Big Hero 6 (Film)

This article is written from the Real World perspective

Big Hero 6
The Teaser Poster
Release date	November 7, 2014
Rating	PG
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 a film from Walt Disney Animation Studios, the 54th feature from the highly acclaimed studio. The film marks the first Marvel Comics adaptation by The Walt Disney Company and the first theatrically released Marvel animated film.

Hiro Hamada is a young genius struggling with life. He's graduated high school before hitting puberty, but is wasting his vast talents. His brother, Tadashi, gets him excited about his school, but is killed in a terrible accident. Hiro befriends Tadashi's creation, an inflatable robot named Baymax, and the two investigate the persons responsible. When the killer, the mysterious Yukai, reveals that he controls powerful technology stolen from Hiro, the boy is forced to turn his friends into a team of superheroes to battle this new threat.

Story

In the city of San Fransokyo, there is illegal bot fighting going on. A young boy, Hiro Hamada approaches the reigning champion offering a handful of money to fight. Hiro's robot is easily overpowered, but offers more money to fight again. This time his small robot reveals that it purposely fell apart, as it is made of magnets, and easily defeats the champion robot. The champion pays up before having his thugs teach Hiro a lesson.

Tadashi Hamada arrives on his motorcycle and saves him, while berating his thirteen year-old brother for wasting his talent. While fleeing, the two are caught by the police along with all the robot fighters.

The brothers are freed by their Aunt Cass and taken home. Tadashi further berates his brother for being a genius who already graduated high school but does little more than bot fighting. Hiro ignores him and finds another bot fight across the city. Tadashi relents that if he cannot stop Hiro he can at least protect him and drive him there.

Tadashi stops at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology on the premise of picking something up. While there, Hiro meets Tadashi's friend and schoolmates Wasabi, GoGo Tomago, Honey Lemon, and school mascot Fred. Hiro sees the amazing gadgets each of them, except Fred, have come up and is amazed. In Tadashi's lab, Hiro sees his brother's experiment: an inflatable nursing robot named Baymax. He then meets Professor Robert Callaghan, who invented the technology Hiro uses for his battle bot. Hiro forgets the bot battle and vows to attend the institute.

Tadashi tells him that the institute is having a recruiting event where potential students have an opportunity to impress Callaghan. Hiro is stuck thinking of a new idea, before Tadashi advises him to think outside the box. Tadashi and his friends help Hiro with his idea. He arrives at the event where many wannabe students are showing their ideas. Hiro reveals his: microbots that are controlled by a headband. He amazes everyone in the room with his microbots, which can do anything his imagination can think of. Afterwards, Alistair Krei approaches Hiro wanting to buy the microbots design. Callaghan approaches advising against it saying that Krei has been known to cut corners with science. Hiro decides against the sale, and Callaghan offers him a place in the school.

As they are leaving, Tadashi and his friends say how proud they are of Hiro. Suddenly, the institute bursts into flames and a woman says that Callaghan is still inside. Tadashi runs inside, but the building explodes killing everyone still inside. Later, a memorial outside the burnt remains is placed for those who lost their lives and a funeral is held for Tadashi. Tadashi's friends, who grew close to Hiro, come over to the Hamada home after the funeral, but leave Hiro alone in his room, which he had shared with his brother.

Cass's attempt to comfort him ends in vain. Hiro throws away his institute invitation then stubs his toe, accidentally activating Baymax. Baymax tries to comfort Hiro, as per his programming, but the boy tries to get him to go away claiming that it is not a physical pain. Baymax scans everything he can on emotional pain and offers to help, but again Hiro refuses wanting to be alone. Hiro then notices that one of his microbots is moving. He thinks it is damaged since all the others as well as the controller were destroyed in the fire. Baymax offers to find where the microbot is going if it will help Hiro. Hiro agrees, not realizing that Baymax is taking him literally and leaves.

Hiro follows the robot out as he navigates the city. He catches up to the robot outside an empty warehouse, and finally realizes that the microbot really is going somewhere specific. They sneak in, though Baymax is overly loud about it, and find that someone has duplicated the microbots en masse. Suddenly the microbots activate and attack the two. They see a man wearing black in a kabuki mask controlling them. While escaping, Baymax is damaged protecting Hiro.

They go to the police, but the officer taking their report fails to take Hiro seriously. Hiro tries to get Baymax to help him, but the robot suffers a low battery. They return home and Hiro tries to hide his actions from Cass by saying he finally attended the institute. Hiro realizes that the mysterious man, Yukai, stole his technology and set the fire killing his brother. He decides to upgrade Baymax with powerful armor and downloads karate moves into a chip that he inserts into Baymax, next to a chip Tadashi made for his nursing programming.

Hiro decides to go after Yukai using Baymax. However, the robot calls Hiro's friends to come over and comfort him, but Hiro leaves. They return to the warehouse, but it is empty. They follow his single microbot to the docks where they lose it when Yukai comes comes. While trying to avoid being seen, they are found by Hiro's friends. They try to comfort him, while asking what he is doing to Baymax. Just then, Yukai attacks and the friends are forced to flee. Baymax tries to fight, but is easily overpowered. When Wasabi fails to follow proper car chase protocol by following proper driving law, GoGo takes over driving. Unfortunately, they plunge into the water and Yukai believes them to be dead. Baymax sheds his heavy armor and floats the five humans to the surface.

Fearing for their lives, they follow Fred to his home which is an enormous mansion. They realize that Baymax scanned Yukai for medical analysis and they can find him by scanning the everyone in the city. Inside, Fred expresses his love of superheroes, which convinces Hiro to make them into a team. Honey Lemon uses her chemistry knowledge to make a purse that creates a wide variety of substances. GoGo uses her electromagnetic knowledge to make her into an advanced skater. Wasabi uses his lasers to create powerful gauntlets. Fred gets his dream of being a powerful monster, with a monster suit. Meanwhile, Hiro makes an armor for himself and a more advanced armor for Baymax.

Each demonstrate their armor on Fred's family butler before Hiro takes Baymax for a flight. After some struggling, Hiro learns how to properly control Baymax. On a stop on the Golden Gate Bridge, Baymax realizes that flying is helping Hiro and continues. Atop a blimp, Baymax scans the city and finds a match for Yukai.

Baymax flies the team out to the island where Yukai was found. They enter an empty lab filled with destroyed equipment. They find security footage of Krei running a teleportation experiment. There was a warning, but Krei felt the anomaly was within parameters and continued with sending a female pilot into the portal. However, something went wrong and the woman disappeared when the portal collapsed. The team think that Krei is Yukai, just then they are attacked by the villain.

The team attacks, but they start getting in each others' way. Eventually Baymax knocks Yukai down and the mask falls off. Hiro sees Yukai stir and sees that it is actually Callaghan. Hiro realizes that Tadashi died trying to save a man who caused the thing that killed him. Hiro orders Bayamx to destroy Callaghan, but the robot refuses as he cannot hurt a human being. He removes Tadashi's nursing chip which allows Baymax to easily attack. The team tries to stop Baymax from murdering Callaghan and Honey replaces the chip. Callaghan escapes and the team berates Hiro for his actions. The boy flies off with Baymax angry that he didn't get his revenge.

He returns home where he yells at Baymax, who refuses to let him remove the chip again. Baymax shows him video of Tadashi building Baymax and Hiro decides against killing Callaghan. The rest of the team return and once more help. They watch more footage and realize that the pilot killed in the portal experiment was actually Callaghan's daughter, Abigail, and that he wants revenge against Krei.

In the city, Krei is opening a new building when Callaghan attacks. He captures Krei, revealing his identity, then shows a new portal device. He intends to activate it destroying the building and killing Krei. Krei tries to apologize, but Callaghan just wants blood. The team attacks Callaghan but are overpowered. Hiro explains that they need to think outside their boxes and each overcome their circumstances. Hiro realizes that they could use the portal to destroy the microbots rendering Callaghan powerless. They distract the vengeful professor and gradually destroy the microbots. Eventually Baymax crushes the mask.

Unfortunately, the portal will not shut down. The team flees, but Baymax detects life inside the portal. Hiro realizes that Abigail is still alive inside the portal. He flies Baymax inside and finds the pod with her inside. They fly back trying to get out before the portal collapses. However, a piece of building debris intercepts them and Baymax protects Hiro and the pod.

His armor is badly damaged and the thrusters no longer work. In order to save both the humans, Baymax decides to use his rocket fist to thrust the two out. Hiro says he could think of some way, but Baymax knows that they do not have the time. In order to save them, Hiro has to say that he is fine with his treatment. Hiro reluctantly agrees and he and Abigail are propelled out of the portal. He watches Baymax float in the void eventually going out of sight.

Abigail is awoken and saved. She is taken away while her father is arrested. The team, whose identities are unknown, are praised as heroes. Hiro begins attending the institute and takes over his brother's lab. He looks at Baymax's gauntlet, and finds that Tadashi's chip is inside. Hiro builds himself a new Baymax, just like the original.

The team navigate their way through the city, now dubbed Big Hero 6.

Some time later, Fred is in his mansion staring at a painting of him and his parents, missing how his father is always away. He touches the painting revealing a hidden door. Inside he finds a room filled with various suits. As he looks around, his father appears in the door. The two share a moment as they realize they share the same thoughts on wearing underwear.

Quotes

"Welcome to nerd school, nerd."

-Tadashi Hamada

Trivia

• Producer John Lasseter rose to fame working with Pixar Animation Studios, which is located just across the bay from San Francisco.
• The logo on Tadashi's hat is a Japanese altered version of the San Francisco 49ers logo.
• Yokai is Japanese for spirit or phantom.
• Baymax's transformation into a superhero mirrors the first Iron Man film. Both first use a monochrome armor before using a predominantly red armor. Both of their first flights are similarly full of crashes, near hits, and struggles.
• 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.
• Similar to Ultimate Avengers, the name of the team is not revealed until the very end. Both films do not actually state the name, it is only read.
• During the credits, Fred is seen eating cereal out of a bread bowl. San Francisco is famous for its sourdough bread bowls, usually for soup.
• The second Marvel animated movie to feature a post-credits scene after Hulk vs Wolverine, which has become standard for their live-action features.
• At 108 minutes, the film is the longest Marvel animated feature. Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned comes in second with 94 minutes.

Goofs

• Yukai has shown he can use the microbots in the water, yet he fails to ensure that the people he is trying to kill have truly drowned.

Continuity

• Hiro has a Wreck-It Ralph action figure on his desk.
• When Hiro talks to the police officer there is a wanted poster for Hans, the villain from Disney's previous movie Frozen. A statue of Hans appears at Fred's mansion and is destroyed by the first rocket fist.
  • There are fan theories that Frozen is connected to Tangled and The Little Mermaid, the later of which featured Spider-Man actor Christopher Daniel Barnes.
• The police officer has a picture of Ester and Bolt from Disney's Bolt.
• Aunt Cass has a picture of her cat dressed like Stitch from Lilo & Stitch.
• During the car chase, there is graffiti featuring two Greek letters that come out to mean "feast" as well as paw prints, referencing the short Feast that showed before the movies.

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	Yokai/Professor Robert Callaghan
Daniel Henney	Tadashi Hamada
Stan Lee	Fred's Father

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."

As has become the standard for Marvel-based movies, even those characters he has not had a direct hand in creating, Stan Lee appears in a cameo as Fred's father.

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 was 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.

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.

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.

The song Eye of the Tiger is used, very briefly, when Hiro is stuck thinking of an idea.

Production

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

Disney's "Big Hero 6" First Look Footage

Big Hero 6 Teaser

Baymax vs. Soccer Ball

Big Hero 6 US Trailer 1

Big Hero Japanese Trailer

Big Hero 6 - Trailer 2

Big Hero 6 New York Comic Con Sizzle

Immortals Music Video

Release

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

The movie was released theatrically in the United States on November 7th, 2014 in regular theaters and 3D into 3,761 theaters, opening against Interstellar. It will be released in the United Kingdom on January 30th, 2015.

The film is preceded by the short film Feast.

The MPAA rated this film PG for action and peril, some rude humor, and thematic elements.

Promotion

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

Before its release, YouTube analytics company Strike Social reported that Big Hero 6 videos were getting more views than Interstellar with 20.5 million views. In a rare move, Disney did not pay to sponsor any content on the site. Strike CEO Patrick McKenna said that it was because Disney created several different channels that have become destinations for fans, while other movies tend to create channels just for the movie then have to drive audiences there.

The week of the release, the site Rotten Tomatoes did a tongue-in-cheek "Five Favorite Films" feature with Baymax. He picked Disney's Dumbo saying "I would cry every time if I could cry," Babe saying "I'm a big James Cromwell fan," Being There saying "Such a pleasant man," It's a Wonderful Life saying "If robots needed inspiration, George Bailey would be an inspiration," and The Terminator saying "I love a good robot movie."

Box Office

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

On Friday, November 11th, Big Hero 6 debuted to $15.8 million. However, it was beaten by Interstellar which got $17 million. Based on this estimate, it was predicted that the film would reach just over $55 million for the weekend.

In its first weekend, the film earned an estimated $56.2 million and topped the weekend. Interstellar earned $50 million, which became the fourth time that two new movies earned over fifty million dollars at the box office in their opening weekend. Each previous time the animated film eventually came out on top over the live-action competition. The film was fifteen percent higher than previous Disney effort Wreck-It Ralph, which opened roughly the same time in 2012. Though it was done from Disney's previous film Frozen. There was an assumption that Frozen's success would elevate Disney Animation to new levels, but Big Hero 6 proved that not to be true. It was the second highest animated debut of the year above How to Train Your Dragon 2, also featuring T. J. Miller, though behind The Lego Movie. It is quite rare for an original animated movie to debut over fifty million. If estimates of the weekend hold, it would end its run at over $215 million.

Reception

The film is getting very good reviews. It currently has a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, which has a consensus saying "Agreeably entertaining and brilliantly animated, Big Hero 6 is briskly-paced, action-packed, and often touching." The audience rating for the movie is 95%. The movie has a 75 out of 100 on Metacritic with an 8.3 rating among users. The rating on the Internet Movie Database is currently 8.5. The film scored big with fans who gave it an "A" CinemaScore.

The film was submitted into consideration for the Best Animated Feature award at the 87th Academy Awards, which is hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.

External Links

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