Big Hero 6 (Film)

This article is written from the Real World perspective

Big Hero 6
The Teaser Poster
Release date	November 7, 2014
Director	Don Hall Chris Williams
Writer(s)	Don Hall Jordan Roberts
Producer(s)	John Lasseter Roy Conli Kristina Reed
Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Music By	Henry Jackman
Running Time	108 Minutes
Previous Video	Iron Man & Captain America: Heroes United

Big Hero 6 is an upcoming film from Marvel Entertainment and Walt Disney Animation Studios. The film marks the first Marvel animated movie released in theaters and first Disney animated Marvel film.

Story

In their announcement statement, Disney stated:

From Walt Disney Animation Studios comes "Big Hero 6," an action comedy adventure about brilliant robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada, who finds himself in the grips of a criminal plot that threatens to destroy the fast-paced, high-tech city of San Fransokyo. With the help of his closest companion—a robot named Baymax—Hiro joins forces with a reluctant team of first-time crime fighters on a mission to save their city. Inspired by the Marvel comics of the same name, and featuring comic-book style action and all the heart and humor audiences expect from Walt Disney Animation Studios, the CG-animated "Big Hero 6" hits theaters in 3D on November 7, 2014.

More details were revealed at the 2013 Disney D23. The movie will follow Hiro Hamada and his inflatable robot Baymax. Hiro is a fast-talking kid inventor who squandering his potential. His older brother Tadashi Hamada wants him to be a more productive member of society. When "forces of antagonism" rise in San Fransokyo and mysteries develop, Hiro "mechs" out Baymax, a soft and pliable robot meant for a career in health care, into a superhero robot. They join fellow crime fighters neat freak Wasabi-No-Ginger, master of chemistry Honey Lemon, adrenaline junkie GoGo Tomago, and fanboy Fred. Their mission is to save San Fransokyo from an underworld plot.

Teaser Trailer

In a style started by Pixar Animation Studios, Disney released a teaser trailer that shows two characters from the film in a situation that is representative of the film but not an actual scene. A twenty-second sneak peak for the teaser was released on May 21, 2014. The following day, Disney released the teaser trailer for Big Hero 6.

At the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, Hiro activates his computer. He draws a helmet on his laptop then expands the image with his fingers to enlarge it. He continues drawing until it is a fully drawn robot. He drags his finger down to give the drawing a red and blue color scheme. He puts it into different fighting poses. He says "Yes!" just before hearing a noise.

He looks up to see Baymax waddle in. It stops near a soccer ball then blinks at him. Hiro looks down at his drawing then lowers the laptop to compare it to Baymax. He lifts it up and down a few more times to see how the two size up. Baymax looks down at the ball then reaches for it. However, its foot rolls it forward. It chases after the ball but its feet keep knocking it away.

Hiro looks down at his drawing then presses a button to create it. Lasers then cut apart a metal sheet. Hiro spins a button on his computer screen. Somewhere, a machine creates a metal disc. The golden disc is stamped down. Hiro watches at it creates an enormous gauntlet. When the machines finish he lifts it up. Later, Hiro shoves the gauntlet onto Baymax's arm but it does not fit right. He tries several times but Baymax's inflatable body keeps moving back. Hiro tries harder but Baymax is completely pushed back. Eventually Baymax is pushed against a wall and Hiro is able to get the gauntlet on.

Then, with Baymax on the ground Hiro shoves a boot on his leg. When Baymax stands, Hiro puts armor on its butt shocking the robot. Hiro runs at a sitting Baymax and gets the other boot on. He then forces the helmet onto the robot's head. Later, Hiro readies himself to put the abdominal armor on Baymax's bulging stomach. After much struggling, he is able to get it on. He falls down and Baymax looks at him. Eventually Hiro backs away excited that the armor is complete. He looks up to see the enormous Baymax standing tall. Hiro moves his arms up in a heroic pose. Baymax starts to imitate, but the armor quickly pops off in every direction. The ball rolls back over to it. Hiro looks frustrated while Baymax once again tries to get the ball.

Trivia

• T. J. Miller plays a filmmaker who loves monster movies and becomes a giant monster via armor. Miller rose to fame in Cloverfield where he played the cameraman recording his friends' journey through a giant monster attack.
• Fred eats cereal out of a bread bowl. San Francisco is famous for its sourdough bread bowls, usually for soup.
• At 108 minutes, the film is the longest Marvel animated feature. Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned comes in second with 94 minutes.

Continuity

• When Hiro talks to the police officer there is a wanted poster for Hans, the villain from Disney's previous movie Frozen.
  • There are fan theories that Frozen is in the same universe as Tangled and The Little Mermaid, the later of which featured Spider-Man actor Christopher Daniel Barnes.

Cast

Actor	Role
Ryan Potter	Hiro Hamada
Scott Adsit	Baymax
T. J. Miller	Fredzilla
Jamie Chung	GoGo Tomago
Damon Wayans, Jr.	Wasabi-No-Ginger
Genesis Rodriguez	Honey Lemon
Maya Rudolph	Aunt Cass
Alan Tudyk	Alistair Krei
James Cromwell	Professor Robert Callaghan
Daniel Henney	Tadashi Hamada

In an interview with Bostinno, T. J. Miller confirmed he was voicing a character, the first confirmed actor. Rotoscoppers later confirmed he was playing Fred, a weird and quirky filmmaker. Miller said of the role, "I'm in Disney's 'Big Hero 6,' which will be their big release this Thanksgiving. It ranges, usually it’s the stoner-slacker, or you know, a guy who is very immature. Immature but confident." Fred originally volunteered to be a test subject for the the robot experiments by Tadashi, but then stuck around to help the Tech Lab research team with their projects. Miller confirmed the role on his Twitter page, though since removed the tweet.

Jamie Chung's biography on NBC's website was changed to include the film on her upcoming projects. While it was since taken down it can still be seen in Google Cache. It was rumored she would play GoGo Tomago, which was later confirmed by Disney.

The day after Chung's announcement, The Wrap revealed that Maya Rudolph had signed on for a lead role. The site reached out to Disney, but the representative did not respond for a comment. On July 13th, 2014 USA Today revealed she would play Aunt Cass, Hiro's guardian.

On July 13th, 2014 Walt Disney officially announced the main cast.

Hall said of the cast, "We've got a lot of characters in this movie, so the voices had to all be really distinctive. At the same time, we had to have really great actors who could ground the characters so they wouldn't sound too one-note."

In regards to Potter Hall stated that he was unfazed by the marathon recording sessions. "That's really hard to fake. You can't ask a middle-aged person to act like a teenager."

Potter had read the original comic series before going into the audition and collected every issue. He compared Hiro to a young Tony Stark. "Tony's got experience, but Hiro’s really quick."

Director Williams said that Adsit had such sharp timing "there are moments when there's real emotion that seems to poke through without breaking the rules of Baymax being a robot." Adsit had to give a lot of emotion in a narrow framework in order to prevent Baymax from turning into HAL 9000. For a scene where Baymax was low on battery power, acting similarly to being drunk, Adsit had a difficult time because he had only been drunk once in his life. He kept asking if his drunkenness was robotic enough, and the producers responded to just be drunk. When asked about where the "hairy baby" line came from, Adist said that was purely the writers.

Hall called Go Go Tomago a Clint Eastwood type combined with an industrial-engineering student. He said, ""The rest of the team are pretty hapless initially. She's the only one who can take care of herself."

Willaims stated that Rodriguez is smart and studied science and robots in school. Hall said, "She brings some of that goofy, slightly geeky but joyful thing to the character."

Wayans said of his character, "Reluctant heroes aren't too big in America. Spider-Man loves being Spider-Man. They all like being cool. He doesn't like being cool."

For Rudolph, Hall said that she matched the "fun, kooky energy" of the character while also being able to be Hiro's guardian since she is a mother. "Even though you're laughing and having a good time, you're connecting with her and what she's going through. That's important for a superhero movie to have those moments."

The cast would often improvise during recordings, especially Adsit. Potter said of his co-star, "When Scott does an improvised line, he goes 'All right, I’m gonna give you guys an all.' I didn't realize I was supposed to do that. I would say my line, then just fire off a bunch more and go 'Okay, good, we got it. [I know] it sounds like a hokey actor thing to say, but every single day I went in, it was just a phenomenal film to work on, and the crew was amazing. I mean I just went in and had fun, it didn't feel like work. There were moments where it is hard work, but every moment was just a lot of fun."

Crew

Person	Position
Don Hall Chris Williams	Directors
Don Hall Jordan Roberts	Writers
Roy Conli Kristina Reed	Producers
Steven T. Seagle Duncan Rouleau	Based on the comic Big Hero 6 by
Henry Jackman	Composer
Walt Disney Animation Studios	Production Company
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures	Distributor

Animation

The film will be animated by the Walt Disney Animation Studios in computer generated imagery and presented in 3D.

In regards to the design, Hall stated, "Marvel properties take place in the real world. We were looking for something to do where we could make our own world, bring in the Japanese influences, have recognizable landmarks mashed up with a Japanese aesthetic." San Fransokyo is a combination of real life locations Tokyo in Japan and San Francisco in California. The Big Hero 6 team is based in Tokyo while the X-Men, some of which served on the team, were briefly based in San Francisco.

The producers went to the United States Geological Survey to get details about the geography of San Francisco for the city as well as the city's assessors' office to get details on the buildings.

The production team took several research trips to San Francisco. On several trips they paid particular attention the lighting as the city has specific lighting due to the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay as well as the city's infamous fog.

It was John Lasseter who put forth the idea that Baymax's butt would knock over books trying to squeeze by the bed after he was activated.

Music

See also Big Hero 6 Soundtrack.

Henry Jackman composed the musical score for the movie. Jackman did previous Marvel movies X-Men: First Class and Captain America: The Winter Soldier as well as previous Disney movies Winnie the Pooh (directed by Hall) and Wreck-It Ralph.

The band Fall Out Boy created a song specifically for the film titled Immortals. The band's previously composed song My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light 'Em Up) was used in the trailers.

Background

Big Hero 6 was a series started by Steven T. Seagle and Duncan Rouleau in 1998. The two currently work as part of Man of Action on Ultimate Spider-Man and Avengers Assemble. After Disney's purchase of Marvel, many within the company began looking through Marvel's history for projects to work on in an effort to revitalize the Disney brand. Director Don Hall said, "I was looking for something on the obscure side, which would give us more license to make it our own."

The film went into production after Disney's Frozen for a 2014 release. Don Hall approached John Lasseter and proposed the project. Lasseter approved the project for development. The director pitched the idea along with four others, but this was the only to go through. They felt that the elements of a child hero and humor fit within Disney.

The obscurity of the piece allowed Hall to interpret and revise various elements of the comics.

Joe Quesada stated, "The storytelling aspects are very frenetic, very visceral. It takes tropes of Japanese culture, manga, anime. There are giant dinosaurs that invade a city, big robots, youth fashion, cutesy stuff in the vein of Hello Kitty."

In the comics, Big Hero 6 is a superhero team formed by the Japanese government, similar to the Avengers. The original six members of the team were Sunfire, Silver Samurai, Hiro, Honey Lemon, Baymax, and GoGo Tomago. Later members included Ebon Samurai, Sunpyre, Wasabi-No-Ginger, and Fredzilla. However, rights to Sunfire, Silver Samurai, and most likely Sunpyre belong to Fox as part of the X-Men-related characters and likely would not be included in a Marvel-Disney production. Silver Samurai already appeared in the film The Wolverine. Though it should be noted that the character of Quicksilver has appeared in both the Fox-owned X-Men: Days of Future Past and Disney-owned Avengers: Age of Ultron, hinting that the two studios are willing to share characters.

The story was based on Chris Claremont's six issue miniseries. That series did not include Silver Samurai and Sunfire largely avoiding issues with the film rights.

The film was formally announced on May 9, 2013 for a November 7, 2014 release date.

Kristina Reed produced the film.

On December 31, 2013 The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Chris Williams would join Hall as co-director while Roy Conli would be a producer. Williams previously co-wrote and co-directed Bolt while also writing Mulan, The Emperor's New Groove, and Brother Bear. Conli previously produced Tangled and Treasure Planet.

In an interview with Yahoo, Hall said that while the live-action Marvel films always try to stay true to the comic books, Big Hero 6 was free to think outside the box. He claimed that it was less "based on" and more "inspired by." Hall stated that it would be its own universe and not connected to the other films "There's no Iron Man or anybody like that. It's a world of our own design." While he did consult with the people at Marvel he did not feel restricted by the comics. "Really they've given us free rein to take this and make it our own."

In the same interview, co-director Williams admitted that they did not believe the title itself would draw attention. "I think what Don saw was this really special relationship between the boy and the robot that could really lend itself to a Disney movie."

Williams stated that at no point was the film considered to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that comprises live-action films and series. According to Hall, when they sat down to discuss the film Marvel said "You guys should just take this and go. We’d like to see what you do with it." Both sides agreed that it would be good to see something inspired by Marvel but made into its own. Williams feared that trying to adhere to the Marvel world would have made the movie too tangled.

Hall claimed that the relationship between Hiro and Baymax is the heart of the movie. He noted that Hiro magnetically connects to Baymax with a glove so they can tag-team. Hall said, "They're symbiotic in that way."

In an interview, Adsit that the film was originally focused more on the team of superheroes and gradually moved towards the relationship between Hiro and Baymax. "Baymax really kind of caught on with test audiences, and so he kind of became the center of the film in a way. Although, there are many different facets to the feature, and the team is half of what the story's about. The other half is Hiro overcoming some grief, and Baymax helping him through that. But then [the film] expands out into the six of them and becomes really exciting."

Hall noted that the comic was a love-letter to Japanese culture and wanted an anime influence and Asian flavor to the movie. He also wanted to honor the Disney legacy while also giving the movie a personality of its own with a cinematic look and scientific theme. He pointed out that the team are all super-nerds not superheroes like the Avengers. He said, "No one's a god, like Thor, and there's no super-soldier serum or anything like that. It's all their brains and tech. It became really, really interesting in immersing ourselves in the tech world right now and leveraging that into superpowers. At every turn we try to give the audience something they haven't seen before." Williams added, "Working here at Disney animation, it's easy for us to connect to nerdy types. In our building, we have a few - ourselves included. There's certainly a lot of inspiration all around us."

Hall went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he learned about inflatable robots, and came up with the design for Baymax. He wanted a different look than previous film robots. While visiting the Disney research team at Carnegie Mellon University, a student proposed the idea for inflatable robots and Hall realized it would work best in the medical industry. Baymax was always meant as a means for Hiro to heal after his brother left, the specific use came from the research team.

The look of Baymax was inspired by the designs of Hayao Miyazaki. The face was designed after a Suzu, a traditional Japanese bell director Hall saw in a temple in Tokyo.

The directors had difficulty finding the balance between action and humor. It is a superhero movie, but at the same time the directors wanted it to stand the test of time like the Disney movies that came before. They focused on the emotional aspect feeling that is what would resonate fifty years after the film was released.

Williams revealed in an interview that there were plenty of cameos and references to other Disney films as well as Marvel characters, something common in recent features from both studios. In fact, they had to tell the artists to "knock it off." Hall said that Marvel allowed them to reference what he called "Z level characters" in the film as Easter eggs. He said most were in Fred's room. Williams said that the cameos were "very obscure." He and Hall had to limit the number of references in the film. "It got to the point where Don and I are feeling like this is getting to be too much, too distracting. So we stopped them and then actually pulled a couple things out. But at the same time, we did have a lot of references to Disney animated movies and Marvel movies.

The film wrapped production on August 11th, 2014. It took about three and a half years to complete. Quite short for most animated features which average about five years.

Comic

Marvel Comics will not be doing any tie-in to the film. Normally when a theatrical film is being released, Marvel will use the comics to promote the character(s). This includes giving the character greater prominence or featuring them in other comics. When they released their solicitations for November, there was no mention of any Big Hero 6 comics, re-releases, or inclusions in other series. A spokesman confirmed that the company had no plans for the property. The team last appeared in 2012 in an issue of Amazing Spider-Man. This may be due to Marvel not maintaining full financial participation over the property due to the partnership with Disney Animation. Marvel executive editor Tom Brevoort has stated that they prioritize properties they have complete control over, choosing those they can get a greater percentage of the profits over others. Several commentators feared that there was a rift developing between Marvel and Disney over the movie. At a preview screening, executive producer John Lasseter reassured the press that Disney has "worked very closely with Marvel" despite Disney being the sole producer and that the company has a "fantastic relationship" with Marvel.

The film will be adapted into a Japanese manga by Japanese publisher Kodansha titled Baymax. Kodansha has an existing relationship with Disney havieng worked on adaptations of previous movies. It will be made by Haruki Ueno. The comic series will begin serialization on August 20th, 2014 and will reveal plot details to local Japanese audiences.

Video Games

GameMill Entertainment developed a tie-in video game, Big Hero 6: Battle in the Bay, for the film. It was released on October 28th, 2014 for the Nintendo 3DS.

On October 30th, 2014, Disney released the app Big Hero 6: Baymax Blast.

Disney will release another app titled Big Hero 6: Bot Fight on November 3rd.

Additionally, the designs of Baymax and Hiro will be used used in Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes.

Video

First Look

Teaser

World Cup Teaser

This short teaser came out during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

First Trailer

Japanese Trailer

Second Trailer

New York Comic-Con Reel

Immortals Music Video

Immortals Music Video

Release

Footage was shown at New York Comic Con on October 9th, 2014 with a panel discussion.

The film premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival on October 23rd, 2014. It will also close out the Abu Dhabi Film Festival on November 1st.

The movie will be released theatrically in the United States on November 7th, 2014 in regular theaters and 3D into about 3700 theaters. It will be released in the United Kingdom on January 30th, 2015.

The film will be preceded by the short film Feast.

Box Office

It opened in Russia and the Ukraine on October 24, 2014 and earned five million dollars in its opening weekend.

External Links

• Official Website
• Disney Animation
• Facebook
• Apple Trailers
• Rotten Tomatoes
• Metacritic
• Box Office Mojo
• Internet Movie Database
• Wikipedia
• Marvel Database
• Marvel Movies
• Disney Wiki