Hi everyone, welcome back to the Nightcrawler Experience!
For this, part two of my collaboration with St. John's United Methodist Church on their Movie Night series, I will be taking a look at faith- based messages in the 2014 Disney film 'Big Hero 6.'
This was quite a good movie, the first time Disney has really taken full advantage of their ownership of Marvel Comics. It is also being made into an animated TV series for Disney XD, due to premiere this fall.
'Big Hero 6' centers around a boy named Hiro Hamada, a brilliant but rather unfocused teen boy living with his brother Tadashi and their aunt in the fascinating city of San Fransokyo (Yes, you read that right). Hiro is a robotics prodigy, but puts that gift largely to waste by using it to win money in illegal back- alley robot fights. With a little prodding, Tadashi convinces Hiro to join up with a technical college and find a way to use his gift for the good of all. Sadly, not long after this, Tadashi dies in an accident, and Hiro has a bit of a downward spiral. Eventually, he's roused out of it by Tadashi's last great creation, a delightful inflatable healthcare robot named Baymax. The two of them eventually discover that a mysterious figure wearing a Kabuki mask has stolen the idea for a groundbreaking bit of "Microbot" tech Hiro designed and is planning to use it for nefarious purposes. Together with a few of Tadashi's friends from the technical college, they refine their respective inventions enough to become a kind of superhero group and unravel this mystery before it's too late.
In the devotional I wrote to go along with the screening of 'Big Hero 6' this evening, I brought up two lessons that can be taken from it: First, that Hiro's turning from his rather wasteful lifestyle and striving to act for the good of all ties into Psalm 34:14's call to "Turn from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it." Second, that Hiro's newfound devotion to aiding others and following Tadashi's good example tie into what the Psalmist prays for in Psalm 86:11- 17.
However, as with 'Up' last week, I'd say that's just scratching the surface on Scriptural messages that can be found in 'Big Hero 6.'
I think the core message of 'Big Hero 6' concerns how to deal with loss. We quickly see how devastated Hiro is over the death of his brother, and how for quite a while, he basically gives up on life himself because of it. Eventually, though, he learns how to deal with this through Baymax and his new friends. We all have lost people we love, some in senseless and untimely ways. I most certainly have. I currently have only one grandparent still alive, I have lost very many older friends of mine (In fact, in the very first edition of the Nightcrawler Experience, you see I dedicated this blog to one of them, and just a few months later did an entry in memory of my grandmother "Mimi"), and in 2006, a younger friend of mine nicknamed "Chip" who had everything going for him was killed in a botched carjacking less than three weeks before he would have graduated from high school. The key to ensuring that those we've lost never truly leave us is to always remember them, do the good things they taught us, and follow the noble principles they believed in. Hiro realizes this in the movie, especially through Baymax, who was Tadashi's master work and the embodiment of the great principles Tadashi lived by to do as much good as you can in the world.
More to the point for us as Christians, we know that for those who are in Christ Jesus, death is not the end, but a new beginning. We know that those who die in Christ Jesus will dwell with Him in Heaven forever, and the day will come when we will be reunited with them. An important verse in Scripture that deals with this is 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14: "Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who has no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him." Jesus Himself said in John 11:25-26 that "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives in me by believing will never die. Do you believe this?" I have derived so much comfort from verses such as those, knowing that I'll see Chip, my grandparents, and others I've lost again in Heaven some day. I'd say the rest of you who've lost those you've loved can also be strengthened by those verses.
Another very important Scriptural message that can be taken from 'Big Hero 6' is on the importance of being good stewards of the gifts we are given, using them the way God intended them to be used. One moment of the movie in which Hiro is severely tempted to give in to sin in this way is when he discovers the identity of the Kabuki- masked villain, and learns he was also connected to the accident that killed Tadashi. In fury over this, Hiro removes Baymax's healthcare chip (The chip which contains all the personality traits and other such things that enable Baymax to respect life and devote itself to providing people with medical care) and orders Baymax to kill the guy.
Baymax later points out that Hiro doing this, removing the healthcare chip and turning Baymax into a weapon rather than a healer, is definitely not what Tadashi intended when he built Baymax. In fact, we see through a video recording that once Tadashi had perfected Baymax and was happily celebrating this victory, one of the first things he says to the robot is "You're gonna help SO many people, buddy! SO many!" What's more, Hiro's perverting Baymax in such a way by trying to turn it from a healer into a killer, would be no different from the way that the film's villain perverts and weaponizes Hiro's microbot invention. Upon realizing this, Hiro repents of his mistake, and from then on uses Baymax in a way much more in keeping with what Tadashi wanted.
In much the same way, God gives each of us great gifts that He intends us to use to help serve Him and build His Kingdom. We need to resist temptations to use those gifts in sinful or short- sighted ways. A Bible passage that particularly pertains to this is 1 Peter 4:10-11, which says that "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory and power forever and ever. Amen." Also, Ephesians 2:10 tells us "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
The reason for this is because through each of us working together and using our gifts and strengths the right way as God intended, people will see the good we do, see God's hand in it, and praise Him. Jesus Himself drove this point home in Matthew 5:14- 16: "You are the light of the world; A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven."
And so, there you have my look at 'Big Hero 6,' a great superhero movie with great messages about handling loss and using our gifts the way God intended.
That's it for this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. Come back next week as I look at the next film on St. Johns's list. Until then, God bless you all!
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