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. 

Igniting THE GREEN LANTERN'S LIGHT with Krispy Kreme's Green Lantern Kreme doughnut!

In brightest day... In blackest night... I finally got to experience the powerful force of the Green Lantern with Krispy Kreme's Green Lantern Kreme doughnut!

We had Krispy Kreme assorted delights for dinner for Mom's golden birthday last June 8, and I personally asked my big sister Ate Nadine to pick the new Green Lantern Kreme doughnut. I enjoyed it with its sweet green jelly centered in the rich chocolate dough and sprinkled with that familiar Hershey's milk chocolate icing, and shared it with my siblings.

Dad went for the Chocolate Kreme Cake with OREO and easily gave up with its rich oreo bits. We kids all shared Krispy Kreme's Mango Kreme Cake and loved the sweet mango bits, while my nut-lover mom picked the SNICKERS Classic. 

My twin sister Jillian went for the New York Cheese Cake and Caramel Kreme Crunch, while my brother Norman quickly grabbed the Toblerone Doughnut and was amused because of its triangle shape. We also enjoyed Krispy Kreme's classics like the Glazed Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Iced Custard Filled Cake, HERSHEY'S Cookies and Kreme and White Chocolate Filled Doughnut  with Kitkat.

With my brother's stories and expertise with the Justice League superheroes emphasizing the humility and unique powers of Green Lantern, I became curious with the five-decade-old Marvel character and now excited to watch the remake of the movie directed by Martin Campbell. The story revolves around a mysterious universe inhabited by the Green Lantern Corps. With a powerful dark force unleashed by a new enemy named Parallex and threatening the existence of the brotherhood of warriors and the intergalactic order itself, the lore of the ring picked a human named Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) to save and determine even the fate of the earth.

Movie review: "Down to earth Thor"

Mighty is the king who is humble.

Science is evolution, but the question remains whether we are truly alone in this universe or not. Marvel Pictures gave us an interesting theory in the face of a mythological realm called Asgard, and sent us not only a king named Thor (2011, directed by Kenneth Branagh) who gained a change of heart, but also a hero who achieved humility.

He only wanted to make his father proud. As he itched for battle and chased off exciting adventures with his friends, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the hammer-wielding and thunder god of Norse mythology became a bigheaded war freak he even made himself get banished from Asgard after he triggered the war against the Frost Giants.

Somehow it's always a personal success of wanting to make his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) proud, and it paid him a visit to the human world to learn a thing or two. All of a  sudden he felt powerless and vulnerable after finding out he couldn't use his mighty hammer, and about his father's death. Learning to cope up with his new realm, he met Jane (Natalie Portman, The Other Woman), a scientist, and got along with her while they make deals to help each other out.

The greatest battle he'd always dreamed of was yet to come, as he was forced to save two worlds in the condition of being a weak human. Thor's humility was proven when he asked his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to forgive him and spare the innocent people on earth and on Asgard, even though he didn't know what he had done wrong to him.

A tragic history was dramatically infused as Loki hated his father for lying about his true identity, discovering he was not a son at all possessing the blood of a Frost Giant. But then we also saw how much he loved his father, saying he can rightfully hold the throne as king by conquering both the human world and Asgard.

Just like Thor, all Loki wanted was to make his father proud. I believe this is the major conflict in the story that set it all in motion. It was sad enough when their mother told Loki why Odin lied to him; because they didn't want him to feel different.

On the other hand, the movie also gave us a bunch of laughs especially when Thor was exploring the human world. I would never forget the scene when he went to a pet shop and demanded for a horse, and when he asked for more of his drink and smashed the mug into pieces.

My mentor Ms. Josephine Bonsol kept telling me to watch the movie, and it's definitely all thumbs up!