Film review: Big Hero 6 (PG)

By Nigel Chapman

The radio advert screms at us: “The best Disney film since Frozen!”

Now, it might be due to the fact that you can’t so much as boil an egg in the time between hearing any number of squawked renditions of Let It Go, but Frozen still seems pretty fresh to me (in fact it was released in November 2013). So I’m not sure how much of a must-see claim the radio ad tagline is.

Anyway, my five-year-old lad (who can’t stand Frozen – hurrah!) had identified Big Hero 6 as essential viewing. Proof indeed that the wording of a film title can be enough to hook at least some of its audience.

He’s super-hero mad, and on that level – and many others besides – this movie doesn’t disappoint.

You know the basics that you’re going to get with a Disney film – a moral to underline to us how bad is never good, a death to tug at the heart strings and, more often that not, a little twist.

You get all three with Big Hero 6, but to preserve the enjoyment for future viewers, I’m not about to enlarge on any of them, save to say that they’re well done.

I’ll just give you the movie synopsis: Robotics nerd Hiro Hamada discovers an inflatable health care robot Baymax created in the past by his brother, Tedashi.

After a terrible life-changing accident, Hiro and Baymax team up with four other nerds and try to save their hometown San Fransokyo from an evil super villain trying to take over with Hiro’s invention.

The movie builds up to a wonderful crescendo and that warm and fuzzy feeling that is Disney’s cornerstone.

On the downside, I’d have liked to have had one or two more laugh moments thrown in. It’s described as a comedy-adventure, but the adventure forms 95 per cent of that.

We went to the lunchtime screening last Saturday, the only one in 2D that day. There were maybe as many as a couple of dozen other people in there too, so not really that busy on only the second day of its release, but maybe 3D and the later showings proved more of a lure.

I enjoyed it. Not as much as I’d hoped, but it was clearly me being picky as the rest of the family – my wife, my teenaged daughter and my son – hailed it excellent and were astonished at my slight indifference.

Maybe I’m just a little tired of animation and yearn to see a Disney blockbuster with real people for a change.

Give me a big hero I can identify with.

Voice Verdict: 8/10
+ Disney feelgood
+ No ‘Let It Go’
– Lacking in laughs for a “comedy-adventure”

Showtimes at West End Cinema, Boston
(Friday, February 6 to Thursday, February 12)

LOVE LABOURS LOST (12A AL – Royal Shakespeare Company)
7pm (Wed)

**JUPITER ASCENDING 3D (12A)
3pm (Fri/Sat/Sun/Wed), 5.45pm (daily), 8.30pm (daily)

** JUPITER ASCENDING 2D (12A)
12.15pm (Sat/Sun/Wed)

**SHAUN THE SHEEP (U)
10am (Sat/Sun), Noon (Sat/Sun), 2.10pm (Fri/Sat/Sun/Wed), 4.20pm (daily), 6.25pm (daily), 8.30pm (daily)

BIG HERO 6 3D (PG)
10am (Sat/Sun), 2.45pm (Sat/Sun), 6pm (daily)

BIG HERO 6 2D (PG)
12.20pm (Sat/Sun), 3.45pm (not Sat/Sun)

KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE (15)
Noon (Wed), 2.45pm (Fri/Sat/Sun/Wed), 5.35pm (daily), 8.20pm (daily)

AMERICAN SNIPER (15)
5.30pm (not Wed), 8.15pm (daily)

INTO THE WOODS (PG)
Noon (Sat/Sun), 2.45pm (Sat/Sun)

TAKEN 3 (12A)
Noon (Wed), 8.45pm (not Wed)

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
(12A) Noon (Wed), 2.45pm (Fri/Wed)

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 3 (PG)
10am (Sat/Sun)

PADDINGTON (PG)
10am (Sat/Sun), 12.30pm (Sat/Sun)

KIDS CLUB
Sat-Sun 10.30am – Planes 2 (U)

SILVER SCREEN
Wed 11.30am – Into the Woods (PG)

** DENOTES FREE LIST SUSPENDED

Box office: 01205 363634
Web: www.westendcinema.co.uk/SavoyBoston