Big Hero 6

[Ben]

Well, as consolation, you do get Marvel Studios movies before the US does. Which is a little strange, considering who owns Marvel….

But...Big Hero 6 is a...well, y'know, kinda...

Actually, I usually don't see Marvel movies at the pics since I know I'm going to get the discs anyhoo, although of Phase Two I have seen Iron Man Three and Guardians Of The Galaxy (but still need to see Thor from the first phase!).

Pretty obvious there would be a post-credit scene, though: Disney's been doing that since Lasseter took over, putting little things at the end of their films, as Pixar did, to "reward" those that sat through the credits (which, to be fair to Disney and Pixar, they do try and make entertaining by way of the artwork and little animations, although I always sit through credits to hear a film's score anyway), so I'd have been more surprised if Big Hero 6 *didn't* have such a moment.

And...yeah, I'm with Droo on BH6's outlook in Japan...the thing is going to be HUGE there.

[EricJ]

And...yeah, I'm with Droo on BH6's outlook in Japan...the thing is going to be HUGE there.

Particularly since it'll be titled "Baymax", and be seen as Incredibles 2: the Big Cuddly Thing, since they don't really parse Marvel comics very well.
(The Marvel anime adaptations are rich proof of that. )

[Dacey]

Frozen is the third highest grossing movie of all time in Japan, and was on top for months there. So, let's not set our expectations for Big Hero 6 too high.

But yeah, Big Hero 6 was great, and continues Disney's hot streak (Winnie the Pooh aside). I wouldn't put it quite up there with Frozen or Tangled (or Wreck-It Ralph, which its probably more comparable to), but then again I've only seen it once at this point, and I'm sure this is a movie I'll love more and more with each viewing. Not much to say about it that hasn't been said about other people here, except that I would've liked to see Hiro bond with his college friends on a more individual level than he was able to. They were all fun and instantly likable characters, but they always functioned as a "group," and it would've been nice for the story to give them chances to shine on their own. Then again, this movie is about Hiro and Baymax, which ultimately has to be the heart of the film, so I can see why making Hiro--who is meant to be lonely--too "close" to anyone else might've taken away from that.

I will also say that I was very impressed with the character animation for Baymax, who really looked and felt like a balloon. And in 3-D at least, you could actually see through him, and I have no idea how the animation department was able to pull that off, but it really did give him a lot of "weight." There were other moments where he and Hiro were flying that were clearly inspired by How to Train Your Dragon (right down to the editing and the musical score), but they were so well done that I couldn't complain.

And yeah, Alan Tudyk is really becoming Disney's own John Ratzenberger, with the difference being that he is sounding very different in each film. Also, in terms of Easter Eggs, Hans is actually in the movie twice, appearing once on the wanted poster at the police station, and then later on as the statue which Baymax quite satisfyingly blows up.

Finally, regarding Feast...was I the only one who kept worrying that they were going to end that short with the dog dying?

[droosan]

Granted, "rounding error" is certainly hyperbole, on my part .. but if Baymax (BH6) doesn't end-up outperforming Frozen's japanese box-office (record-breaking though it was) .. I will be very surprised.

To paraphrase Fred: for the japanese, this film will be "like spooning a warm marshmellow."

[TitusTodd]

Pretty obvious there would be a post-credit scene, though: Disney's been doing that since Lasseter took over, putting little things at the end of their films, as Pixar did, to "reward" those that sat through the credits (which, to be fair to Disney and Pixar, they do try and make entertaining by way of the artwork and little animations, although I always sit through credits to hear a film's score anyway), so I'd have been more surprised if Big Hero 6 *didn't* have such a moment.

Not really. Not all Disney animation features have had post-credit scenes since Lasseter took over. Tangled didn't have one. Wreck-It-Ralph didn't really have one worth noting. The Princess and The Frog didn't have one. The same goes for Pixar - only four have had post-credit scenes.

I take my kids to these movies and waiting with some of them for something after all the credits just doesn't happen. I'll be checking in the future to see if the movie I'm going to has a post credit scene since their presence is still not consistent.

[TitusTodd]

Frozen's performance will be hard to beat. While I won't be surprised if Big Hero 6's performance beats it, I also won't be surprised if the Japanese elements don't draw enough to do so.

[droosan]

To be clear: my prediction was in regard to Japan, only.

I am not saying that BH6 will come anywhere close to topping Frozen in the U.S., or worldwide. That would be delusional talk.

[Ben]

Yeah, I gotcha Droo...and want to clear up that I was agreeing in terms of Japan. I still agree!

[EricJ]

To be clear: my prediction was in regard to Japan, only.
I am not saying that BH6 will come anywhere close to topping Frozen in the U.S., or worldwide. That would be delusional talk.

And according to BoxOfficeMojo, the delusions have already started--

Still, there was an assumption that Frozen's phenomenal success had elevated the Disney Animation brand to a new level, and that didn't exactly prove true this weekend.

(sigh) ...And that was Sunday afternoon. Nine years after Cars came out.

As far as the Japanese, there's some speculation that, with anime, game and kaiju "otaku" fans now practically demonized in Japanese society as everything from immature to recluses to pedophiles, the idea of "We're the nerd heroes!" may go down a little differently, but Fred is probably ridiculed enough for their tastes.
OTOH, Japanese audiences are psychotically obsessed with anything Cute, and Baymax, well, they even gave him the title.

Me, I found it fun, but a little...forgettable: As a pilot for a CGI Disney Channel series, I'd love it, but Marvel or not, they just don't give the backup team enough screen time to establish themselves as characters, so this one doesn't quite stick around in the memory as much as Ralph & Vanellope, or even Lewis & Wilbur.
(Still, I assume most people spotted the Stan Lee cameo in this one?)

[Dacey]

I'm still standing by my own "grounded" expectations. Frozen was number one for 16 straight weekends in Japan. I just don't see it as "realistic" to picture Big Hero 6 beating those kinds of numbers. I could end being proven very wrong, of course, but if I were a gambling man....

And Big Hero 6 is already being seen as a huge hit domestically, not just because it had Disney's second best opening ever for an animated feature, but beating a big movie like Interstellar is going to look awfully good as well. And I see this easily performing very well into Thanksgiving, even with the release of Penguins (which, partly because of the strong word of mouth we're seeing for BH6, I'm halfway expecting to underperform now).

[ShyViolet]

Oh, Penguins will underperform all right. Trust me, no studio whose movie is opening on Thanksgiving has anything to fear from that movie. I saw the first four minutes and there is absolutely nothing new or exciting to be found there. It'll just be two hours of what we saw in the Madagascar movies except stretched to feature film length. I hate saying this, but I really think DreamWorks is going down in flames now.

Ugh.

[James]

AV review: http://animatedviews.com/2014/big-hero-6-film/

(BTW - I'm still betting on big things from Penguins!)

[EricJ]

AV review: http://animatedviews.com/2014/big-hero-6-film/
(BTW - I'm still betting on big things from Penguins!)

I had to sit through the trailers to Penguins AND Spongebob, as well as the Inside Out trailer with the vintage Pixar clips, and it just emphasized what Lasseter/Disney does right, even on an off day. (Like this one, although not as "off" as Frozen.)
I look forward to Katzenberg's latest looney royal barge trip up Denial after trying to parse the numbers.

The stakes here seemed very low. The Big Hero 6 team members could go home at any time and nothing too terrible would happen to hardly anyone.

That was one of the killer problems for me, too--I remember hearing so many fans of the hype and trailers saying "Oh, man, (that masked guy)'s gonna be such a cool villain, I dressed up as him at the convention/Halloween!"
And well, like most Pixar/WDFA characters promoted before the context of the movie (thinking of Lotso, here), never count your Lasseter-era characters before they're hatched...

Specifically, in the climax, they spent the entire early part of the movie setting tycoon Krei up as not only bad, but a royally unsympathetic Dreamworks Jerk, that when

Callahan wants to emphasize the "loss" metaphor by destroying Krei because of his daughter, we sit there thinking "Okayyy, and they should stop this....why, exactly? " If there was some Spiderman 2 deal where he didn't realize the unstable portal would destroy the entire city, okay, that's a climax, but this's a Lasseter-era movie where nobody really gets TOO hurt.

In fact, one of the main reasons we still fan-gush over the Incredibles was that Syndrome was a baddie with bad plans on a personal level, and was professionally focused enough to enjoy it. Gotta have that in comics.

[Dan]

Dacey has a point about how it might be tough for Big Hero 6 to beat Frozen even in Japan. There are many articles noted about this and even Tarantino himself made mention of it in his introduction video on the US DVD release of Sonatine is that most movie goers in Japan are women. A good chunk of them are actually middle-age women, really. They tend to dictate how successful a film is in Japan more so than kids. Furthermore, while Disney films do do well in Japan, it's quite interesting to see that they're not quite as near to the top ten as one would think. The next highest grossing Disney film in Japan after Frozen is Armageddon ranked at around 13 followed by Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland at around 18.

That being said, I agree that Big Hero 6 will likely have a strong run in Japan. It'll be interesting to see how strong of a run, though.

[droosan]

While I certainly would have liked to see a bit more of the other team characters, I was pretty satisfied with the scenes they did have.

Besides, they were originally Tadashi's classmates & friends; Hiro had only recently met them -- and purposely distances himself from them, after his brother dies.

As for plot holes .. as with any movie, they're there if you think about every possible 'coulda/shoulda' scenario.

Hiro seems obsessed with separating Yokai from his headset -- seemingly overlooking the fact that he had invented the tech within that headset. So, why not just build a more-powerful 'headset 2.0', and wrest control of the microbots for himself (or at least 'confuse' them from being used effectively..? Nah, too simple.

The villain was pretty cool, I thought;

he was especially menacing during that first intense car chase. I didn't mind the 'Scooby-Doo-esque' identity fake-out (though it was rather obvious).

As I'd mentioned in a hidden portion of a previous post, Yokai/Callaghan is what Hiro was on a path toward becoming, if not for Baymax (and Tadashi's friends) helping him to cope with his grief, and getting him to channel his science & tech toward helping people and solving problems, rather than as a tool to aid his sense of revenge.

Callaghan's hatred of Krei blinds him to the fact that he is responsible for Tadashi's death (and had attempted to kill Hiro and his friends multiple times). He never considers using the 'Silent Sparrow' portal to retrieve his daughter (though, fair enough; it is not until Baymax senses her life-signs within the portal that Callaghan realizes she is still alive).

The story also had a problem with its stakes — why are our protagonists doing what they’re doing and what happens if they fail? The stakes here seemed very low. The Big Hero 6 team members could go home at any time and nothing too terrible would happen to hardly anyone.

The Big Hero 6 team is forged with the purpose of apprehending Yokai, in order to help Hiro gain closure for his brother's (and their close friend's) death. That's 'why' they're there; it motivates everything they do.

As you say, a world-wide crisis is not required for an enjoyable super-hero story. Besides, the Avengers have that kinda stuff pretty well-covered.