The playful science future of “Big Hero 6” will uncover the tinkering roboticist in every heart. Watching Hiro create wonders in his workshop has me looking up 3D printers and lusting after Robotics Primers my humanities-addled brain could never possibly process. San Fransokyo, the setting for “Big Hero 6,” in all its futuristic, humanist glory, is the best that a boy or girl genius could aspire to, a city where the future is boundless and unclouded by any possibility of dystopia bursting on to the scene. Too bad the superheroes have to show up and ruin everything.

'Big Hero 6' Movie Trailer

“Big Hero 6” opens in a back-alley robot fighting arena, the sweeping city shots and sumo opponent capably establishing the Japanese technological flavor of “Big Hero 6.” Boy genius Hiro (Ryan Potter) is a bit of a troublemaker, but is put on the right track by his roboticist older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) right in time for Tadashi to get heroically dead. Hiro’s awe at the marvels of the University “Nerd Lab” becomes our own, as each of the secondary characters explain their particular creations. It all builds to Hiro ditching the easy back-alley money and pursuing his own impressive invention, a black cloud of flocking “microbots,” capable of producing any shape the controller can imagine.

“Big Hero 6” never surpasses the awe achieved during Hiro’s demo of his microbots. Hiro shows off his invention to a roomful of adult tech giants, his nervousness melting away as he plays with his astounding technology. The feeling for the viewer is just the same as all the CGI techies turning away from whatever Apple product they’re looking at to rush Hiro’s stage: a sense of a future full of genuine marvels. The movie is just beginning, and we squirm in our seats, ready for the next wonder to be presented.

'Big Hero 6' and the Problem with Superheroes

And then “Big Hero 6” grinds to a halt. The realization that the rush of technologies introduced—the molecular dust, the nano-filament, even the inflatable healer Baymax—is just in service to a superhero origin story narrows the window of potential for the rest of the movie. At first “Big Hero 6” has you wondering at all the incredible places the narrative could go, all the new technologies the cast of obnoxious super geniuses could wield. But it turns out that their work is done before it has even begun. Each piece of technology is no more than the basis of their superhero powers, their genius crunched into power-suits for the kid’s movie equivalent of Marvel fight scenes. “Big Hero 6” is a movie that largely gives up on science the moment the plot kicks in, as Hiro unites the other robotics students to hunt down the kabuki-masked villain that stole his microbots for an insidious agenda.

Of course, I’ve hardly mentioned the main selling point of “Big Hero 6,” Baymax. A nursing robot created by Tadashi, Baymax is the computer-chipped heart of the movie. Everything funny or charming in “Big Hero 6” is poured into Baymax (Scott Adsit). With a colorful suit of armor he becomes the superhero team’s heavy hitter, his killer profile contrasted with his still-lumpy personality generating a lot of the funniest jokes in “Big Hero 6.” Every other character in “Big Hero 6” feels secondary to the emotional and comedic chemistry between Hiro and Baymax, with the sidekick characters Fred, Go Go, Wasabi, and Honey Lemon proving mostly pointless (Damon Wayan Jr.’s Wasabi being the best of the lot. Unlike the more broad stoner antics of T.J. Miller’s Fred, Wasabi jokes come from his genuine nerd dysfunction).

It’s not that “Big Hero 6” is bad or becomes bad, it just becomes every superhero movie you’ve ever seen. And while there can be innovation in the superhero genre, it’s a more limited form than the upcoming bumper crop of movies would suggest, with a well-worn formula that “Big Hero 6” sinks into. As a superhero movie for kids “Big Hero 6” succeeds, it’s just a shame to see the potential for it to be something more thrown aside for laser gauntlets and bicycle feet. If you’re looking for something akin to “How to Train Your Dragon” or “Wreck-It Ralph” you could do worse than “Big Hero 6,” but I couldn’t help leaving the theater wishing for more “Dexter’s Lab” and less “Iron Man.”