Big Hero 6 Review - Special Guest Dustyn Balcom

0:22 Hi, and welcome to the Dynamic Dual Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat based battle simulations. I'm Marvelous Joe and I was twin brother Johnny DC, and in this episode, we are going to be reviewing the twenty fourteen animated Disney film Big Hero Six, which is based off of a Marvel comic book. Yeah, not a lot of people knew that. Yeah, the comic book team Big Hero six came out in I think it was ninety eight. The series was actually called Sunfire and Big Hero six if I recall correctly, but I think their better run came out in two thousand and eight, which included the team that was in the Big Hero six animated film.

1:04 The setting in the comics takes place in Tokyo, and while Big Hero Six certainly wouldn't qualify as an anime, it does have a lot of Japanese influence. And to review the film with us, we have our very own executive producer, Dustin Belcom joining us, who's a big anime fan and even had his own podcast dedicated to it called What in the anime, so look forward to that later on. In the episode. Before that, we're going to break down the comic book movie news from the past week, of which there was like nothing. There was no news, so we are left to comment on a rumor that was put out there last week that Adam Drivers and Final Talks to play read Richards aka Mister Fantastic in the MCU's Fantastic four film.

1:48 We don't usually like commenting on rumors, but if we had a comment on anyone, this one seems like the most interesting, whether it's true or not. As always, we list our segment times in our episode description, so feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic. Those who listen to our recent episodes will know that our dual simulator has become so advanced that it's gained sentience and has needed SOLF the Artificial Life Forum for a running extensive duels, just a rather very intelligent simulator nine thousand or Alfred Jarvis nine thousand. Here's a quick message for our listeners, so let's hear it. Why hello there, do you love listening and chatting about Marvel and DC? Then become a part of the Dynamic Duel community on Patreon, where you can choose from three tiers. The Dynamic two O tier lets you listen to this podcast without ads and gives you access to its discord chat group where you can chat with Johnny, DC and Marvelous Joe.

2:43 The Fantastic four tier gives you that and more with two bonus episodes each month, including Bloopers and Top ten shows where Johnny and Joe count down your favorite Marvel and DC subjects. The x Force tier makes you an executive producer of Dynamic Duel, where every month you help the host choose what to review and who to fight against each other. And finally, the Dynamite Podcast networked here allows aspiring podcasters to create their own battle focused show using this Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny and Joe will help you develop your show, provide graphic support and consultation, and get you simulation results to announce on your show. Pitch the Twins your show via email at Dynamic Duel podcast at gmail dot com, or by reaching out to them on social media. Check it out at Patreon dot com, slash Dynamic Duel, pip pip cheerio. Thanks a Jana one thousand and thanks to everyone who supports this podcast. But with that out of the way, quick to the New Prize. No Prize is an award where we'll used to give out to fans our version the Dynamic Dualnew Prize is a digital award we post on Instagram and in our email newsletter for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week's question was coming off of the recent teaser trailer for The Marvels. We asked which hero is your favorite out of Captain Marvel, Photon, and Miss Marvel and why? And we got three answers, So we have two honorable mentions and no Prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to Zach Wilder, who said, hey guys, Zach Wilder here. Out of these three characters, I'd

4:15 say Photon was my favorite. I really liked her in Captain Marvel one and then you see her again in Wanda Vision. I'm just really intrigued by what this character has to offer in this film, and I think she's gonna probably be my favorite character of the three in this upcoming The Marvel's film. Yeah, I think Photon seemed the most compelling to me from the initial teaser trailer, and I don't know if that's because her costume looks hellidope or because her power set is really interesting. But yeah, really looking forward to seeing how they develop Maria Rambo in the upcoming film. Yeah, honestly, I thought she was the breakout star of the trailer. Like if you didn't see WandaVision, probably pretty intrigued by her character and what she could do if they remember her as a little girl from the first Captain Marvel movie. That relationship with her quote Aunt Carol, I think will be an interesting one worth exploring in the movie. But great answer, Zech. Our next honorable mention goes to Alex Wong, who said high dynamic dual. Alex won here, and I think I like Photon the best because I think she has an unique power set and I didn't really enjoy Molton in her show or teching Marvel movie that rang, So thanks. Yeah, I'm actually really curious to see how they're going to portray Photon's powers in this movie. I remember our duel that we did with her between her and Obsidian, so I know that she has slightly different powers from Carol Danvers Captain Marvel and her powers are really something we didn't get

5:46 to see a whole lot of in the Wanda Vision series, so yeah, I'm interested in seeing them. Yeah, so far between the teaser and Wanda Vision, her main power component seems to be going intangible, though we know she can shoot blasts too, we've seen her do that, but it'll be really fun to explore the rest of her abilities in the Marvel's film. Thanks for the answer, Alex, But the winner of this week's no prize is Tye Nicely. You said, Hey, this is Tye Nicely with the time Ni's podcast. Great question. Without too much knowledge on Maria Rambo or Photon, I would probably have to say Miss Marvel Kamala Khan only because of how extensive her powers can be and how chaotic they can be as well. I feel like Captain Marvel's kind of just basic, but Miss Marvel has some uniqueness to it. Yeah, I'm not sure if I would describe Miss Marvel's powers as chaotic unless you're referring to her inexperience using them, although it does look like in general them using their powers will result in the chaos of them switching places, which seems like a great hook into the Marvel's film. But yeah, I like Miss Marvell. I thought she was great in her television series as portrayed by newcomer Amanvelani. I really liked in the teaser trailer how she came across as very like fan girly to her idol that is Captain Marvel, and she just looks like she's going to be like the heart of the movie and bring a lot of fun to it. Yeah. Absolutely definitely looking forward

7:19 to sink the heart that she brings. I agree. Congrats again to Tie Niceley for winning this week's no Prize. If you the listener want to shout at winning your own no Prize, stay tuned to later on this episode when we'll be asking another question of the week. And now that that's done, on to the news. All right, we didn't want to do it, but the powers that be at Marvel and DC left us no choice but to report on rumors. While I'm loath to do it. It is quite an interesting review that came out from Scooper, Daniel rp K or Daniel Rickman, who is inconsistent at best. But the rumor is that Adam Drivers and final talks with Marvel to play the character of Read Richards. If it is true, it could be interesting. Adam Driver's name has been connected to the Fantastic four reboot for a while now. A lot of fans speculated that he might be playing Victor von Doom, possibly because he played a villain Kylo Wren in the Star Wars franchise, and he actually would make a fantastic doctor Doom.

8:20 I think, probably a better Doom than Read Richards, but I think he would also make an interesting Read Richards. And apparently, according to the scoops, he was offered both roles. I did not read that. Actually, that's pretty interesting. We know that he has the qualities to play Victor von Doom. He doesn't quite physically look like Read Richards, mister Fantastic in the comics, though that being said, he does have an air of intelligence about him that I think would suit that character well. I think he's also, you know, like pretty long physically, which does that mean you not what the I mean? Tall and lanky? Sick? What are you ever here talking about? Adam Drivers? A length dude is tall and lanky? This is weird, but I can see that suiting his elastic ability is pretty well.

9:13 He'd probably have to dye his hair just a shade lighter and definitely incorporate the graying temples. Yeah, I don't think Adam Driver needs the graying temples. I think he's way too young for that. So I don't think they need to fake that he needs the graying temples. I'm sorry, but you're wrong. That's the essential part of Read Richard's look. I would just like shave the sides of his head so it's like lighter. Yeah, like Ultimate Fantastic four. Is that what they did there? Yeah, you're that's a garbage opinion. I don't want to hear that again. If he is Read and he does get the hair do and stuff like that, I think it'd be pretty interesting to see how it all turns out, because, honestly, you know, when they cast Benedict Cumberbatch as doctor Strange, I didn't quite see it physically, largely because I had never seen Benedict Cumberbatch with a goatee, and I I think that's what sells it. And now I think a cumberbatches like the spitting image of Stephen Strange. So it's interesting how these casting transformations kind of play out. But That's basically all we have to say about it, because it's just a rumor. Yeah it will be interested in seeing how this all pans out. Allegedly the casting announcements for The Fantastic for our right around the corner. We'll see if that actually happens though. But speaking of this rumor, that brings us to our question of the week. If Adam Drivers cast as mister Fantastic, who would you cast as Doctor Doom?

10:35 And the reverse? If Driver is Doom, who should be read? Record your answer at Dynamic Duel dot com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to thirty seconds long, and don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a Dynamic Dual no prize that will post to Instagram and our email newsletter. Be sure to answer before April twenty ninth. But that does it for all the news for this episode, So let's go ahead and get into our main event and get Dustin Balcom on the line as we review the Disney animated film Big Hero Six Okay, so Big Hero six is an animated movie produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios in twenty fourteen, starring Ryan Potter and Scott Atsitt as the voices of Hero and bay Max, respectively.

11:41 The film is adapted from a lesser known Marvel comics team, which was created in nineteen ninety eight by the Man of Action Writer's Collective, which was also responsible for creating such television characters as Ben Ten. But the Big Hero six Marvel comic was about Japan's government sanctioned superhero team. And speaking of Japan and animation, we have today Dynamic Duel's very own executive producer, Dustin Belcolm, who for a while had an anime podcast called What in the Anime? How are you doing? Dustin? I'm doing fantastic. Guys, can't wait to talk about one of my favorite Disney movies. Is this one of your favorite? It's for sure one of mine? Oh yeah, by far. Yeah. It tugs the heartstrings more than the rest, I feel for sure. Usually I prefer like Pixar's movies, but when it comes to like Walt Disney animated computer movies, this is probably in my top three for sure.

12:28 But in regards to the whole Marvel in DC thing, Dustin, we know that your team Marvel, right, but you used to be Team DC on our Discord channel. So tell us about your tumultuous past and how you eventually came to see the light. So I like to say I'm a fan of both. I grew up on DC content mostly, but X Men and Spider Man were a huge part. And after watching the Batman movie, I just couldn't I couldn't do DC no more. Yeah. Yeah, the movie did suck. It's too long? Am I right? Am I? Right? Yeah? I think I checked my watch like three times in the theaters. It's like that, Jonathan, how many times did you check your watch for Endgame? Not once? I was entertained the whole time. His eyes were glued to the screen. Yep, glued. I was in. I was focused. Yeah. Let that be a lesson to the rest of Team DC.

13:20 Marvel's just better. Dustin knows it. I'd like to think that Dustin in his heart still loves DC. He's just in a confused stage in his life right now. In addition to being a fan of DC and Marvel, you also have a big love for anime films and have had a podcast about it called One in the Anime. I'm curious, how did you get into anime watching oh Man? So I start watching your anime at a very very young age, like elementary school. I used to go to Hastings and rent the DVDs and watch him at home, like Gun Dumb, Ultraman, Dragon Ball and stuff like that. So that's how I got it to an anime.

14:01 Nice. My wife has a verb subscription, although I guess the verve is ending and going back into crunchy Roll. But as she recently got me into some anime stuff, We've been watching a lot of Miyazaki films though so nothing really too deep. I do like to watch Todyko. I don't know if you're familiar with that. It's like Dragon ball Z but with food. It's really weird interesting. I haven't watched that one. I think you mentioned that before, and I've been meaning to check that one out. Did you know that stan Lee made an anime? Stan Lee made an anime? Yes, with Studio Bones. Stan Lee made an anime called hero Man. It aired in round twenty ten to two thousand and eleven. It is on crunchy Roll. As well. Is it pretty good? Have you watched it?

14:43 It's not half bad. I watched a couple episodes. Interesting, it's pretty cool. I'll have to check that out. I've been trying to get Joseph to watch Yeah Genesis Evan Gillian, which is my favorite anime for years, and he just never takes any of my watching recommendations. Air takes the shit out of me never. It's kind of my police. Whenever Jonathan tells me to watch something, I'll wait five years and then get around to watching it, Like Game of Thrones happened time and time again. It's it's kind of funny, though, that's not It's either got to be that DC part of him, or you know the fact that you're twins and you just like to rebel. There you go, There you go. What is your favorite anime? Dustin oh um favorite anime? That's a tough one. I like Full Metal Alchimist Brotherhood. That's probably one of my top ones. I also really like Cowboy Bebop. There's there's a ton I watched too much anime. Nice Now, you would not consider Big Hero six to be an anime technically, right, because it was produced in the West. I guess what defines an anime, So typically what defines an anime is Japanese animation, although that's kind of getting blurred now because you're having studios that are coming out on crunchy roll as anime that are coming out of China and South Korea. South Korea has actually been making a lot lately interesting, so for me, it's just kind of like a foreign animation style that originates over in Asia area, I guess.

16:02 But it's kind of an art style at this point. So there's like, always had a big debate on if Avatar the Last Airbender's anime, and I always say no because Nickelodeon made it. But now that other countries are starting to make anime, it's kind of harder to argue that. Yeah, Big Hero six, we know that there are at least some elements of manga and anime that inspired both the Marvel comic and this film. I read some production notes that said that the character designers wanted bay Max to be huggable in the same vein as Toto. Okay, I could see that, so he heavily inspired that whole thing, because bay Max in this movie is nothing like he is in the comics. But it's interesting that looking at the history of animation and comics, it was Walt Disney, his Mickey Mouse character that inspired Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astro Boy, who's known as the father of manga, which are our Japanese comics. So Tazuka inspired this whole art style that would go on to define manga and anime and then go on to inspire Western modern animation and comics. So it's kind of like with Big Hero six, it all came full circle from Mickey Mouse to Astro Boy and then back to Mickey Mouse with this Big Hero six film. The way Western art styles and Eastern animation styles have inspired each other throughout the decades has been really interesting.

17:17 But let's go ahead and talk about the movie. And I want to give a spoiler alert to anyone who's listening who hasn't seen Big Hero six, because this will be a spoiler review, as all of our reviews are. But dustin Big Hero six, you're a fan of the movie. Yes, what do you like about it? I think I just like the little nods towards anime in general. I like the overall story. I feel like it has one of those kind of pulling your heartstrings a little bit. It reminds me of superhero films and anime and the fact that I feel like no anime or superhero film has parents. Yeah right, they always have some tragic loss in them at some point. Yeah, they all have to be orphans. One of the big themes is like how to cope with loss basically, but that is very much a tried and true trope when it comes to Disney films, because we've seen it in things like you know, Baby, the Lion King Up. But what makes this special to me personally is the inclusion of superheroes, which I think just makes everything better. But one of the things I was most impressed by this film was San Franciokio, which is an amalgam and portmanteau of Tokyo and San Francisco. It's almost like the setting is its own character in the film and the realization of it with like the golden tory gate bridges, the cable car, bullet train, and like the pagoda style skyscrapers. It's so incredible and probably one of the coolest settings of any film ever. Yeah, I really enjoyed that part and I looked up a little bit on how they came up with that, and it was saying that the director and them actually visited Tokyo and even went to the extreme of seeing how

18:48 they placed boxes out for their recycling in the alleyways. Oh that's cool. Yeah, the comic book takes place in Tokyo, so I wasn't quite sure why they chose to set this in this Japanese version of Francisco, but I do appreciate the creativity behind it. I had forgotten that this movie took place in this amalgam version of Tokyo and San Francisco, but once I saw that, I was like, Oh, that's cool. It's just so unbelievably well realized. Yeah, for sure. My other favorite thing about the film is its scientific approach, where you essentially have like engineers and chemists and physicists using their knowledge to become superheroes. Like we've seen this before with the Iron Man movie, and that was just fascinating with Tony Stark. But I love how Big Hero six kind of takes that concept and runs with it. But in the comics, only hero was the scientist, like Go Go, she was an ex con. Honey Lemon was a Superspy with Sabi was a chef, and Fred was just a cool teenager kid who got recruited for his powers.

19:48 But his powers were way better than Fred's in this movie, Dustin, did you ever read the Big Hero Six comics. I've looked at them, I haven't read a whole lot of them, but I didn't know that bay Max is like a green like looking thing. Yeah. Well, bay Max can transform into a dragon, which is like his combat mode. He's like a techno transformer type thing. He's a mecca. He also can transform into like this guy wearing a suit when he needs to blend in. It's pretty interesting. Bay Max is probably more different than any of the other characters in this adaptation. They're all kind of different, but it's not like they're unrecognizably different. There's still a lot of similarities between the characters in this movie and in the comics, and we could go over them in our character breakdown. Starting with Hero Hammada, who was played by Ryan Potter. I just learned that the actor for Hero was Ryan Potter. Of course, I know him best as beast Boy in the Titans television series, so to see him doing this was pretty interesting because now he's played both a Marvel and a DC character.

20:45 Yeah. I didn't realize this was Ryan Potter either. I didn't realize until like the end of the film, and it made me wish like I would have recognized that earlier, so I could have just appreciated the performance a little bit more. He does a fantastic job in this role. Dustin, Do you watch Titans the television series, the one on HBO. Yeah, yes, I think, kind of like one season behind. I just finished the Red Hood stuff. Okay, Yeah, the fourth season hasn't finished yet, so you're not really too far behind. That's good. Yeah, it's a great flipping show. I love that show honestly. So this version of Hero is most like his comic book counterpart, except in the books his last name is Takachiho and he wears glasses. But everything else was pretty much on point with like the anime hair and everything in this film. In regards to his arc, I thought it was interesting how his initial motivations ran parallel with the villains. Who is Professor Callahan, as it's later revealed, because they're both struggling to cope with the loss of a family member. They're both angry and they're both lashing out violently. But what's fascinating is that with Hero's journey, once he processes his loss, he comes full circle to the lessons of his brother Tadashi, and his motivation becomes to help others like Tadashi wanted and just like how she ran into that burning building saying, quote, someone has to help. At the end of Big Hero six, Hero flew into the portal to save Callahan's daughter, saying the exact same line, someone has to help.

22:11 And that was kind of like the defining moment for the character. I think, an incredible character building. Yeah, that was my thoughts. Exactly was that line when he said that, It just it felt like everything came full circle. And like Callahan, I don't know if it's like different when you lose a child over the sibling or a parent, But I don't know. Maybe that's why he could never fully grieve because I don't know how I would act if I lost one of my kids. Yeah, I think it'll hit a little bit different when you know you're responsible for someone and they lose their life as compared to you know, an older brother who you know he was still young and still had a lot of life to live, but you know, accomplished in his own right. You know, a Professor Callahan needed.

22:52 He needed a bay Max, just like we all need a bay Max. We all. Bay Max was played by Scott adds It, who I think gives one of the all time great voice performances as bay Max. He's such a like a wonderfully cute, unassuming and yet somehow badass character. Completely different from the comics as we discuss though, because he's not you know, like a Mecca who can transform into a green dragon. Yeah, he's badass without like realizing he's badass, which makes him even more badass. Yeah, exactly. But like anyone who watches this movie, including myself, you'd be lying if you didn't say that you wanted a bay Max for your own just to like look after you and your well being and like just hug you know, every once in a while. It looks very huggable. I just love the voice of bay Max. Like between Hell nine thousand and the lady who does the voice of Gladys in the Portal of Video Games, bay Max is like my third favorite robot voice. It's just funny. I like the idiosyncrasies of the character, like when you first see him, and how he kind of just like looks around the room judging where he should take his next step.

24:00 Things like that, Just those little, small little details are so endearing to the character. I don't love that he's so unfaithful to the comics, but I can forgive it easily because what Disney invented here with the character is just such quality. You can't not love Bamax totally. Now he's like super iconic now, like he's the only one who went on to get his own show, right, has anyone seen that? I haven't seen it. I haven't seen it either, but I did notice it on Disney. Plus there's so there were two spinoff shows from this movie. One of them was Big Hero six to the series, which basically takes off where this movie ends. And then there was Baymax, which basically just follows the character of Baymax as a healthcare robot in San Franco. Kio. Okay, I didn't know that they had their own cartoon the way when you say it left off, do you mean like it left off from the end credit scene. No, just with them as superheroes as a superhero team. Now, Okay, So like the Stanley character wasn't a character that I don't know, but we could talk about that. I'll admit this is actually the first time I saw the movie through the end credit, so I'd never seen the Stanley cameo until yesterday, and it was fucking epic. I loved that cameo. Have you seen it, Dustin? Oh, yeah, yeah, I've seen it. I also love that when they're walking down the hall, you see the portrait of Stanley with a little friend by them. Yeah, I caught that. Apparently this whole Stanley cameo thing happened at the very last minute in terms of animation production, like within the last few months before the movie came out, because the directors went and saw I think it was like Thor of the Dark World or

25:32 Winter Soldier or something like that, and they noticed that they both had Stanley cameos, and they're like, oh shit, we got to put a Stanley cameo in our movie since it's a Marvel Comics adaptation. So they made it so like Stanley was this superhero father who wore his underwear front back inside out, front back, which is so gross that I mean, I'll do the inside out thing, but I won't do the front back thing. I have my standards, so I'm of the opinion and I may be in the minority here, especially with Marvel fans, that Stanley doesn't need to be in everything, especially and stuff that he didn't help create. Now, I'm not familiar with Man of Action or what or who that is, but I kind of feel like they probably deserved to have a cameo over stan Lee. Well.

26:18 Man of Action is a collective that was started by Joe Kelly, and I actually think it was a creator named Steven Siegel who created Big Hero six specifically. But you got to have Stanlee in all these movies. I'm like, so sad Stanley isn't around to do cameos anymore, because although he didn't create every Marvel character, he represents Marvel like no one else can. He created most of their characters. He was the chairman emeritus for decades. Yeah, here's a face of Marvel and you're talking crap on a guy who even did a cameo for the rival in teen Times. Go that's true, that's fair. Let's go ahead and move on to go go to Mago, who was played by Jamie Chung. You guys might recognize Jamie Chung as Miho from the movie Since City. She also voiced the character of Death in the DC showcase shorts and Cheshier in Batman Solo of the Dragon, who we recently just did a dual episode with. Yeah, again, this is another cast member that I didn't realize was in this role. The voice cast is way more oppressive than I would have thought initially just going into this, and especially the first time I saw the movie. Jimmy Chunk has major street cred in the fandom community, so that was cool to see that she was in this movie as well. Even though it's a very minor role. It is Yeah, she actually plays a larger role in the comics. I think she's pretty similar to the books in this movie in terms of like her badass attitude. She's like the cool badass of the group. In the comics, she was part of this motorcycle gang like the one in Akira, but she ended up getting arrested

27:48 and she arranged a deal to test pilot this exosuit that could envelope her and energy and turn her into energy and she could move super fast. But I actually think I like the Magla Wheel's concept in this movie even more. Yeah. I really enjoyed her in the movie a lot, and it also gave me those vibes with those disks of like Tron. Yeah, yeah, totally pretty cool. I think of all of the heroes in Big Hero six, I would want her powers the most because like the shields that she was able to use an addition to the wheels were just really cool and she could throw them. I think that's the trine aspect that I really liked. They were like Captain America's shield the way they would ricochet and come back to her. Yeah, bangetically they would return to her. That was just badass. So what I'm hearing is Johnny like Captain America. Yeah, that's what you want to hear. We all heard it. We all heard it. Let's go ahead and move on to Honey Lemon, who was played by Genesis Rodriguez.

28:47 I thought Honey Lemon was fine here. She was inconsistent in what she called hero like. Sometimes she would call him hero and then other times she was more like Hito rhymes with Cheeto. I thought that was a little bit weird. But in the comics, Honey Lemon was a secret agent whose research team developed the power purse, which was a purse with miniature wormholes inside of it, from which she could pull out literally anything that she wanted to. That sounds of way cooler. Yeah, I mean here it was kind of interesting because it looked like she could like mix chemicals in her purse and then pull out chemical weapons. I thought it was pretty creative. How sometimes she would like make goop or ice or smoke or things like that. But the ability to pull out anything like in the comics, it's kind of more interesting.

29:30 I think it's like a green lantern ring or something. Sounds like the purse from Harry Potter. I'm trying to remember what that is. There was a person, Harry. Yeah, Hermione has that person like she just reaches and pulls out whatever. Oh my wife is going to give me shit for not remembering that. Oh, how dare you? I guess it's time for me to rewatch the movies. Then let's going to move on to with Sabi, who was played by DamID Wayne's junior. I really like DamID Wayne's junior. He reminds me so much of his dad, Like their voices are so identical. It's uncanny, right, But I think I like the original character from the comics more than how he was adapted in this film, which felt kind of generic, like there was nothing really too Wasabi. In the comics, Wasabi no Ginger was a Japanese sushi chef who could manifest these chi blades that he would use for like cooking sushi or for attacking. He also had twin katana as well, but in this movie his blades are plasma, which fits with the science themes of the film, but to me, it's less interesting than chi. Right, So he was like a bladed version of iron fist.

30:37 Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Instead of manifesting his chee into a powerful punch, he would manifest it into these knei daggers that he could throw. Wasabi was probably my least favorite character in the movie. He was just way too whiny. But there was that one part when they were about to be smashed by that a shipping container and that he was doing that scream that reminded me of how his dad was in Living Color. It was just so dustin. What did you think of Asabi? I imagine not much because he's rather generic. Yeah, he was pretty generic. I thought he was decent, like kind of funny because he was an OCD over the top rule follower, like as they're in the car chase, he stops at the red light. Even that was good. He signaled and go goes like, are you signaling right now? I did think he was a little bit too cavalier with those like invisible lasers at the very beginning when he met Hero.

31:29 It's like, dude, you can't just like leave that around without a warning sign or like unprotected straight up cut you. Yeah, you know, barriers, no robes, no nothing, just walk right in exactly. Yeah, he needed to cover it up or something because somebody would just straight up walk into that thing and just you know, fucking die. Almost gruesome. Way, let's go ahead and move on to the final member of the Big Hero six team, Fred, who was voiced by TJ. Miller, probably better known to Marvel and DC fans as Weasel in the Deadpool movie. Fred, for me is the only character of the film I don't like. I don't know if it's a TJ. Miller's annoying voice or if the character was just written to be annoying, but I could not imagine being a fledgling scientist at this institute having some weird ass guy who doesn't changes underwear come over to me and start asking me if it's possible to make him an invisible sandwich.

32:21 I'd be like, get the fuck out of here, man Security say, I don't know, Fred was my favorite, really, Okay, explain I just like, Okay, I don't know why, but I gravitate towards liking the dumb characters and like animes, and it happened in this one as well. Like, I don't know, he just he's so flipping funny. He cares more about sandwiches, wanted to become a lizard, and everyone's like all these serious scientists and he's spinning signs. He is endearing. I mean, he'd probably be fun to party with, but then like I'd probably want him to go away. It was kind of cool how he ended up being like the Bruce Wayne of the group, where he was like secretly rich and had this mansion that they could use as a headquarters and training ground and stuff like that. He's a rip off of Shaggy Rogers. Who's that, Scooby doo Oh, Shaggy Shaggy. You can't say Shaggy Rogers. No one knows who that is so a rip off of Shaggy because in the cartoons and stuff.

33:21 I don't know if you guys ever watched like the pump named Scooby Doo or The Kids and everything, but that Shaggy is super wealthy. Really yeah, yeah, he has a mansion like Scooby has a mansion doghouse that he lives in and everything. This shutters like everything I knew about Scooby Doo. I don't know they were rich the whole time. I thought Fred was rich on Scooby Doo, but I didn't know Shaggy was. I thought he was like some like broke stoner living out of his VW. I think it depends on which series you watch. But when I was a kid and they had the pump named Scooby Doo, he was rich in that interesting total rip off of Shaggy then yep, top off. I also didn't care too much for Fred, but mostly just because I didn't really like the way they depicted his powers, like he was in this robotic suit that didn't look robotic whatsoever. I don't know, It's just bothered me for some reason. Well, he was the school mascot, right, so it was kind of like a play on that. It was almost like a mascot suit. I do have to say in the comics, Fred is way cooler because he grew up on this outskirt Japanese island near where the atomic bombs were dropped, and he's a descendant of the inhabitants there who were irradiated and mutated. And Fred can transform himself into a giant kaiju monster that looks like Godzilla. His superhero name is fred Zilla, but he doesn't like just transform. He can also like project the aura of his inner kaiju and give his human form increased strength. It's badass.

34:45 Fred is way cooler in the comics for sure. Yeah, I definitely didn't like the suit in the movie, but the reason I liked Fred was all personality. Let's go to move on to the villain of the movie. It was known as the Yokai A Robert Callahan played by James Cromwell. A lot of Marvel and DC fans might know James Cromwell better as Captain George Stacey from the Spider Man three movie. So a lot of actors here that did a lot of other superhero stuff. But James Cromwell as we all know is a classic actor. I think he performed well here, and while he looks cool as a villain and has those cool lego powers, I do have some questions about the things that he did in this movie. So I'm going to go over basically his plan and see if you guys can help me understand what's going on. Basically, Robert Callahan was this robotics genius. His daughter was a test pilot for Cray Tech Industries. She disappeared, he got angry, He went back to his day job, but obviously still harboring a deep seated murderous rage for Kray. My issue with him is this, if he had the ability to reactivate the portal technology, which we saw him do in this movie, why didn't he use his microbot Legos to probe the portal and find his daughter, even if he didn't have a scanner to locate her. Professor Callahan was supposed to be a genius, so I feel like he could have easily made one, But instead of doing that, he chooses to steal heroes rather rudimentary design. I think I don't know why you're going to come up with

36:16 that. Either, he goes full supervillain wearing a kabuki mask and uses the portal to suck up craze office building. Can someone rationalize that? Yeah, so I can only rationalize like half of that. Part of it is as far as like why he didn't develop something to search for his daughter. I think he just assumed she died because of how they actually went in the explosion, Like he just thought she was gone, she was dead, that was the end of it. So then he held onto that anger. I don't know why he went back to his jay job or why he had still a kid's school project as his way of taking out his revenge, But yeah, recreating the portal to destroy that guy, I think it was more of a this portal ruined my life, so I'm going to use it to ruin yours as well. That sounds about right. I feel like there's got to be a better, less convoluted way to off somebody at a revenge, you know, Like why didn't Professor Callahan just like I don't know, shoot the guy in the face, to have him in a dark alley something like that.

37:14 I feel like that would be way easier than what he did here. That's very true. So I understand a lot of your concerns, especially the one where it's like, well, why didn't he come up with the invention that Hero came up with with the microbots? Considering that earlier in the film, they explained that he basically invented the technology that made that possible, so you should have been able to think of it at the very least. Of course, he decided to steal it. I guess once he saw the potential, and it had a lot of potential. I think the microbots are probably the coolest thing in this movie. But of course he needed those to get to the bottom of the ocean to recover some of the portal machinery and components to get that rebuilt. You could argue that he probably figured his daughter was dead.

37:55 Like you mentioned, though, Joseph, you know, he's probably smart enough to at least check to at least rebuild it and see if his daughter is in there. If he loved her enough, why didn't he go searching for her? I know, as a father, I would, But I would also make the case that maybe he wanted to get his revenge prior to that, because if he ended up lost in space or dead, who knows where that partle went. His daughter would not have been avenged. So you know, we don't know what his plan was after dismantling Krai's new like university or whatever, but it could have been to go searching for his daughter. That's valid. I'll allow that. It's now part of my head cannon that after he killed Craig he was gonna go searching for his daughter. I think that makes sense with the microbots, yeah right. What I don't get though, is the kabuki mask. Was it like just to throw people off.

38:44 It's like, there's no way this dead guy would do cultural appropriation right, probably because I do remember being surprised the first time I saw this movie at the reveal of who the villain was. Yeah, it was a pretty good shot, but no, yeah, you're right, they're like, oh, look this guy, this villain, he couldn't possibly be anything other than Japanese. That's probably the whole point. What a dick. The final character I want to talk about is Tadashi Hamada. There's not too much to say about him. I feel like Tadashi died for nothing, really like. I like the character. I get that he served as a big inspiration to Hero, but when you break it down, if Tadashi never ran into that building, Professor Kellahan still would have stole the microbot's Hero and his last remaining microbot would have still discovered Kellahan's plan. They probably would have done something to stop it.

39:37 Regardless, I feel like Tadashi was around to inspire Hero anyway, So it felt like inserting Tadashi's death into this plot was done just for the sake of doing it, because that's what Disney does. Thoughts, that's kind of I felt too. Is he definitely got the Uncle Ben treatment. Yeah, but I don't know. The only the only way I rationalize it is it also gave Hero that moment at the end where he you know, someone has to do it moment, So that was cool. But yeah, like you said, I don't think it was needed either, because Tadashi was the one who got him to go to the school in the first place instead about fighting, like he was already the slight positive role model to Hero. Yeah. Yeah, you're absolutely right, Joseph. He didn't need to die. And I didn't even think about it until you said it. And now I'm just kind of upset with Disney for trying to manipulate me and talk of my heart strings, but I think that doesn't for all the characters. Let's go ahead and get into the story highlights. So in the city of San Franciokio, fourteen year old genius Hero Hammada hustles an underground robot fighting ring and gets in trouble. His brother Tadashi takes him to his research lab at the San Franci Kio Institute of Technology, where he hopes to inspire better things for Hero's brilliant mind. I loved the intro to this movie. My daughters and I are big BattleBots fans. I got Discovery Plus just so we could watch that.

40:58 So just to see these robots like dream battle bot robots like fight each other was really cool. Hero had a really cool robot that would just like love to recreate in real life and just own all the other bots. It was such a great hustle too, the way he conned that battle Bots master, and then how that culminated in Hero saying like, oh, it's not illegal to battle bots, it's just illegal to bet on it, and then he like is holding out the cash one they get stopped by the police. That was funny. At the institute, Hero is introduced to go Go, Tomago, Honey, Lemon, was Sabi and Fred, as well as Baymax, an inflatable healthcare robot that Tadashi invented. He's convinced to join the Institute by Professor Callahan, Tadashi's mentor, and signs up to compete in a science fair for the opportunity to enroll. Inspired by his battle robot design, Hero invents the microbot, which he displays at the fair, wowing the audience. Tech mogul Alistir Cray offers to buy the patent, but Professor Callahan convinces Hero not to sell and to join thetitute. As Hero and his brothers celebrate the science of her building catches fire, prompting Tadashi to go in to save Callahan.

42:06 There's an explosion moments later, however, which kills Tadashi. Was he running the science program just to eventually like find some kind of scientific gadget that one of his students made that would allow him to get his revenge, Like, I don't know why he waited up until that moment. That's true. The timing is questionable, right. My guess is that Hero's invention was just so revolutionary that he saw as his moment to strike. Otherwise, who knows what the hell would have happened. He probably would have just gone on the rest of his life. Who knows. Weeks after his brother's death, a depressed Hero accidentally activates Bamax, who attempts to alleviate his mental state. Baymax and Hero followed the last remaining microbot to an old warehouse, where they find the bots being mass produced by a mysterious man in a kabuki mask. After fleeing the man's attack, Hero suspects that this man, this Yokai, started the fire that killed to Dashi in order to steal the microbots. This scene makes me think of Hero's aunt, who we have not discussed yet. I don't know what you guys thought about her, but I thought she was she was quite attractive, quite an attractive character design. I'll just say that, fucking crickets. Thanks guys, Thanks, all right, We'll just move right on past that. Then, determined to avench his brother, Hero creates a set of armor for bay Max and adds martial arts to his programming. They find the Yokai at the docks near the warehouse, but Tadashi's friends interfere in an attempt to console Hero over his grief. The Yokai attacks the group and their

43:38 minivan is forced into a lake, where they're rescued by bay Max, who's inflatable. Regrouping at Fred's mansion, heroes inspired to turn the group into superheroes in order to fight the Yokai. Building upon their previous work at the institute, Gogo develops a racing suit with maglev wheels. Honey Lemon develops her power purse, from which she can pull various chemical weapons. Was Sabi develops arm blades using laser induced plasma. For Fred, Hero makes a monster suit that can breathe fire, and for himself and bay Max, he creates a suit of armor that can fly. Well, really, he just made himself a cool looking suit because he doesn't have any other powers in this movie besides, you know, his massive intellect. He just put like magnets on his gloves and feet so that he could connect to Baymax when he flies. I would have assumed that he would have made himself like a lot more gadgets and weaponry that would have helped the mission other than just magnets in those locations like the microbots, right, he could have invented more microbots and then been a very similar character to the Yokaia. He definitely had the lamist suit out of everybody.

44:45 Yeah, plot hole, really this is it's a major plot hole in that he didn't create more microbots. Yeah, or why didn't he create, like, I don't know, a signal that would counter the microbots signal or something something like EMP or something that would have made a lot of sense, something that interfered with the neural transmitter from the mask exactly, Like he invented this tech that the villain was using. Surely he could have come up with some other way to counteract that. It's not like, you know, he was coming in new to this like a separate hero. It was his tech. That's very true. Plotholes aside, Who do you think would win out of a fight between all these characters? Go Go? I think like watching her fight in every fight scene, she seemed to be the most comfortable with her powers, Like she did the cool thing where she sliced the ball in half when she was trapped. She looked like she was holding her own against Callahan in their first encounter until she slipped on the ice from Honeymoman. Like I think she would definitely kick all their butts. I would say, go go to if like there wasn't debris everywhere, because like one little pebble and she's done. I feel like she was really lucky that a lot of these walls in the environments that she was battling and had like rounded corners that it went to the floor. I noticed that happened like a couple of instances.

46:06 I've seen you on rollerblades, Jonathan, so I know what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, totally. One a little crack in the sidewalk and it's John don zo Um. I think Fred would win. Fred would obviously lose. Yeah, first let's run the stats. Bring up the fucking simulator where I think Honey Lemon would win. Like all she would have to do is pull out like a Mustard gas bomb something boom. I mean that would affect Fred obviously because he has his filtered air coming into that suit. Does he have filtered air? Yes, pretty sure it's not filtered. Pretty sure that dude's fucking sustint smells like hockey pads what he's wearing inside that suit. Bay Max tracks the Okay to an island with an abandoned lab, where they find footage of a teleportation portal developed by Alistair Craize company Kraytech Industries. They learned that a test pilot was sent into the portal and never turned, forcing the government to pull Craize funding. The group is attacked by the Yokai, but the team manages to pull off his mask, revealing him to be Callahan, who's seeking revenge on Kraize since the test pilot was his daughter, Abigail.

47:12 He started the fire at the institute in order to steal the microbots and get his revenge. Hero forces Baymax to kill Callahan, but the team stops him and Callahan gets away. Back home, Baymax shows Hero footage of Tadashi working on Baymax, which reminds Hero that all his brother wanted to do was help people, resolving to still apprehend Callahan but not murder him. They find the villain at a ceremony for kre Tech Industries, where Callahan is using the teleportation portal to suck up the company's headquarters. What did you guys think of evil? Baymax three clip and scary right? He was like the terminator. Yeah yeah, since he had the armor on, he didn't look all cuddly and nice. So when he went evil, like remind me of the First Avengers when the Hulk loses control on the Hello Carrier. Oh yeah, the analogy. Yeah, yeah, totally. I like the red Eyes. That was cool, although it makes you wonder if he was missing his Tadashi chip and just kind of went like on this crazy killing spree. Then when he was left in the portal alone at the end of the movie, did he just like tear through the multiverse just like freaking killing everyone because he didn't have that healthcare chip anymore. Yes, Yeah, he became like the anti monitor for DC, just destroying universes until he ran out of battery and then he just clumsily fell around till he died. That's right. Yeah, acting drunk.

48:30 Yeah, that was funny. That was a funny scene. In the fight, the team is Clawbard but decides on attacking the microbots instead to reduce Kellahan's primary weapon. With the Yokai defeated, the teleportation portal comes crashing down and bay Max discovers a life form inside. He and Hero enter the portal to rescue Kellahan's daughter, Abigail, who was in suspended animation. Baymax's Armor gets destroyed during the rescue, however, and he sacrifices himself to get Hero and Abigail through the portal before it closes. I want to know why Hero was the only one who went into that portal. Is this Big Hero six or Big Hero two? I mean, he's the only one who could fly. This is true, that's fair. But they've all ridden, They've all ridden bay Max, you know, like bay Max has carried all of them.

49:17 I just figured there would have been you know, like strengthened numbers for a mission like that. Really, someone who didn't want the thirteen year old to go alone. Right, We're with you, Hero said no one. With Callahan arrested. Hero sets up shop alongside his friends at the San franco Chio Institute of Technology, where he discovers bay Max's healthcare chip. Using it, he brings back bay Max, and he and the others continue protecting the city as the high tech superhero team Big Hero six. After the credits, we see a cameo from Stanley, who is Fred's father and also a superhero allegedly or just a guy who dresses up like one. So I watched this movie with my family. My daughter, who is twelve. Now, this movie came out when she was four, so she doesn't remember it, and it came out the same year that my youngest daughter was born, so this was her first time watching. Both girls cried when bay Max was left in the portal, which surprised me because when I was watching this movie again, I was like, Oh, I remember this being a lot more touching than it was, but clearly it still is. Well, you already knew that he was going to come back, so like the stakes were less impactful for you. But I definitely remember tearing up the first time I saw this movie at that scene, just because everybody loves Baymax. You don't want to see Baymax die. You know, he's cool. Yeah, but it was a nice sense of relief to see the girls get relieved by the fact that that chip was still in bay max fist. I was like, Oh, good,

50:51 that's good. They don't have to be sad all night before going to bed. Is that an issue? Jonathan, with parenting and dustin same question to you, were like, if something too sad happens in a movie, Yes, So I took my kid to see Infinity a War in theaters, and his favorite superhero is Spider Man. Oh no, Lucky for me, he fell asleep right before the end, and I decided I'm not going to tell him. And then we rented the movie and he saw what happened? You looked at me. He's like, wait, did that really just happen. I was like, ah, crap. Now I gotta sit here and be like it's okay, but it'll be fine. Now we gotta go watch and the game again again. Dustin, what did your kids think of this movie? Oh? They loved it. So they've seen it probably a few dozen times. They go through phases where they like watch the same movie over and over again. Yes, and they were like, no, I don't want to watch it, we want to go play games. I was like, all right, I guess I'll just watch it by myself. And I turned it on and I was probably like five ten minutes and one of them walks out and then just stops and stands and then sits down starts watching it, and then the other one comes out, sat down. They both watch the whole movie. Nice. Well, I think that's a great testament to the quality of the film. You know, no matter how many times you've seen it, it still holds up. Yeah. I mean there's a reason why it won the Academy Award for Best Animation the year that it came out.

52:14 That's right, Oh quick tangent. Speaking of Academy Awards, I've been wanting to say this on the podcast for a while. I'm gonna put it out. I'm gonna cut this part out. Fuck you. I said a few months ago that DC and Marvel were tied for the number of Academy Awards that they have, when actually I forgot that the Suicide Squad won an Academy Award. So DC has seven as compared to Marvel's six. Do you feel better now? I Do I feel much better? Do you feel more like more of a man? Yes? Yes? Clap Well done, Jonathan, Thank you. We're very proud for you. Feel great. I'll say that though Big Hero six is a very loose adaptation of the Marvel comic, the film presents a fun, scientific approach to super heroics, which I like, alongside a heartfelt story about coping with loss. So I'm gonna give it four and a half stars for Rotten Tomatoes a fresh rating. I think I would have given it four and a half stars if I hadn't watched it again and we hadn't talked about it, and just thinking about all of these plot holes and just like weird, especially with the villain arcs and motivations. I think it's four stars, which is still a solid rating in my opinion. You know, we've also given films like Wonder Rooman and Joker four stars, so I think it's a good, solid movie, has some problems, but overall a fantastic time. Yeah, I will give it a four and a half stars for myself. Kind of the same reason I don't give it a perfect rating is the whole plot hole parts of it. But at the same time,

53:45 it's mostly made for kids, and do you know who doesn't care about plot holes? Kids? So it's still super enjoyable. My kids have seen it a thousand times. It got them stuck right away as soon as they walked onto the living room. So yeah, and then you compared it to DC movies having the same rating, so I have to up at that extra half. That was your mistake, Jonathan, So four and a half it is. Thank you so much, Dustin for coming onto this show and reviewing this movie with us. It's a joy to have you, and it's you know it's about time too. You've been supporting the show for almost as long as anyone has a long time listener, and I truly appreciate everything that you've done for us. And I love how you started your own podcast, not just about anime. It looks like you have another one coming up. Definitely exciting things in your future podcast wise. Yeah, no, thanks for having me. I love the show. I think I started listening within four episodes or so of you guys starting. Thank you for sticking with us, because those old episodes suck. They're okay, they're okay, But yeah, I stuck with it even when you gave me the nickname Dusty Balls and when Johnny got mad and kicked me off team do you see? And I'm surprised you invite me on. When I make I think I make Johnny mad more often.

55:07 That's what I love about having you on the Discord is that you make Jonathan angry. And it's always fun to take Jonathan angry. I think everyone expects it at this point because I make a comment and then you just see the gifts of like here we go and people eating popcorn. So good, so much fun. Yeah, and also I'm getting ready to launch my new podcast that me and my wife are going to be doing, and we're also going to be having guests here and there. It's going to be a theology based podcast called One World, One God, and we're planning on releasing that here within the next couple of weeks. It should be a good time. Me and my wife, we're coming at it from two different angles because I'm the logical thinker of things, so I judge stuff off the logic and she's very much more feeling based, so we have that nice balance. Fascinating, nice, very nice. Thanks again, We'll be talking to you later on the discord. And how do I want to this? How do we usually end this? Jonathan Batman sucks goodbye? No no, no, I just really dropped the mic there and left before I could retort. But that doesn't for this review. Let us know what you guys thought about the movie by writing to us at Dynamic Dual Podcast at gmail dot com, or by visiting us on Instagram or Twitter. You can find links to all of our accounts by checking out our show notes or visiting our website Dynamic Duel dot com.

56:25 And on our site, you could also find a link to our Patreon page where you can join our Dynamic two O tier and chat with us and fellow listeners. Are Fantastic four tier, which gets you bonus content each month, our x forced here that makes you an executive producer of this podcast, or our newest tier that lets you join our Dynamic podcast network. If you can't join Patreon, you could still support the show by signing up for our e newsletter also at Dynamic Duel dot com, or you can rate the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, pot Chaser, or on our web site. Next week is going to be a dual episode that we're going to tie into Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three. We're going to pit Big barda of the Apocalyptin Furies against Ronan, the Accuser, who was the villain of the first Guardians of the Galaxy film. Should be a great cosmic battle, but that doesn't.

57:17 For this episode, we want to give a big thanks to our executive producers Ken Johnson, John Starowski, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Belcolm Make Him Out the Guian, Brandon estergard Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yayton, Nikobanto, Austin Wazulawski, aj Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spees, and Zach Wilder for helping make this podcast possible, and we'll talk to you guys next week. Up, Up, and Away. True Believers, Fast Bump FLA La la la