Big Hero 6

Saw episode #4.

Negatives: The humor this time didn't work for me. It felt forced. And I can't stand Fred's rival. Also, they tried to jamm in not one but two aesops (the need for socialization, and Fred's comic obsession being useful), neither of which was convincing. And I still don't like the Principal even if she's meant to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.

Positives: I like the new female character, she reminds me of a (more cynical) version of Connie from Steven Universe. Also we finally got supervillains. I like High Voltage, when was the last time you saw a mother-daughter superteam? And their theme was catchy.

Overall: the series continues to have potential, but there is still stuff that annoys me. Hopefully it will eventually improve.

edited 17th Feb '18 7:53:00 PM by Sijo

Yet another short. This time, Baymax teams up with Gogo.

High Voltage reminded me of the Bombshells from Ultimate Spider-Man actually

With a healthy hint of Jem, of course!

Outrageous!

Truly, truly, truly outrageous

Yeah, now I realize it was the number of annoying characters (The Principal, Connie wannabe at first, Go Go, and Fred's rival) that kinda ruined the episode for me.

Nothing that can't be fixed with some good character development, but these Disney adaptations aren't good at it. I am still trying to like Cassandra on Tangled, for example.

Necro: Stan Lee talking about the series and some clips from it. Looks like Fred's dad will be The Mentor to the heroes.

Yes I was wondering if his father would appear!

I've seen two more episodes and man I am disappointed. The characters are unidimensional, everything is played for laughs except they keep reusing the same gag over and over, and there are no really heartfelt moments like in the movie (they try, but they are not convincing). And all the story potential, like exploring whether Honey is Latina? So far unused. I understand they are making this for kids, but they can do that and also make it for a wider audience. Too bad.

uh, Honey being Latina has a story potential? I mean if you just want confirmation that's fine and maybe you just must wait more than 4 episodes, but I really don't see story potential.

With that said, yeah, the show is just...okayish. I wasn't expecting it to be as complex as the movie because what Disney movie cartoon is, but it's just there. it's more humor than story and I don't hate this humor but I far from love it. The first episode made it look like there's going to be an arc, but so far I see no progress. You could argue that first episodes just set-up characters and such but so far stories are fairly standalone and the only characters that might matter are Karmi (student hero suppose to work with) and Baron Von Steamer (Fred's dad's enemy). This cartoon also probably has the most ridiculous Clark Kenting ever. Yeah, I know it was established any cheap mask is perfect disguise for a superhero, but they use each other names! And Honey walks with, once even uses her purse in public! And Fred removes his costume top! Danny Phantom had a better case for a secret identity, at least Fenton and Phantom are just figurately not literally the same words. Last note, I think Gogo abandoned her catchphrase. Meh, I did found "woman up" to be pretty hokey anyway and it's weird for the most straightfaced character on the show to have a catchphrase.

The show's been fun and the biggest strength in it so far is the humor and Baymax in general, but the animation in some episodes bothers me. It's particularly noticeable in the more action-heavy episodes, where everything looks laggy.

The episode after the next one advances the story arc a bit more.

I think the character designs bug me more than the animation. Especially Gogo's rhombus-shaped mouth.

A much better episode than the others before. There was a good balance of action, comedy, and even story arc development. I liked that Globby's become a bigger threat now (while still being comedic) and though I wanted to complain about the show's absurd tendency for the heroes to job, at least everyone took the L equally instead of everyone but the main character of an episode, and it was the actual theme of the episode.

The choppy animation returns on, once again, an episode where fluid animation is essential.

After a rocky start, the show is really starting to grow on me. The plots are fun. The characters, when written well, can also be really fun. Basically every villain but Yama is... well... fun. And the overall plot is getting interesting.

As mentioned before, so far the big problem the show has is that the main characters are one dimensional character types - it was evident in the movie, but in smaller doses it wasn't such a problem, but now that they're carrying a series it makes them blander than they could be. That's what turned me off the series at first: it was at its worst in the first couple episodes, and it's a little less off putting now. Still, giving the characters focus episodes is nice, but it's no substitute for being better written overall.

But that's not an insurmountable problem. Dragons: Riders of Berk had that exact same problem in the first couple seasons, but as the series went on the writing got better and better until the characters had a lot more depth to them and the most flat characters were some of the show's most engaging.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jul 8th 2018 at 10:40:54 AM

I recall earlier in this thread we thought up episode summaries that would develop the rest of the team a lot more. Some ever wrote fanfiction. Of course I wouldn't expect Disney to do something that different in a series, but that's exactly what happened.

I can second that, especially part about protagonists being too bland. They all just feel too much like generic cookie-cutter stereotypes rather then real people, with Fred and Wasabi especially being unable to leave their comfort zones. Much to my surprise, I've found my favorite character to be Aunt Cass, of all people. She feels sincere and endearing, especially in episodes focused on her.

Another neat episode. I kind of like this show's niche of "superhero action in a surprisingly silly world." I really liked Mr. Sparkles: he's basically Arcade, but internet based.

Also, iirc Big Hero Six has now officially let more villains escape than caught them.

My only complaint is that the synopsis made it seem like this was an episode about Gogo, which I was looking forward to since she's much in need of characterization, but it wasn't really. It's more of a "Failure Mode"-esque Hiro episode.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jul 14th 2018 at 11:29:33 AM

"Impatient Patient" was a really strong episode. Good humor, villains, and action scenes. The heroes actually put up a good fight against the Mad Jacks instead of getting taken down right away, and the animation was actually pretty good.

I was expecting for Hiro to be more of a fan of Mr. Sparkles, considering how he has some of his merch. Also, for being a kidnapping victim, Mochi was pretty chill which is...honestly not that far off for a cat to be like.

I really liked the way the episode played through the Exactly as Planned moment at the end. Rather than just have it happen and turn out to be the Big Bad's plan, him talking us through it and Krei's weaknesses in real time as Krei is falling into his trap was pretty great.

Comic Con preview of an upcoming episode, "Fan Friction".

I love the lampshade that our heroes don't actually have superhero names, so nobody knows what to call them.

Also, Hiro's reaction face. That's going to end up a meme.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jul 24th 2018 at 8:49:13 AM

Woops, there's actually a second clip, too!

Ah, so that's where Minimax comes from. He's had merch for a while.

I literally just watched an episode where a superhero finds out that someone wrote a shipfic with them. Weird.

Anyway, there isn't any part of that clip that isn't amazing. Especially, Hiro's face.

.... Mini-Baymax is new to me. If he had merch for a while, when did he appear?

Edited by kyun on Jul 25th 2018 at 7:28:13 AM