Big Hero 6

Hollywood is renowned for its lemming qualities. Dazzled by the glitter ball (box office receipts) studios like to copy the latest big thing with, preferably, a bankable star on board. Animation, which costs a fortune to make, doesn't do this; it takes risks. Check out The Lego Movie, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs and WALL-E. For every Frozen there is a weird one from left field. Coraline was too dark for members of the Mickey Mouse Club and Toy Story 3 should have destroyed the nation's love affair with teddy bears, until Paddington.

And now, WOW! A hero with a difference. Not exactly a robot, although definitely from the A.I. branch of experimentation, light years from Lady And The Tramp. He looks like an inflatable Michelin man with the facial expressions of a letterbox and he thinks he's a health worker caring for your ailments.

From this unprepossessing pitch comes a story of courage, conviction and physics in free fall. Collaborating with a 14-year-old inventor from Nerd School the big balloon floats between two worlds, the restrictions of its programme and a determination to save human life from a fate worse than science.

The characters are frenetic and fun as the scriptwriters break with tradition and the pace never falters.

Animation takes a leap into cosmic chaos without letting go of the rope that ties devotion to danger.

As protagonists come and go in Cartoon County, one thing's for certain. You won't be looking at a blow up doll the same way again.