One of the movies out this week, the start of the school holiday here in Singapore, is Disney’s new animated movie that will catapult a lot of cute merchandise, Big Hero 6.

This new Disney movie is about a 14-year-old genius named Hiro who loved to participate in illegal robot fighting tournaments. Worried that he’s wasting his talent, Tadashi, his older brother who is equally smart, brought him to the robotics lab in his university where he was introduced to his friends, GoGo, Wasabi, Honey Lemon and Fred. There, he was also introduced to the robot that Tadashi created named Baymax, an adorable and huggable personal healthcare robot. Amazed and encouraged by Tadashi, Hiro decided to design his own robot for the annual exhibition to gain admission into the university. He presented microbots, controlled by neural-cranial transmitter, that can create anything that the owner wanted it to be. Impressed, he was offered to register to the university by Professor Callaghan, the program lead. But he was also offered a job with the Krei Tech company by a scientist, Alistair Krei, which Hiro refused. Hiro was admitted to the university and the group of friends decided to celebrate. Before joining the group, Tadashi and Hiro had a brotherly talk, which in the end became the last talk they had when disaster struck – the building that held the exhibition was burned down. When he heard that Professor Callaghan was left in the building, Tadashi came to his rescue only for there to be a big explosion, killing Tadashi and the professor. Discouraged, Hiro left to grieve for weeks until he accidentally activated Baymax, which unknowingly was kept in the bedroom that Hiro once shared with Tadashi. From then on, the adventure began when they found out that the incident that killed Tadashi was not an accident.

Big Hero 6 is like any other Disney movies – cute main character with a really adorable living/non-living thing who could talk and a group of absolutely hilarious friends. Also like other Disney movies, it will make any grown man cry. It reaches deep inside you, ripped your heart out and crushed it before it gets to the happy ending. Yes, it has a happy ending. What do you expect? Do you think Disney would make little children cry in the theatres? Tsk.

But unlike other Disney movies, with the exception of Mulan, Pocahontas and Princess and the Frog, we’re seeing a protagonist who is not a Caucasian American or European. Finally, we have an Asian-American main character voiced by… *drum rolls*… an actual Asian-American actor, Ryan Potter. But then again, Disney tend to have the voice actor be of the same race as the character that they are voicing to. For example, Mulan was voiced by the badass Ming-Na Wen, Pocahontas by Irene Bedard, and Tiana by Anika Noni Rose. Anywho, it was just amazing to watch, even though it was pretty stereotypical – Asian character who is a genius. (Note: This side of the world does not churn out geniuses and nerds like a factory, y’know.)

Anyway, I love the movie. It’s an absolute delight to watch for these reasons:

1. It makes me laugh.
2. It makes me cry.
3. It makes me laugh again.
4. The animation was fantastic.
5. The cute characters. With that said, I want my own Baymax. Where can I get a talking personal healthcare robot that can also kick someone’s ass?
6. And, an awesome soundtrack – Fall Out Boy’s Immortal. Totally getting that song into my music playlist!

If you have not catch the movie yet, please do and be prepared to get your heart crushed by a ton of bricks. P.S: The man sitting in front of me in the theatre was crying. Honest! Scout’s honour (though I was not a scout).

I give this movie a 4.5 out of 5. No movie is ever perfect. Minus point five for the stereotypically clever Asian character.

The trailer…