After the unpredictable and astronomical success of Frozen last year, all eyes are on Disney Animation this fall as they prepare to release Big Hero 6 to the world.
Big Hero 6 follows the story of Hiro, a young inventor who suffers a major setback when his powerful invention falls into the wrong hands. After stumbling upon a personal healthcare robot named Baymax that had been stowed away in his room, Hiro gets the idea to transform his new robot friend, himself and four of his human friends into superheroes to confront this new Kabuki-masked villain.
The film is based on a somewhat-obscure series of Marvel Comics. Co-Director Don Hall (Winnie the Pooh) stumbled upon the property and was excited about the possibility of combing his life-long love of comics with his love of Disney animation. While the new film shares its title with the source material as well as many character names, the similarities pretty much end there. As Hall shared, “We were inspired to create an original story and set it in a new unique world.”
Part of that unique world is the city the film is set in: San Fransokyo. In order to create that fictional town, the team visited both real cities that inspired it. The result contains many touches from both locations including the hills and cable cars of San Francisco and the modern architecture and technology of Tokyo.
As Zach Parrish (Head of Animation on the film) noted, every Disney animated feature presents its own challenges. For Big Hero 6 one of these issues the animators faced was dealing with such a large cast. While the film has six main characters, it also features superhero versions of those half dozen.
One of these heroes is Baymax, an inflatable robot. In order to bring this character to life the animators had to decide how he would do such seemingly simple things as walk. In order to accomplish this, Parrish said the team researched several robots including the Asimo robot that can be found in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland. On top of this the team looked at everything from toddlers to different types of animals in order to assess what Baymax’s stride might most resemble. What did they finally decide on? Penguins. As Parrish explained, “The thing that we found about penguins was…. they have a very limited way of moving.” He added, “They don’t really use their arms at all which works for the robot aspect of Baymax because he wouldn’t need to move anything that isn’t essential.”
Another obstacle the animators sought to overcome was the amount of background cast the film would require. Since San Fransokyo marries two densely populated cities, it became apparent that the city would need lots of background characters to fill it. To help facilitate the creation of these San Fransokians (San Fransokyites? San Fransokiers?) the animators created a new program that could render more original characters to bring the city to life.
While there will undoubtedly be talk about how Big Hero 6 is an attempt to appeal to boys after the girl-centric Frozen the filmmakers don’t seem to worry to much about demographics. Instead their main concern as well as John Lasseter’s is the story. As the film’s producer, Roy Conli noted, “One of the great things about this place is that we hold production until we know we have a story.”
In that same vein, screenwriter Robert Baird spoke on the process of getting the story just right. As he put it, “The first screening is always terrible… Things that were hilarious on the page or on boards — nobody’s laughing…. it’s honestly one of the worst feelings of your life.” However, Head of Story for the film Paul Briggs was quick to add, “Lasseter… made clear it’s okay to fail and it’s okay to make mistakes. You’re trying to find the story.” He estimates that up to 95% of material from the first screenings could be scrapped, but that the 5% that is working helps the filmmakers realize what their film is ultimately about and guides them to what they should be focusing on.
As you may expect, Big Hero 6 might hold the record for most action scenes in a Disney animated film (not that anyone’s counting). This is something the filmmakers worried about as the movie might prove too frightening for children. However, their concerns were alleviated during test screenings where kids seemed to find comfort in the film’s protagonist through some of the film’s more intense moments. As Co-Director Chris Williams, (Bolt) explained, “The comic book fans are gonna get their fix for sure, but at the same time I think the presence of Baymax and the sweetness of the movie is gonna make families feel comfortable as well.”
Big Hero 6 opens November 7th and will be preceded by the short film “Feast” — which you can read our review of here.
