This post contains spoilers for the movie Big Hero 6. If that convinces you to not read this post, just go see it. It's worth it because...I won't spoil it for you. But yeah.
When the very first trailer for Big Hero 6 came out, I was a bit disappointed. It seemed like a story of a boy (who looked white, though I was wrong about that part) who builds a robot and has adventures or fights villains or whatever. My initial thought: "For once, why can't a girl or a person of color build a cool robot?" (Again, I was wrong thinking the boy was white, but nothing in that initial teaser said his name was Hiro.) Despite the Disney + Marvel label, I was very skeptical that this could be anything more than a solidly entertaining film. Boy, was I wrong.
After I saw a few social media posts from progressive/feminist websites about the diversity reflected in the film, it started looking as though I should give this movie a shot. I didn't read any articles to avoid spoilers in case I decided to watch the film, and I remained curious. Finally, a fellow superhero-nerd lady friend convinced me that I absolutely needed to see this movie and that the posts praising the representation of the characters were definitely warranted.
And she was right. Big Hero 6 turned out to be a film that is consciously diverse but is not bogged down by meaningless tokenism or ridiculous tropes.
Until the movie teasers started coming out with the Marvel logo, I was unaware of anything concerning the comics on which the film is based. Obviously, I was not a reader of the comics, but upon writing this post, I did a few online searches and learned that the original characters represented in the film were all Japanese with one character being Ainu, an indigenous people with a rich culture who are native to the Northern island of Hokkaido (I will save the history of discrimination against the Ainu for another day). Given that the comics, unlike the movie, are set in Japan, this can be considered the equivalent having an all-white cast with one token minority for a story set in the U.S. Sure, Japan is a much more homogeneous country, so it may be more natural for the characters to be homogeneous, but what's notable here is that the creators of the movie could have transported this notion when they set the story in the half-Japanese/half-Californian fictional city of San Fransokyo (SF + Tokyo...haha). But they didn't.
Instead, the four friends of the main character (who constitute four of the six in "Big Hero 6") are, for the lack of a better phrase, racially diverse. The fact that the four characters are, respectively, Asian, white, black, and Latina may seem to be an extremely deliberate shot at diversity. In addition, each of the characters are voiced by actors/actresses who are the same race as that character. But all of this is not the same as the "diversity" section in the catalog of a super-white liberal arts school. Each of the four characters hold their own as characters and are not mere representations of racial stereotypes. Combined with the employment of (again, for the lack of a better phrase) racially appropriate actors to voice the characters, the film fights the racial stereotyping seen so often in Hollywood which, at times, is effectuated by over-the-top and faked accents.
That the diverse makeup of these characters was not a checkbox to be checked is supported by the fact that they are not bogged down in stupid tropes. Take Wasabi, voiced by New Girl actor Damon Wayans. Wasabi is a student at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, or the "nerd school," like most of the other main characters. He also happens to be a muscular black dude who tends a bit towards OCD and is pretty big on following the rules (as demonstrated by his stopping at a red light when being chased by a super-villain). Name the last time a character in a major motion picture (animated or not) fit all of those characteristics. Because I can't.
Then, there's Honey Lemon, voiced by Genesis Rodriguez. She may be skinny, tall, and have a love for "girly" colors, but she is a brilliant chemist who, unlike many Latina characters in film, is defined by her big brains rather than by her big boobs and "exotic" accent. Finally, there's GoGo, voiced by Jamie Chung. She is, for sure, the certified badass of the group. She's tough, and her weapons and fighting style are the ones that are most based on speed and power. And as a student of the "nerd school," she is obviously very smart. GoGo doesn't fit either Asian girl trope of "nerdy, shy, but hypersexualized" or "deadly-fighter hot girl" (see the other Asian girl character named Gogo). Rather, she's close to someone you may know in real life--a girl (of whatever race) who is tough, athletic, and into science.
At this point, you probably get the sense that my thumbs-up on racial representation also extends to gender representation (well, at least generally) as well. While female characters are still unrealistically outnumbered like in most other films, and the story revolves around a boy and his male-voiced robot, the film projects a generally positive message about women and their abilities. Honey Lemon and GoGo are treated as equals within the group, and there are no attempts to distinguish between "the girls" and "the guys." They are brilliant in their respective scientific fields, and the projects that they had been working on are transformed into their respective superhero weapons. They don't need "rescuing" or "saving" any more than the male characters. ("Woman up!" says GoGo on several occasions.) The women of Big Hero 6 are badasses--both in general and in STEM. They show girls that they don't have to rely on boys, and that they don't need to fit a stereotype of a "nerd" to be smart and awesome. In other words, they are the polar opposite of Barbie who can't be a programmer without the help of boys.
The kind of diversity and message of female empowerment projected by Big Hero 6 are the characteristics that I've desired--and I'm certain others have as well--in a superhero film. The X-Men franchise has not quite accomplished what Big Hero 6 has in this respect, despite having much potential and a central theme of promoting respect for those who are different. The Avengers (in the movie) are all white (I'm counting Bruce Banner, not Hulk) and the only woman, Black Widow (who totally deserves her own film), is less developed as a character than she should be. DC Comics-based movies have been similarly disappointing, but the point is that Big Hero 6 deserves much praise on this point.
Finally, I'm not in love with Big Hero 6 only for its social implications. It is a genuinely good movie--as an animated film, as a superhero film, and in general. The film has great themes involving the memory of loved ones, friendship, and bravery. All the main characters are very likable, and it is enjoyable to adults as well as to children (guessing from the reactions of the rest of the theater).
This post really wasn't intended to be a film review, so I will say no more about these more general aspects of the film. All I want to say is this: Just go see it.
