Big Hero 6 (2014)

I was looking for something to watch and having watched a Mifune film the other day had me int he mood for a certain film. As I started cruising through Disney Plus, I noticed that Big Hero 6 was there waiting for me to hit the play button and that is what I did. The film was released in 2014 and it was directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams (Moana). In San Fransokyo, things are pretty normal for Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) who is the smartest 14 year old around, but he's too busy with his robot fighting. One day his brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) challenges him to use his brain so he develops nanobot technology to try to get into his brothers school. Unfortunately, a tragic event happens and the school burns down along with his brother, but he'll discover that his technology was stolen by someone so along with his brother's robot Baymax (Scott Adsit) and five of his friends, they'll team up to try and stop the man who stole them. The film also stars T.J. Miller (Deadpool) as Fred, Jamie Chung (The Gifted) as Go Go, Damon Wayans Jr. (Let's Be Cops) as Wasabi, Genesis Rodriguez (Tusk) as Honey Lemon, James Cromwell (The Green Mile) as Robert Callaghan, Alan Tudyk (Moana) as Alistair Krei, and Maya Rudolph (The Way Way Back) as Cass.

This was such a fun film to watch and to be honest Disney never really makes a bad film, but they offered their version of an animated superhero team with Big Hero 6. The only thing I am sad about is that there hasn't been a sequel made to this film as of yet. This one kind of follows a different pattern than most Disney movies, but then again maybe not. Usually there is the main character and he always has a sidekick which is the comedic relief so I suppose that could be Baymax, but usually it's an animal and so on and so forth. Every Disney film has a tragic event that happens that changes a character and makes them grow so you can check that one off the list with Tedashi dying in a fire, but one of the cool things is the crazy twist towards the end that happens. That twist completely threw me off because I did not see it coming at all. It definitely helped shape the rest of the film and sent it in a direction that made most sense and it was really good writing. I enjoyed all the acting in the film, but I have to give it up to T.J. Miller who just killed it as usual. He was funny when he needed to be and I loved his costume the most of all of them. I definitely suggest that you check this out if you are looking for something fun to watch. With that being said, I am going to give the film an A- for a final grade.

Moana (2016)

Every once in a while, I like to check out Disney Plus and maybe watch films that I avoided at the cinemas which definitely includes the film I chose for today. Back in 2016, Disney tackled a new topic when they explored the lore of the Polynesian islands and their culture when they released Moana in 2016. Legend has it that a goddess by the name of Te Fiti created life with the power of her heart. One day, a demigod by the name of Maui (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) stole her heart and when he tried to escape it was lost in the ocean and he was banished. Fast forward to the future and we meet Moana (Auli'i Cravalho) who is a very curious girl and only daughter of the chief of her island. All she wants to do is set sail in the ocean, but when resources start to become scarce because of the curse, she finds the heart and sets out to find Maui to convince him to make things right once and for all to save her island. The film also stars Rachel House (Thor: Ragnarok) as Gramma Tala,  Temuera Morrison (Star Wars: Episode II- Attack Of The Clones) as Chief Tui, Jemaine Clement (What We Do In The Shadows) as Tamatoa, Nicole Scherzinger (Men In Black 3) as Sina, Alan Tudyk (Frozen) as Heihei, Oscar Kightley (Hunt For The Wilderpeople) as Fisherman, and the film was directed by Ron Clements (Hercules), John Musker (Aladdin), Don Hall (Big Hero 6), and Chris Williams (Bolt).

What can be said about a Disney movie that hasn't already been said before? They all follow the same formula where you have your main characters with one being on a mission, one being funny, and then they give you the comedic relief character in the form of an animal or creation (snowman). Most every single Disney movie follows that formula and why not? The formula has worked for years and as long as they keep it fresh it will work for more and more years. One thing I will say is that even though he is in cartoon mode, Dwayne Johnson still found a way to be funny and a very integral part of the film because if it wasn't for him I may not have enjoyed this as much. To be honest, I think he was more the comedic relief then the darn chicken who was just too dumb to be eaten. I thought some of the songs were just too much and it's probably the one thing that drives me nuts about Disney movies, but the one I did like was when Jemaine Clement had his time to shine with his song which had a very Bowie/Tim Curry feel to it and that was awesome. This was definitely enjoyable especially if you want to learn about some of the legends of the culture and how they received their names. I however don't think it's the best Disney movie ever made cause that belongs to The Toy Story. Therefore I am going to give this film an B+ for a final grade.

Frozen (2013)

You'll notice over time that there are a lot of films that I have never viewed and with the astronomical amounts of films released in the past it almost seems impossible to see them all. Disney is one of those companies that I have unfortunately missed a lot of so when they decided to come out with Disney +, I took it as an opportunity to catch up which is why I chose Frozen for today's film. The film stars Idina Menzel (Uncut Gems) as Elsa, a girl who has never had it easy ever since she was a kid who discovered she had the powers to freeze things. To make matters worse, she almost killed her sister Anna (Kristen Bell) which forced her into isolation so that she could learn to control her powers. Well, one faithful day as she is revealed to the world as the new Queen, she kind of freezes things and curses her village into infinite winter and now it's up to Anna to try and save Elsa and the village before it's too late. The film also stars Josh Gad (Pixels) as Olaf, Jonathan Groff (Glee) as Kristoff, Santino Fontana (Sisters) as Hans, Alan Tudyk (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) as Duke, Ciarán Hinds (Game Of Thrones) as Pabbie, and the film was directed by Chris Buck (Surf's Up) & Jennifer Lee (Zootopia).

I am not going to lie and say that I thought some of the songs they sing were a little cheesy to me at first, but as the movie progresses you almost forgive the singing. You forgive it because the story gets better and more interesting as the movie progresses and you can see why people loved this film. I will however say that if it wasn't for Josh Gad as Olaf, I don't think the film would've been that good because he is the MVP of the film for sure. Every Disney movie has that formula in it with all of the main characters, but one of them is always the comedic relief of the bunch and Olaf is that for Frozen. One of the things I liked most about the film too is that it didn't end with the typical princess in distress moment. What I mean by that  was there was no prince at the end of the film that kisses the Princess and she's magically fine. No in this film, they go outside the box and it's the true love of one sister to another that saves Anna at the end of the film. The voice acting was great, the singing was great as well, and the story was great. Their is not a lot to pick apart when it comes to this film, but I imagine that if I was a little kid when this came out that I may have loved all the songs too. So, I am going to go ahead and give this film an A for a final grade because it deserves at least that.