'Big Hero 6': Disney departs from Walt's warm and fuzzy

Gorgeous and disturbing, Big Hero 6 is a departure for Disney: a film targeted at older kids, and the studio's first venture into straight-up comic book culture. Walt would flip in his cryogenic chamber if he saw this anime-style production.

The protagonist is a 14-year-old robotics genius named Hiro Hamada, whose nanotechnology creation promises to change everything. Until it is stolen.

The film is presumably set in the near future in a San Francisco altered by Asian influences. The Golden Gate Bridge, for instance, has become a Shinto span. The renderings of the city, both panoramic and street-level, are absolutely stunning.

It's a jaunty, jazzy setup with distinctive characters and 3-D effects that feel organic. The problem comes when Hiro transforms his gentle guardian, a sweet inflatable robot named Baymax who resembles the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, into an armored warrior bot. In fact, Hiro weaponizes all his companions.

Without warning, Big Hero 6, very loosely based on a Marvel Comics series of the same name, jumps from fuzzy to vicious, in a manner as startling as the mutable creatures in Gremlins.

The villain is scary, and the chase and battle scenes are decidedly vivid, particularly for a PG film. Maybe our children have become so inured to violence that they don't get nightmares anymore.

Big Hero 6 is unusual in another way. It didn't recruit illustrious stars for its voice cast. Baymax, for instance, is vocalized by Scott Adsit, best known as Pete on 30 Rock. The most enjoyable performance belongs to T.J. Miller (Silicon Valley) as Fred, a scruffy guy in the vein of Scooby-Doo's Shaggy.

This being Disney, the tone shifts back to warm and wholesome for the finish. All's well ending well. But at 108 minutes, it sometimes seems this spirited but schizy film will never end.

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Big Hero 6 **1/2 (out of four stars)

Directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams. With the voices of Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit, T.J. Miller, Genesis Rodriguez. Distributed by Walt Disney Studios.
Running time: 1 hour, 48 mins.
Parent's guide: PG (violence).
Playing at: area theaters.