen which is currently the highest grossing animated film of all time. It is also the first animated Disney-Marvel feature film to be released since Disney bought Marvel Comics, Inc. earlier this year.
The film adaptation is set in San Fransokyo. Robotics prodigy Hiro is about to be accepted in to College at age 14, when his older brother Tadashi is killed in a suspicious fire. Hiro’s ground-breaking robotics work is also supposedly destroyed in the same fire.
Hiro discovers that his brother’s last project, a medical assistant robot called Baymax, is still active. Together with Tadashi’s college friends, Hiro and Baymax form ‘Big Hero 6’ to try hunt down the culprit who is responsible both for Tadashi’s death and the theft of Hiro’s microbots.
Lighting:
I loved the way the light seemed to glow through Baymax the robot, whose outer skin is made from vinyl. In this interview, Disney’s Chief Technology Officer Andy Hendrickson explains some of the technical difficulties faced by the team lighting a character like Baymax:
Big Hero 6 is a fun film, and definitely a great holiday outing for the family. We were in a cinema that was packed with young children and they were glued to the screen the whole way through! It seems like the story is just warming up, so I am looking forward to the next film in the franchise to see how the characters develop. The film tried hard but I just wasn’t feeling the emotional scenes – a few missed opportunities would have taken this film from great to fantastic.
Squibble’s Squee O’meter
Squees: a polite 7/10
Related Links:
AWN: Conceptualizing Disney’s ‘Big Hero 6’
Next Time:
A more in-depth review plus my thoughts on the new Disney short ‘Feast’!