Hi everyone, and welcome to my first movie review for 2015! We’re kicking things off with Big Hero 6! Now, I know, the movie has been out a while in the US, but it only arrived in Taiwan at the tail end of the year. I managed to go see it this past weekend, and I’m super glad I did!

First, some background on the movie. This is a Disney animated movie, based very loosely on a Marvel Comics property. From what I understand, the team in the Marvel Universe has only made a dozen or so appearances, and none of the characters are identical to their movie appearance, so you really don’t need to worry about any of that. It’s perfectly enjoyable as just a standalone movie, without any prior knowledge.

Story-wise, the movie focuses on kid genius Hiro Hamada, who is living with his older brother, Tadashi, and aunt, Cass. Tadashi introduces Hiro to his personal robotics project: Baymax, an inflatable robot that is meant to be a personal healthcare assistant. However, bad stuff happens, leading to the rise of an honest-to-goodness supervillain. Hiro, Baymax, and friends develop super-hero equipment to fight the big bad, and make things right.

First of all: graphics. So gorgeous! So so gorgeous~ The movie is set in the city of San Fransokyo, obviously a mashup of San Francisco and Tokyo. The merging of American and Japanese architecture was beautiful and inspired, though I felt the Japanese elements were more obvious. The animation was top-notch. And oh em gee, whoever designed Baymax needs to win an award or something. That robot is the most adorable thing ever. He’s so huggable! I think I lack the words to properly describe how cute Baymax is.

Who’s an adorable armored marshmallow? You is! Yes you is!

I’m just going to come out and say it. I think this may well be the best movie for all of the year, and we’re just a week into it. The story moved along quickly, it punched all the right emotional buttons, and I saw no gaping plotholes. If anything, I kind of wish the movie was a bit longer. At just over an hour and forty minutes in length, I think Big Hero 6 was one of the shorter movies I’ve seen recently, what with the Hobbits and the Hunger Games and suchlike. There was only one point where I felt the screenwriters moved a bit too quickly, following a big emotional reveal, but on whole, the story was great. Aside from that, I only wish we had been given some time to get to know some of the other characters better. Go Go, Honey Lemon, Wasabi, Fred…the other members of the team were all given distinct personalities and powers, but didn’t have much time to shine or grow when compared to Hiro and Baymax.

Oh, and as an added bonus, there was an adorable Disney short added to the start of the movie. Called “Feast”, it was also adorable and heartwarming, so that’s an extra reason to go out and see this in theaters instead of waiting for it to come out on DVD or something!

From the way I’ve been gushing throughout this review, it’s fairly obvious that I love this movie. I would gladly go see it again, and would love to see more of the world if they do expand into sequels or other stuff.