Big Hero 6 Parent Guide

Most kids like superheroes, but unfortunately a lot of the recent Marvel Comics movies—Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Ghost Rider, The Avengers and even Guardians of the Galaxy—aren’t really suited for the younger crowd.

Thanks to Disney/Pixar that is changing. Big Hero 6 is the first Disney animation to feature these action heroes and, luckily for little ones, it’s far more family friendly than the live-action films.

Hiro Hamada (voice of Ryan Potter) is a robotics prodigy that lives in the city of San Fransokyo. At 14, he’s already graduated from high school, but he hasn’t found a direction in life. Rather than pursuing his education, he sneaks out at night to participate in underground battle bots where he makes a little extra cash by illegally gambling on the outcome of the matches.

Meanwhile his older brother Tadashi Hamada (voice of Daniel Henney) is studying at a robotics program run by Professor Robert Callaghan (voice of James Cromwell). Hoping to inspire his younger sibling, Tadashi takes Hiro to his school where he meets some of the other students: Honey Lemon (voice of Génesis Rodríguez), GoGo Tomago (voice of Jamie Chung), Wasabi (voice of Damon Wayans, Jr.) and Fred (voice of T.J. Miller). In his lab, Tadashi also shows Hiro his latest invention, Baymax (voice of Scott Adsit), an inflatable, robotic health care companion.

After Tadashi is killed in a fiery explosion, Hiro discovers that something has been stolen from the school and fallen into criminal hands. With the help of Tadashi’s friends, Hiro and Baymax create a crime fighting team called Big Hero 6 to hunt down the villain.

The first part of this origin movie is spent introducing the characters, including Aunt Cass (voice of Maya Rudolph) who takes care of Hiro and his brother. Similar to other storylines in this genre, the newly formed group has to discover their superpowers and create a crime-fighting persona. Fortunately like Batman, there’s an obliging, obligatory butler (voice of David Shaughnessy) in this story who assists them as they perfect their skills. These sequences are definitely the more enjoyable part of the movie. (The last half turns into a typical superhero action film with fistfights, high tech weapons and moments of peril for the heroes.)

Thankfully the most engaging character in the story is the roly-poly Baymax, who looks like the pudgy cousin of Bibendum the Michelin Man. He’s a gentle giant created to take care of people’s physical and emotional needs. Though Baymax lacks almost any kind of facial features, there is a lot of personality in this marshmallowy robot.

And what’s better for kids than a superhero with heart.

About author

Kerry Bennett

Kerry Bennett is interested in media from both a journalist and parent perspective. Along with authoring articles for several family-oriented publications, she has written for Parent Previews for over 15 years. As a parent herself, she believes parents play a powerful role in teaching media literacy in their homes.