The movie starts us off with Hiro, a Boy who’s too smart for his own good. Hiro is an overconfident and overachieving child genius who has a thing for fighting robots. “Which in its own right would be an awesome movie” but Pixar does what it does best, destroy your parental calm with emotions. That’s right you know what it means to be a dad in a princess movie or a mom watching the silence-filled story that precedes “UP”. And this movie was right in line with the heartstrings. Hiro’s parents are deceased, he then loses his inspirational brother, his hopeful new boss, and verges on the edge of vengeful acts of murder, all before the poor guy hits puberty. At least according to the best part of this film. BAYMAX
BAYMAX is the healthcare robot that Hiro’s brother Tadashi was in the process of making that exists for one purpose and one purpose only. To help people feel better.
BAYMAX by his design and programming is only ever concerned with the injured. He is activated by hurt and will not deactivate and stop caring until the patient claims to be satisfied with his care. Hiro stumbles upon him literally by stubbing his toe and saying ow. And throughout their cinematic adventure, BAYMAX concerns himself only with the recovery of those in his care, even when temporarily incapacitated by Hiro’s vengeful reprogramming. He returns with the sole purpose of healing the broken.
As a dad and a former pastor, I found it hard to simply sit by and watch this film. It’s drowning in messianic metaphors like a cannonball in the deep end. At almost every significant plot twist of the film you see pictures of selfless care and concern with intent to fix that which is broken, physically, and emotionally as well. And while it’s a grossly simplistic comparison of the similarities between an inflatable savior and an omnipotent one, Jesus bleeds out of this movie.
Of all the pseudo bible verses this movie placed there intentionally or not, the one that hit me as most clear was Luke 19:40. Here we read of our messiah being rebuked in his glory by the religiously confused, looking for a savior but not seeing their king. And what does he say, If the people are kept quiet that the stones would cry out? When I saw this movie I recognized it for the stone it was. If God is sovereign then Pixar is not out of his control, guidance, and usefulness. And while Big Hero 6’s directors and producers may not have intended for their story to be used for the gospel, I could not look at it in any other way. The robot literally breaks its own body to save Hiro and Callaghan’s daughter and then is resurrected /rebooted when Hiro finds his programming chip in the hand that saved him. If that’s not a stone crying out then what could be. Maybe it’s the trouble in the life of a co-worker's family that gives us the opportunity to share the gospel, or the shared experience of loss that brings two people together for a moment where sharing the gift of Christ becomes an option. Even a movie that a dad takes his kids to and shares with other dads at work. The world we live in is filled with stones to stand on and share the gospel, filled with rocks to build bridges for our faith. They cry out for the creator that made them we need only speak up and use the opportunities given to us to know Christ and to make Him known.