Big Hero 6

Thanks to an email from Sandbox Strategies, Game Mill Entertainment and Disney Interactive, the kids and I got to go to a screening of Big Hero 6 yesterday. I admit that when I got the email, I hadn't really heard much about Big Hero 6.

But my kids had off from school that day and my dad is awesome about driving us into the city for stuff (I hate taking the kids on the train. I also refuse to drive into the city. This could be a bigger problem, but between my husband and dad it's not. Yes, I am spoiled.) So I figured, "It's a Disney movie. It's gotta be decent."

The kids were just happy to get to see a movie in the theater. That before going to the theater we walked around Times Square was a big enough bonus that I'm pretty sure they would have sat through that horrible Dora movie they all used to love.

And then on our way in we got popcorn, drinks and 3D glasses.

It began to matter even less how good the movie was. We heard a couple of presentations first; one on the very cool NintendoDS game that continues the movie's story and one on the characters being added to Disney Infinity. I'm pretty sure Lovebug would have taken notes if I'd had a pen. The games look cool, but any game reviews will have to be written by Lovebug at a later date.

Big Hero 6 is the story of Hiro, a brilliant 14 year old and his group of equally brilliant friends. There are some sad moments, but the creation of Baymax (the large white being who sort of looks like what would happen to the Pillsbury Dough Boy if he went badass) mitigates them. I loved, loved, loved the characters in this movie. They were diverse, interesting, smart and not one of them fit some simple stereotype.

I think this might be the most subversive Disney movie ever.

I loved it.

And I don't think that it was recently turning six that made Hugmonkey sit so still in the theater. My kids were completely enchanted; they loved it too. We are all looking forward to watching it again with Daddy and honestly? There are very few kids movies I want to sit through once, let alone twice.

While there is humor in the movie, it's not snarky. There aren't a lot of jokes meant to appeal to just adults. And there is absolutely no romance whatsoever. I have nothing against romance (unless it's Nicholas Sparks - then I loathe it), I may have teared up during the wedding of The Princess and The Frog. But my kids aren't interested in romance. My daughter doesn't need the idea of a wedding always being the happy ending shoved down her 9 year old throat. And of course I'm gonna love a movie that turns smart nerds into superheros.

This is definitely worth seeing with your kids, no question.