Me: “So, what do you think. Did it deserve to win Best Animated Film over The Lego Movie?”
11 year old: (thinking) “Um…”
9 year old: “Yes!”
11 year old: “It’s difficult to tell.”
Hiro has suffered loss in his young life. He is also a genius with robotics. I don’t want to say too much about the setup because it is important for the rest of the story. Discussing the film at much length without spoilers can be difficult. Suffice to say this isn’t just an action story about a team of young super heroes, there is an emotional core to the story and characters.
It is that emotional core that comes to the forefront the last couple of minutes. Like a punch to the gut there is a sequence of events that will absolutely tug at your heartstrings. I can understand why, particularly with this sequence, Big Hero 6 won best Animated Feature. The emotional resonance was still fresh in voters minds. Personally, I think The Lego Movie was better, more “fresh” and original, but it did not have the same emotional hook that Big Hero 6 does.
And I can see “Are you satisfied with your care?” being this generations version of “As you wish.”
Big Hero 6 is very well made. The fictional town of San Fransokyo feels alive and vibrant, full of activity. Plenty of visual detail and rich colors abound. The voice cast is good and writing gives each character time to shine and the relationships to feel natural. There is action, as you would expect, but it mostly takes a back seat to the various relationships, which makes the film that much better.
Special features paltry, which is a shame. For as big of a film as this is, without the Academy Award nomination, let alone win, you would expect more from Disney. No audio commentary, no picture in picture, and the featurettes we get are not only short but obviously culled from other stuff that has much more to it. We get a few deleted scenes with some introduction by the directors. and two featurettes which total less than 25 minutes together. That’s in. Also included is the short Feast.
I wonder if the 3D Blu-ray has more special features.