Yes, I know this one is late. We went to see it on Thanksgiving. I took my oldest (8yrs) and my nephew(6yrs I think) and it was all the fun! Also for anyone hoping to see a review of Mockingjay, I remind you, I don’t review books. And since I have read the book, I won’t be reviewing the movie. Sorry. Anyway, back to. . .

Quick rating: 4.5/5 stars Super Cute!! Super nerdy! I will probably pre-order and wait by the mailbox with baited breath. You know, for the kids. <_<  >_>

All my reviews contain spoilers. You have been warned.

Hiro is adorable! And sarcastic. And fun! And his brother Tadashi is thoughtful and brilliant and kind of epic in the superhero type way. Except, you know, he dies. Within the first third of the movie. I knew that going in and my kid handles that sort of thing really well, but I forgot about his cousin. Being a little younger and not being someone I get to hang out with often, I wasn’t as sure about him. So when the unthinkable happened I looked over at my nephew to see how he was handling it. He seemed to do ok, but I did have to explain to his mom that someone died and she might want to talk to him about it. But if you have really sensitive kiddos, or really young kiddos that haven’t dealt much with death yet, maybe you wait to watch this one, yeah?

Anyway, Baymax is about the cutest character I have ever seen. I want an oversized plush with a warmer so that I too can spoon a giant warm marshmallow. Get on it Disney! He is the embodiment of compassion and courage. There is nothing he won’t do, except hurt people, for Hiro’s wellbeing.

The voice acting was nuanced and well done, the morals were good (though one of the characters who is a jerk gets off with barely the trauma of someone trying to kill him), and the animation was wicked cool. And the story was smart without trying too hard. But I think the good guy turns bad guy thing was a little overplayed. And while the Hiro’s nerd friends-turned-super-heroes are great, the real hero of the movie is Tadashi. But he’s dead. It’s frustrating. And it illustrates one of my biggest frustrations with pop culture representations of the good guy. Why can’t the good guy just be the man making a robot that can act as a personal health companion. It’s brilliant, and as Tadashi says to Baymax, “You are going to help a lot of people.” I get that this doesn’t make for the most exciting story telling, and I am really happy that they included someone like Tadashi in such a glowing light. But in the end Baymax still has to be outfitted with armor and made to learn karate in order to be “heroic.” If a sequel is forthcoming, then I want to see Baymax saving the day with his compassion and his medical capacities more.

Of course, as a story teller I wanted more. More of the back story. What happened to their parents? How does Hiro go from traumatized kid to genius? There is just a ton there that I would love to know. And there are gaps, big old science doesn’t work like that gaps.  This is after all a kids movie so the story arch is more important than little details about how AI and inter-dimensional travel would really work. You just go with it. Ironically, in the movie you have the genius characters telling their mascot friend Steve, that his requests for on command animal transformations, etc. are not science.

Overall I loved it. If you haven’t taken your kids to see it (ages 6 and up), DO IT!! I hope they do a sequel, but not in the grand tradition of Disney sequels that suck rocks. Let’s break that mold this time guys, what do you say?

Happy watching ’til the next time Anika Goes to the Movies!