While I often defend fealty to the source material, I do understand how people can prefer the changed version. I still maintain that after a certain amount of changes you might as well go ahead and create something new so fans of the original can get a better adaptation. I understand defenders of the changes because The NeverEnding Story is my all-time favorite movie but not a very good adaptation of Michael Ende’s book. Having heard the story of the book I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it given that the two versions are practically mirror opposites of each other. That’s why I say Man Of Steel is a decent superhero movie (that opinion sinking with every attempt by Zach Snyder to defend his changes) but a terrible Superman adaptation. It might have worked better as an original superhero with clear Superman inspirations.
Disney’s Big Hero 6 movie also goes on that list. Like The NeverEnding Story, I didn’t know about the original Marvel comic (at a time before Disney bought Marvel so we can’t blame Kevin Feige’s group of morons for once). The original Earth-616 version (the comics universe for those of you who only know the movies that should be Earth-199999) bares little resemblance to the movie that came after, though like many other comics turned into movies elements would later fill in from the movie and TV series (Earth-14123). Still, 616’s Baymax is a dragon. Nobody really talks about this except in comparison to the movie and series, so I guess they felt they could change whatever they wanted…which it turns out was practically everything. Unlike most Marvel Studios output or anything else from Iger’s Disney, it actually works. It’s a really good movie, which is why I gave the series a chance, and now you can, too.
Tonight I bring you the two part first episode of Big Hero 6: The Series, which is starting to come out on Disney Channel Animation’s YouTube channel. The story sees the restoration of Baymax the inflatable medical robot, and what became of the heroes after the movie. Hiro is going to college because he’s a child genius, and finds that Baymax 1 sent his chip back to Hiro at the end of the movie, a teaser for a potential sequel. Instead we get a 2D stylized series in which San Fransokyo (a fusion of the better parts of San Francisco and Tokyo–long story listed in their Marvel Database entry linked in the previous paragraph) has another supervillain. While the teens (except for Fred) are all ready to resume their normal lives, events will pull them back into the superhero business. Also, Hiro must adjust to college life and the institute’s new principal while trying to restore Baymax, a situation made worse by old and new enemies. It’s a really good series, though not a good adaptation of the comics. Like current Marvel Studios output, except it doesn’t suck.
Wait, I’ve done this before. However, that was the first ongoing episode, essentially the second or third episode depending on how you count it. This is the first actual story for the series as it’s all going on YouTube legally as the full series and I don’t have time to do another Showcase. Ah, well. Enjoy.
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