Let There Be Movies

Rant by Tres

I had the pleasure of getting away from all my grading and planning Friday night (which is a very rare thing for me this year) and I took my family (minus my college student) to a very cold drive-in and watched Big Hero 6.

The commercials and trailers for this movie were cute and our family was excited to see it. I’ll be honest…

THIS MOVIE DOES NOT DISAPPOINT.

I refuse to give you spoilers, so I’m truly going to word my items very carefully.

As you can gather from the trailers, Hiro, the ummmm… hero… Has a brilliant brother that created this inflatable robot and then something happens to the brother. So Hiro takes over Baymax.

The animation is gorgeous.  Some of the characters are inflated (and I don’t mean Baymax) in Disney style and others are more down to Earth.  There is a true comic book feel here…ironically… this is based off of… LOOSELY BASED OFF OF… a comic book.

Baymax has to be one of the most adorable characters since Ewoks and ET.  [Don’t throw eggs or rotting tomatoes at me!]  He is.  He’s just an, well, inflatable and lovable robot that wants to care for you.

As I watched this though, it struck a chord with me as a teacher, a father, and a former angry child.  One of the best parts of the movie is it deals with a true battle that kids deal with, as well as adults: Vengeance vs Justice. As s teacher I have students that get angry and come to tell me about it; or worse, take matters in their own hands. I always have to work through the reason for their anger and desire for action.  Is the desire for action vengeance/revenge; do they simply want to pay someone back and make them feel the pain that they do?  OR Is there truly an injustice that was done and the person needs to put reprimanded for their improper actions and set on a proper path; maybe even have consequences for their choices?

This is Hiro’s tale.  He’s a brilliant child.  [Truly… he’s a genius.]   He’s hurting inside and he wants to find the man that has caused it.  But why?  When he finds him, what is the the outcome that he is wanting?  Where does he want his course of life to end?

When I talk to my students and children I tell them there’s always different paths to take.  1) Ignore a bully.  Yes, our hearts hurt, but it truly can make us stronger if we know who we are and we know that God is with us and loves us for who we are.  [ 1 Thess 2: 4 tells us that pleasing other people is not the important part.  Pleasing God with what is in our heart is the important part.]   2) We defend ourselves or others.  That is an honorable trait. m There could be consequences that follow with that, but there is nothing wrong with true self-defense or standing in the defense and protection of another.  3) We can seek vengeance.  One of the most humanly natural reactions that cause the greatest consequences, not necessarily in punishment, but to our hearts.  Vengeance is wrong, and we know it’s wrong, and we quickly realize once we have it that we have become something that we never wanted to be; the villain.

Always keeping in mind Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome.  Rome was the capital of the Roman empire and the Roman empire hated the Jews and hated the Christians even more.  Yet, Christians were brave enough to establish a congregation inside of Rome for Christians to gather on the Lord’s Day and worship God according to Spirit and Truth.  They were persecuted.  They were beaten and put into prison.  Some of them were tortured and killed.  Then Paul tells them in his letter in Romans 12:19  Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God: for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord.

This is an all around entertaining movie.

There are so many movies with no life lesson, or horrible life lessons out there that it blows my mind.  This one, this one hits it right on the money.  You know what Hiro is going through.  At times, you want him to choose both paths.  You understand either path that he chooses.

If your child deals with bullies at school, get them to this movie.

If you want your child to see a movie that has a solid life lesson, get them to this movie.

You you want a movie to make you laugh and entertain you that is truly worth these ticket prices, get to this movie.

If you don’t have children, and you want to see a good movie, get to this movie anyway.  Shoot, borrow a mannequin of a kid from your local mall and set it in the seat next to you if your worried about what people will think about an adult seeing a kids movie without a kid.  [Trust me… that won’t seem weird at all!]

This movie is for everyone!

I even have to say… they have something at the end that even I didn’t predict!