14-year-old Hiro is a robotics genius with a brilliant future ahead of him at a prestigious university, but a sudden tragedy takes him in a different, dangerous direction. Disney’s first animated Marvel movie is an unexpectedly successful collaboration that brings out the best from both studios. Attractive entertainment in beautiful 3D for both kids and adults; even though there are intense battles with a supervillain, the film’s heart is in the right place. Funny, but the story also knows how to handle grief in a poignant way. A friendly, rational and inflatable robot called Baymax steals the show; the film also creates an eye-popping futuristic city by merging Tokyo with San Francisco.
2014-U.S. Animated. 102 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced by Roy Conli. Directed by Don Hall, Chris Williams. Screenplay: Jordan Roberts, Robert L. Baird, Daniel Gerson. Comic Book: Man of Action. Voices of Scott Adsit (Baymax), Ryan Potter (Hiro Hamada), Daniel Henney (Tadashi Hamada), T.J. Miller, Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans, Jr… James Cromwell, Maya Rudolph, Stan Lee.
Trivia: Followed by an animated TV series (2017-2021).
Oscar: Best Animated Feature.Â
Last word: “I loved that part of the movie, the research phase, because it felt like you were a student in college again, you were just so wide-eyed and learning on a daily basis, almost to a point of over saturation because you’re consuming so much. But it’s also a really exciting time, and the cool thing is you don’t know how it’s going to come out the other side, you’re just ingesting as much as you can. Baymax is the perfect example of that as the process working so well, because prior to that Carnegie Mellon research trip, there was no inflatable robot, there was no character Baymax, there was a name, there was an idea to use a robot.” (Hall, Geeks of Doom)
