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. 

Wreck-it-Ralph: One game at a time

"I'm bad, and that's good. I'll never be good and that's not bad."

This is the very reason why I love bad guys and villains in movies, it's because they are a product of their own histories. It's because they were never meant to be bad guys in the first place. It's because they never wanted to be one in the beginning of the story.

I needed some reference with regards to different kinds of sweets, pastries and candycane lollipops for my book I am currently writing and I remembered Sugar Rush in the movie Wreck-it-Ralph. This is one of my favorite Disney movies and no wonder that the cinematography and the story itself is parallel to the Pixar movies is because John Lasseter, the director of many of the movies in Pixar, was the executive producer of this movie. 

Arcade games? Many of us was still able to connect and experience first hand arcade games and now comes in the game Fix-it-Felix, where the protagonist Felix (Jack McBrayer)  fixes the building that Ralph the bad guy destroys. However the story does not revolve in the heroic acts of Felix but in the frustrations of Ralph (John Reilly)  in being the bad guy and living in the block dumps and not having cakes and fireworks and medals. He wants to prove that even bad guys can earn medals and goes Turbo and went to the game Hero's Duty. At first he thought it was that easy to earn the medal in such game until he realizes his life and the whole game could be at stake if he would not shoot the cybugs and help his comrades. The game was over in less than a minute because of Ralph's recklessness and secretly climbs and enters the building where a shining gold medal awaits him. However things took a turn for the worse when he accidentally flew a spaceship with a cybug in it and crosses over to the game Sugar Rush. 

Here he meets the glitch--Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), who was also in need of a gold medal/coin so she could join the race. Everyone in her game despises her because they said she was never meant to exist in a game--a glitch. The two first had a series of misunderstandings because Vanellope stole Ralph's gold medal and used it so she could join the race. Vanellope decided they should be partners--Ralph would help her get a legitimate race car while Vanellope would win the race so Ralph can get his medal back. 

And so comes the bonding and the development of their friendship with a bonus candy medal saying "You're My Hero" to the bad guy. However another conflict surfaces and their friendship ends until Ralph finally deduces the real reason why Vanellope is a glitch. He helped her get in the race after all and after much combat to the multiple cybugs that almost invaded Sugar Rush, Ralph and Vanellope were able to reset the whole game, while discovering at the same time that Vanellope is a princess and the lead character in the game consul. 

I can watch this film a thousand times and never get bored because the story reflects how bad guys are always mistreated and misunderstood. We meet different kinds of "bad guys" in our lives but we tend not to hear their stories of pain and anxiety. Most of us never tend to understand where their anger really comes from because it takes a lot of effort and time. On my part, this is the very reason why I love bad guys--because they have untold stories that are treasures of knowledge of humankind.

Cars 2: Tow Mater, Average Intelligence

"If he's your best friend, why would you ask him to be someone else?"

This is the exactly why I didn't submerge myself in the dangerous realm of friendship. Observing others forming their own BFF clubs back in high school, I realized one cannot fully be himself as the group will always fall into booby traps like backstabbing, senseless fights and misunderstandings and a political arena of passively dominating each other--may it be in terms of romantic relationships, academic statuses or any other unproductive endeavors.

Somehow these were the kinds of friendship I observed that, of course, have evolved from its simpler value and definition. I began to contemplate on what friendship should truly be about after I watched Disney-Pixar's Cars 2 (2011, directed by John Lasseter and Brad Lewis).

With Tow Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) leading the breathtaking race, Pixar gave a whole new, action-packed James-Bond-like storyline incorported with the quest to define true friendship. At first I was too overwhelmed by the fast pace of the movie, starting with Finn McMissile (Michael Caine, James Bond himself) spying on an illegal mission run by Professor Z (Thomas Kretschman).

Maybe the high-speed chase and the rather complicated plot further muddled by Mater's quite incomprehensible articulation of words buried the simple moral lesson that was unlikely of Pixar. Nevertheless, I truly enjoyed the movie as I also love action-packed ones, and Tow Mater successfully pulled off the humorous atmosphere throughout the movie. I was also amused at how Pixar perfectly portrayed Japan, Rome and London with their respective trademarks, like the geisha in Japan, the Pope in Rome and the Queen in London.

PIXAR @25: Toy Story 3 "The art of goodbyes"

When our loved ones leave we don't really lose them.

Absence. Less talks. Less visits. Silence.

At times when life drives too slowly and the day's too dull it would suddenly hit me hard how much I miss the people I used to see and listen to everyday. At first it's not that really hard to say goodbye, thinking fate will never fail to find a day I would bump into them along the way. It'll only be months after it will finally sink into me how much I long to see them again.

Goodbye is never about giving up, but about moving on while we always reassure ourselves they'll always be in us. What deeply touched me in Pixar's Toy Story 3 (2010, directed by Lee Unkrich) was Woody finally grasping the fact that he'll always be with Andy--even without him by his side--for infinity and beyond.

This should be the second time Woody's (Tom Hanks) friends didn't believe him, and the second time as well Slinky said, "So Woody was telling the truth!" With Sunny Side Daycare Center disguised as a childish mansion, Andy's toys got trapped this time, fueled by bad circumstances, false interpretation and anger.

Almost all the characters symbolized vital moral lessons for modern youth: Jessie (Joan Cusack), Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) and Hamm (John Ratzenberger) portrayed our drawback in analyzing situations because we're blinded by anger, pessimism, and selfishness. Rex (Wallace Shawn), all throughout the Toy Story series, represented the innocently comedy character who always either agreed with others or refused to take sides. Slinky (Blake Clark) always stayed in the "play safe" zone, although he always knew what's right but chose to follow the majority.

Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) portrayed an emotionally-vulnerable character torn between two galactic principles: the importance of staying together and the job of being there for Andy (John Morris). And Woody's moral fiber became the most challenging for us: having the guts to be the outcast. Somehow, it should'nt even take guts for us to be different; it's never a problem if we strongly believe in something the majority doesn't. Woody believed they should never replace Andy with some temporary haven.

While new characters like Lotso Huggin' Bear (Ned Beatty) also shared the sad reality about traumatic pasts and crooked systems and a stranger's deceitful smile, the art of goodbyes took the movie to the real world where everyone can say, "Goodbye is just another word for 'See you later.'"

What's best about them, I believe, is how they always make us look back, and equally move on while we say, "It's still a small world out there."

After all, anyone who became a part of us will always stay with us.

PIXAR @25: WALL-E "The Secret of Pandora's Box"

It's not apocalypse. It's not the Great Flood. It's not a Nostradamus prediction. It's hope--hidden under all these.

We take a good look at our candy wrappers now, only to foresee these will be part of a colossal Smokey Mountain we've never imagined before: the world. And it can only be as horrible and inevitable as we choose it to be, whether we're aware of it or not.

Pixar's vision, along with every scientist's wonder, also produced a rough sketch of the world scores after, with its innovative release of WALL-E (2008, directed by Andrew Stanton). And it's not based on any written scriptures or wild predictions all telling us we couldn't possibly do anything about it. The movie was based on man's timeless weakness: discipline.

Laid on the metal claws of a charming mute robot named WALL-E (short for Waste Allocation Lift Loader, Earth-Class) while the human race searched for its new haven in a humongous space ship far out in the Milky Way, the earthly waste land was peacefully decomposing in methane and carbon monoxide. But not until hardworking WALL-E (Ben Burtt) digged out another color people had long forgotten, and proof of the world's hopeful existence: a green sprout.

The movie, I realized was far more optimistic on several levels. It was not only about the green sprout and the captain's enthusiasm to go back to earth. Even its unique idea that the planet was destroyed by unbelievable tons of human waste still reflects on a promising hope as it rooted from human discipline, a part of our nature that can still be changed.

WALL-E's attitude of being obsessively organized in "cubing" and collecting and arranging things always reminds me of how I used to do the same thing, then getting all upset when my siblings would mess it all up. It must also be a revolutionary break-through with Pixar's portrayal of technology evolution with all the electronic and path-finding chairs and hologram computers, the new "oxygen tanks" of the human race back then.

Hope is not hiding from us, nor is it hiding from the brokenhearted world. We simply have to choose to see and believe in it.

WALL-E Fact Sheet

1. "In the world of animation, pantomime is the thing that animators love best. It's their bread and butter." Although absence of dialogue became one of the challenges for Pixar animators in WALL-E, director Andrew Stanton considered it an exciting one.

2. The man behind WALL-E's voice, multiple Oscar-winning sound designer Ben Burtt, also made R2-D2's voice a timeless wonder.

2. The big innocent bulgy eyes of WALL-E were coined from its likeness with binoculars, according to John Lasseter (creator of Toy Story movies).

PIXAR @25: TOY STORY 2 Two comfort zones and a home

Courtesy of Pixar pictures

Where you truly belong only lies in where your heart is.

We had all missed Sheriff Woody (Tom Hanks), and Pixar had answered our prayers with Toy Story 2 (1999, directed by John Lasseter and Ash Brannon), following a sequel to Toy Story (1995) after four years. And this time, Woody was in for one of the biggest decisions he had to make in his life.

After harshly making Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) realize who he really was, Woody now had to help the RoundUp gang--especially Jessie (Joan Cusack)--realize who they truly are for. But Pixar twisted it up a little and put our sherrif hero to a test, with a decision he had to make between two homes: his life with Andy or with the RoundUp gang he'd originally come from.

As we munched on our salty popcorn we witnessed a whole new side of Woody, as Al (Wayne Knight), the greedy toy collector stole him one day at yard sale, and finally reunited him with the gang to sell the epic collection to a Japanese client.

Now Woody had to choose: whether he would come home to Andy (John Morris) or join the gang to achieve immortality behind the glass, preserved in a museum.

It must've been one of those days of confusion, when we had felt we really belonged to this kind of life and family, and then finding out they were simply temporary havens, surrogates, strangers who adopted us and took us to live like them. But with them we truly felt we're home.

And so the tables are turned and it's time for Buzz and Andy's toys to rescue and make the sheriff realize "what a toy is all about"--to make a child happy and not to aim for eternity as a toy only to be found behind glass; and for Woody to pass it on to Jessie.

I remember Jessie's tragic story (infused in a dramatic musical narration) about being replaced and getting thrown away, as she developed severe trauma and anger towards kids. Somehow, it was also a lesson Pixar wanted to share that in life, there will always be heartbreaks, rejections and goodbyes. And we couldn't possibly outwit these forces or else we wouldn't survive this world. After all, every end always begins with a new journey.

Where is home anyway? In the end, we can only find it when we have decided where we truly belong.

TOY STORY 2 Fact Sheet

1. The Pixar artists had considered the making of Toy Story 2 as "revisiting old friends", and with the advanced technology for better speed and sophistication, the makers were able to focus more on character performances.

2. Hiemlich (Joe Ranft, also voiced Wheezy) from A Bug's Life appeared in a scene when Buzz was chopping off the bushes to access the road and find Woody. For more "inside jokes" Pixar had inserted in the movie as tribute to the past Pixar projects, click here.

3. It took two years for the technical artists to imitate the 1950's black-and-white atmosphere in the Woody's RoundUp TV series. 

Courtesy of Pixar pictures

4. Toy Story 2 became the highest grossing feature film of 1999, collecting $483M in worldwide box office receipts. It also garnered a Golden Globe Award for Best Picture for Musical or Comedy, and two Grammy Awards for Best Song and Best Musical Album for Children. 

PIXAR @25: A BUG'S LIFE (1998) "It's a buggy bug world out there"

The Ant Island

The definition of a true hero is when you succeeded in saving others even if they hadn't believed in you.



The memory always comes back, when my siblings and I used to watch A Bug's Life (1998, directed by John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton) over and over again in VHS. The architectural design of the colony's anthill has always marveled me and made me want to dissect the pile of mud in our own backyard.

After peeking into the life of toys, Pixar took their wild imagination to the next level and entered the world of ants and bugs for us to learn the true meaning of heroism.

While the rest of the ants endure the routine manually collecting food and portraying slavery, Flik (Dave Foley) takes a stand with his inventions to collect more food the easy way, although he strongly believes ants shouldn't do the dirty job for the lazy freeloading grasshoppers.


We were still young and took the childish pleasure of turning on the water hose and wiping out the anthill in our backyards. And while watching A Bug's Life, we lick on our lollipops and suddenly contemplate on the real life of ants under the scorching sun, carrying heavy seeds and beans and realizing that at the end of the day, the food was not for them to munch.

While we once accepted the norm that ants are boring insects and simply never cease to line up, we've witnessed Flik's wild journey and even the colorful life of an insect circus troupe we've never imagined before.

It seriously depresses me that I last watched this movie when I was nine and I desperately want to watch it again. I had missed the vibrant circus troupe, especially Francis (Dennis Leary) the ladybug who's always mistaken as a girl, and Tuck and Roll (Michael McShane), the Hungarian twin pill bugs who, by character definition, always ended up fighting.


But what I missed the most was the group's quest to outwit Hopper (Kevin Spacey) and his swarm of grasshoppers by making a large fake bird, and how, at a young age, I finally understood one's dream of changing his own way of life because he believes it's not his.

Tuck and Roll: always ending up fighting

Somehow, a true hero is not officially defined as the Superman who saves the day, but the outcast who simply wants to change the world.




A BUG'S LIFE Fact sheet


1. The makers of A Bug's Life had admitted establishing the impression from a bug's point of view was no easy task. Pixar had even created a "bug cam" and shot the world from a bug's viewpoint to capture and refer from its majestic transluscency.

2. It became the highest grossing animated movie of 1998, collecting $362M in worldwide box office receipts.


3. The movie also garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Comedy Score, a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition, and four ASIFA Hollywood Annie Awards for Outstanding Feature, Directory, Writing and Production Design.


4. The Aesop fable The Ant and the Grasshopper became the movie's inspiration, when one day writer-director Andrew Stanton and storyboard artist Joe Ranft chatted about the story.

PIXAR @25: TOY STORY (1995) A peek at the "real playtime" for toys

We've no idea what comes alive when we're away or asleep.

There are two reasons why I somehow believe my stuffed toys talk and pounce around when I close the bedroom door: I was around 8--a stage where I believe everything in what everyone says--when I watched Toy Story; and I am a Filipino and as studies claim we are the most gullible people in the world.

Toy Story (1995, directed by John Lasseter) became Pixar's debut movie with its first ever computer-animated motion picture. It was a big hit for all ages as it finally reawaken the wonder and childish belief about talking toys and their own world.

The door closes with a bang, the bedroom is clear and out comes Andy's toys led by sheriff Woody (Tom Hanks). We were eight-year-old kids chewing gum and we ecstatically took our first peek at the world where toys of different boxes, origins and manufacturers "play" on their own and take on adventures we wished we could've witnessed on our own toys.

Did they also argue and punch each other like what Woody did when rookie toy Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) invaded his territory and his Andy? Did they also lead an unexpected adventure down the streets, and almost got tortured by the big bully kid next door? At one point in my life, just after I watched Toy Story, I seriously began to contemplate on these questions. But whatever escapades they could've gone through, I was still comforted by the fact that whenever I got home, they were still on my bed, neatly arranged.

Woody and Buzz, along with the rest of Andy's toys, portrayed a mix of the human behavior involving coping up with differences, aggression over entitlement issues, jealousy and the discovery of who they truly are.

Maybe we'll never really know what comes alive in our own backyards.

TOY STORY Facts:

1. Toy Story was the first full-length animated feature film to be completely created by artists using the 20th century technology.

2. It became the highest grossing animated feature film in 1995, with a whopping $358 million in worldwide box office receipts.

3. Tinny, the mute wind-up musician was originally the inspiration of Toy Story making. In fact, he was originally cast as Andy's new toy but was then replaced by the futuristic Buzz Lightyear.