Big Hero 6 (2014)

4/5

Big Hero 6 is a wonderfully enjoyable animated film by Disney. Much of the film centers around the relationship between Hiro (Potter), a young technophile and "bot fighter," and his older brother Tadachi (Henney), an engineering student at a futuristic tech institute. Tadachi has created a health-focused robot called Baymax (Adsit), but Hiro is less than impressed at the huggable marshmallow of a machine. After a catastrophe at the institute's tech fair, Hiro must join up with a band of misfit superheroes to protect the city from a nefarious villain.

The same production company behind Frozen makes essentially its action-oriented counterpart, focusing on brotherly love in the context of a superhero world instead of a princess fairytale. It features similar themes and predictable plot points, but the repetition surprisingly does nothing to take away from the overall experience. Disney films are never really about shocking audiences with plot twists but about wowing them with stellar storytelling and magical details. Big Hero 6 delights--it's adorable, exciting, and fun--and is another big win for Disney.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2245084/

Frozen (2013)

3/5

Disney's Frozen is a commercially-successful princess movie chock-full of uplifting songs and adorable animation. And while it has its charms, it just didn't satisfy any of my expectations. For me, it's fairly middle of the road. I have a lot of issues with it--first and foremost being that a lot of it simply doesn't make sense--so I'll go on a short rant before I come to my conclusion.

1. The relationship between the sisters feels inauthentic. As if the mere fact that they are sisters is enough that they display unconditional love for each other. Maybe that's how Disney stories have always been and I haven't been paying attention, but it just didn't feel real for me.
2. Why are there trolls? Why do they possess certain magical properties and not others? What purpose do they serve? And, most importantly, what makes them "love experts"?
3. Why is Olaf the snowman so absurd? He is not merely comic relief; he is the epitome of non sequitur. How and why does he exist at all? Even visually, he seems out of place in the film. In terms of mood, he's even more nonsensical.
4. I find myself opposed to the morals of the film's conclusion. The suspicious character, who does not seem particularly bad, is imprisoned. The truly evil murderous villain, on the other hand, is simply sent back home for his family to punish. Is that really the message we want children to get out of this movie?
5. The songs feel more like Broadway songs than Disney songs. They're extremely dynamic with a full sound and mature voice behind them. They're fantastic songs, but they don't fit comfortably within the Disney canon.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the movie is perfectly adequate but not particularly special. It will entertain and it will delight, but it feels so haphazardly constructed that I cannot imagine it will stand the test of time. It's fine. Most people will like it. But it's ultimately a distraction; it is not Disney's reclamation of success.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294629/

Bolt (2008)

3/5

Bolt is the story of a young dog brought up in a Truman Show-esque world where he's a superhero with the ability to melt metal objects with his laser eyes and explode city blocks with his superbark. A studio exec comes to the shooting stage and informs the producers that the show is too happy, which is causing them to lose the 18-34 demographic. To capture that age group, the director ends a shoot with an exciting cliffhanger, only to have Bolt escape his trailer in an attempt to save his owner Penny. And that's when he accidentally gets shipped to New York, meets an array of animal friends, and road trips back to Hollywood to save the day. In the happy, sappy way they previously suggested 18-34 year olds do not appreciate.

Bolt is probably Disney's first non-Pixar CGI film (the movie isn't good enough for me to spend time fact-checking my own arbitrary allegations) and it's certainly not as good as their Pixar ones. There's a reason for this discrepancy. Pixar movies are surprising, fresh, new, and invigorating; Bolt is formulaic and predictable. Bolt plays right into expectations. Granted, it does so in a cute (but not adorable) way, but that's simply not enough these days. I can see this movie originating as a pitch to financiers instead of a novel idea built from the ground up and smoothed out over a long time by a love for filmmaking instead of test audience reaction surveys. Still, it's an enjoyable enough film if you feel like spending 90 minutes watching a cute dog, but don't expect anything even approaching Pixar quality.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397892/