Big Hero 6: Balalala

From Wreck-it-Ralph to Frozen, Disney has finally redeemed its reputation of being one of the most loved movie productions when it comes to children's films. 

Pan to the city called San Fransokyo. San Fransisco Bridge with torii designs: a mix of Japan setting. Hiro Hamada with his fighting bots: Real Steel. Hiro side by side with the huggable, marshmallow-like Baymax: Hayao Miyazaki's Totoro and Satsuki. Baymax in an armor suit: Marvel's Ironman. There are a lot of familiar scenes you could see materialize in Disney's newest movie release Big Hero 6, and yet it has pulled off a very unique and heartwarming film that you'd want to watch over and over again. Directed by the makers of Bolt Chris Williams and director of Winnie the Pooh Don Hall, and produced by Pixar's legend John Lasseter, the movie would definitely make you laugh off your seat and give you tears for the heartwarming story of friendship and of not giving up that you would never forget. 

"I will never give up on you. " In a semi-futuristic setting that closely resembles that of Lewis's world in the movie Meet the Robinsons and even Ironman, the story revolves around a genius 15-year-old Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter), who is addicted to bot fighting using his small but terrible micrbot. His older brother, Tadashi (Daniel Henney), on the other hand, is an equally genius guy who goes to college and makes unique inventions, and is always saving Hiro from trouble with his bot bouts. He invites him to his school and meets his classmates, Go Go (Jamie Chung), who works on electromagnetic fields and suspensions, Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez), who is a chemist-freak, Wasabi (Damon Wayans Jr.), a neat-freak genius and Fred (T.J. Miller), who is addicted to becoming a real fire-breathing dragon inspired by his comic books. Tadashi introduces Hiro to his latest invention, Baymax (Scott Adsit), who is a personal health care assistant robot. With much delight, Tadashi was able to convince Hiro to enroll in his "nerd school" and present an invention of his own in an annual science fair. Using his microbots, he was able to wow the audience with his invention, but things took a change for the worse when the school was caught in a big fire and Tadashi, who wanted to help rescue his mentor, died. 

All the hope and the purpose of going to the school went with the fire as Hiro lost his interest and grieved over his brother's death. On that moment in his room, he met again Baymax who was still active. He also noticed his microbot which seemed to be attracted to another microbot, and with Baymax's help they were able to pinpoint the origin of the attraction. There they met a man with a "kabookie" mask, who made more microbots and attacked them. The action to search for that man started, with the help of his brother's friend to find out the truth about the incident and give justice to his brother's death. 

When they found out that the man in the kabookie mask was Tadashi's mentor, Hiro raged and tried to kill him, but Baymax and his friends tried to stop him. In a heartwarming scene where Baymax insisted that Tadashi was still with them, he showed Hiro the times when Tadashi was still experimenting on the success of Baymax, and Hiro finally had his inner peace and went off with his friends to end the evil plan of the notorious man who was the mentor of Tadashi. They found out that he was seeking for revenge for the loss of his daughter in an experimental procedure of a teleportation portal. They were able to stop him and even save his daughter, but Hiro lost Baymax in the process. 

What I loved about the movie is the lesson that Tadashi portrayed; that is, he never gave up on inventing Baymax, and on his brother Hiro, just as Baymax did not give up on Hiro on their friendship. Big Hero 6 is the first animated Marvel film that was theatrically released by Walt Disney Animation Studios. 

Big Hero 6 is truly an epic film with a lot of mix-ups and twists and turns, from the unique incorporation of San Fransisco and Tokyo, which was Executive Producer John Lasseter's idea to the must-awaited end-credit scene where we find out that Fred is the son of the Marvel creator Stan Lee. The design of Baymax was also inspired by the "soft robotics" research at Carnegie Mellon University. 

Travel: The beauty of Banton Island, Romblon

Dr. Francisco Datar,Deogs Faminiano (ASCCA) Giovanne Fabro, (Uswag Banto-on chapter), Dr. Ric Nolasco, Ish Fabicon,Jezia Talavera, UP LAYAP

Traveling and research have always been number one in my bucket list of things I want to do. I have traveled to Baguio, Tagaytay, Tarlac, Quezon and Mindoro not so much for fun and tourist purposes; I have basically gone to these places for research when I was in high school. I had gone to Baguio for a national press conference in third year and Mindoro with my twin sister for a national Science Investigatory Project. Two weeks ago I was able to travel further to explore the country in Banton Island, Romblon for my field work in documenting and researching their language called Asi. I went with my professor Dr. Ricardo Nolasco, Dr. Francisco Datar of the Department of Anthropology UP Diliman and one of the founders of ASCCA Sir Ismael Fabicon for four days and proceeded to research about their language to make a dictionary of Asi for the upcoming International SANROKAN Conference in May 2015. 

We had a series of meetings and elicitation field work and we also toured the place, which is famous for its spirit of sharing symbolized by sanrokan (the practice of sharing food with neighboring households), hence the name of the international conference. I have experienced eating their famous dish called Singapore, which is made of camote and their version of rice cake or kalamay. I also had my first time drinking coconut juice from the fruit itself, which they call butong and using a spoon to scrape the coconut meat from the fruit. We also went hiking to their famous cave which houses several fossils and other archaeological pieces of bones and articles which are preserved in the area. 

We also visited their elementary and high schools, which are surrounded by forests and mountains. I was amazed at how the mountains are still full of greenery and trees which are preserved and still untouched over the years. The residents said they used to gather firewood from the top of the mountains when they were kids. The place is also famous for their wells which still date back from many years ago. 

What I admired the most was the sea that is overlooking the place where we stayed. I enjoyed looking at the sea, and especially our travel going to place. From Odiongan we rode a small boat going to Banton Island which took two and a half hours and from there we could enjoy looking a the sea and the small islands that we passed by. I equally enjoyed our trip back to Odiongan where we rode a bigger boat. It was also my first time riding big ships of the 2Go and Montenegro Lines where I could look at the sea.

Boat-shaped altar

Going back to Odiongan in a boat

I really had a blast in Banton Island and I would never forget my experience with the place which is so rich with culture and tradition. 

Sunrise at Banton Island