When Disney bought the rights to Marvel comics in 2009, the general public did not know what to expect for the future of the famous heroes that have been adored for decades.

Would they all be animated movies aimed for children? Would Storm and She-Hulk become part of the Disney Princess line up? Six years later, Marvel is one of the biggest media names in the world thanks to Disney and Kevin Feige’s work in producing the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

With the recent announcement of phase-three films and collaboration of Marvel and Sony to bring Spider-Man into the MCU, the future is looking bright for both companies. Last November, the public got a taste of a project they were imagining six years ago. A Disney animated film featuring Marvel superheroes.

However, these supers weren’t the Avengers or X-Men or any well-known hero team. In fact, hardly any one knew anything about these Marvel characters, but it was time to fulfill the curiosity people have had for years. With the release of Big Hero 6, does Disney’s animation do Marvel’s beloved characters justice?

The plot focuses on a young teenager named Hiro Hamada, a technological genius who builds fighting robots in the world of San Fransokyo. Hiro’s older brother, Tadashi, encourages Hiro to put his skills to good use by applying to college. Hiro is amazed by the classroom environment and meets his brother’s friends and creation, a healthcare robot named Baymax. He manages to gain admission by impressing the professors with his swarming microbot creation, but unfortunately his excitement is cut short, when a fire breaks out at the university that ends up killing Tadashi and their professor.

Hiro becomes too depressed to go to school, but with some help from Baymax, they discover that a masked villain has stolen Hiro’s invention and is now mass producing it for something evil. To stop the criminal, Hiro teams up with Baymax and his brother’s colleagues to become a superhero team with the use of their inventions.

In terms of plot, the film is relatively predictable. It follows the typical superhero origin story and revenge plot, but it is fresh in that it happens to a younger character like Hiro. Hiro’s relationship with his brother felt genuine and it is atypical for a siblings death to ignite the fire of revenge.

Despite the title suggesting there are six heroes, the film really focuses on two of them, Hiro and Baymax.

The other four characters are charming and memorable with interesting powers. The villain has a decent origin, but again it’s never fully explored.  That’s the price that comes with the shorter running time of children’s movies.

The film shines in its depiction of the relationship between Hiro and Baymax. Baymax is comedic, caring, and memorable enough that his name is actually the title of the movie in different countries. He is a physical legacy of Tashidi’s work, a reminder of what Hiro should be, and the best moments of the movie are between the two.

The animation and character designs are well done, providing the great quality you’d always expect Disney to bring. It’s more action packed than usual, taking advantage of the unique abilities of the characters.

Overall Big Hero 6 is an enjoyable film, while I don’t think it should have won the Oscar for the best Animated Feature, it is still a fun watch. It’s short running time unfortunately takes away the potential of some characters, but it doesn’t take away from the core story and great animation. It won’t be as big as Frozen, regardless, it is still a fun film. I was satisfied with the care done with this film.

-Brady Lass