Big Hero 6

Big Hero 6 is a 2014 computer animated comedy-superhero film created and produced at Walt Disney Animation Studios and based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name by Man of Action. The film is directed by Don Hall (co-director of Winnie the Pooh) and Chris Williams (co-director of Bolt).

It is the 54th film in the Disney Animated Canon and the sixth film in the Disney Revival era.

Big Hero 6 was the first Disney animated feature film to star characters from Marvel Entertainment, which The Walt Disney Company acquired in 2009 and gave special thanks to that company.

The film was released on November 7, 2014 in the US, Canada and India by Disney.

The film received very positive reviews from audiences and critics and was a box office and commercial success, grossing $652 million worldwide. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for an Annie Award for Best Animated Feature and a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

Big Hero 6 was theatrically accompanied by the short film Feast.

Synopsis
From Walt Disney Animation Studios, the team behind Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph, comes Big Hero 6, an action-packed comedy-adventure about the special bond that develops between Baymax (Scott Adsit), a plus-sized inflatable robot, and prodigy Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter). When a devastating event befalls the city of San Fransokyo and catapults Hiro into the midst of danger, he turns to Baymax and his close friends adrenaline junkie Go Go Tomago (Jamie Chung), neatnik Wasabi (Damon Wayans Jr.), chemistry whiz Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez) and fanboy Fred (T.J. Miller). Determined to uncover the mystery, Hiro transforms his friends into a team of high-tech heroes called Big Hero 6.

Plot
The film is set in a fictional futuristic hybrid metropolis called San Fransokyo (a portmanteau of San Francisco and Tokyo).

Hiro Hamada is a young genius and robotics expert who spends his time participating in back alley robot fights. His older brother Tadashi, worried that Hiro is wasting his potential, takes Hiro to the robotics lab at his school--the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. There, Hiro meets Tadashi's closest friends: Go Go Tomago, Wasabi, Honey Lemon and Fred as well as Baymax (a personal healthcare robot Tadashi created). Hiro also meets Professor Robert Callaghan, the head of the robotics program.

Amazed by the students' projects, Hiro decides enroll in the school. With help from Tadashi and his friends, Hiro designs his own robotics project in order to gain a personal invitation via an annual exhibition. His invention, Microbots (a type of nanorobotics which he can control telepathically through a neural-cranial transmitter), impresses Callaghan, who offers Hiro an invitation to the school. His project also impresses Alistair Krei (owner of the prestigious robotics company Krei Tech). Krei offers to buy Hiro's microbots, but Callaghan successfully convinces Hiro not to make the deal.

As they leave to celebrate Hiro's success, a fire suddenly breaks out in the exhibition hall. Tadashi rushes in to rescue Callaghan, but the building explodes and kills Tadashi and apparently Callaghan (off-screen). As a result of losing his brother and best friend, Hiro shuts himself away in his room and isolates himself from others for two weeks.

One day, Hiro accidentally activates Baymax, who responded to Hiro's cry of pain. As Hiro attempts to deactivate Baymax, he discovers a single microbot that was left in his jacket. Hiro believes its movement is due to a malfunction, but Baymax believes it is trying to go somewhere. Baymax follows the microbot to an abandoned warehouse just as Hiro catches up. There, they discover that someone has been mass producing Hiro's microbots before they are attacked by a masked man controlling the microbots telepathically. Realizing this man has stolen his project, Hiro decides to catch him and upgrades Baymax with battle armor and various fighting moves. Following their single microbot again, they find the masked man at the harbor and attempt to pull a surprise attack, but are unable to when Go Go, Wasabi, Honey and Fred arrive in a car (because Baymax had contacted them earlier, thinking that a great way to help Hiro was to contact his friends). The masked man attacks them as they flee in the car. They land in the water and nearly drown, but Baymax floats them up to safety. Wet and freezing, Fred suggests that they rest in an enormous mansion that he reveals to be his home. After realizing that Baymax had scanned the masked man, Hiro decides to upgrade Baymax further so he can scan the entire city to find him. Hiro also upgrades his friends and provides them with supersuits of their own.

When scanning the entire city, Baymax locates the masked man on a quarantined Akuma Island off-shore from the city. There, the group discovers a former Krei Tech lab that was experimenting with teleportation technology. The test went awry when one of the portals became unstable and the human test pilot got lost and presumably died. Because of this, they suspect that Krei is the masked man. When the masked man appears, they attempt to steal his mask, where they deduce the transmitter is located. Despite some difficulties, they succeed in unmasking him and he is revealed to be Professor Callaghan, who explains that he survived by using Hiro's microbots to shield himself from the blaze. Upon realizing that Tadashi died for nothing, he angrily removes Baymax's healthcare chip and orders him to kill Callaghan by crushing him with his bare hands. Go Go, Fred, Wasabi and Honey are able to stop Baymax and reinsert his chip, but Callaghan escapes in the process. Angry at the four for preventing him from getting revenge, Hiro leaves with Baymax. Hiro attempts to remove Baymax's healthcare chip again, but Baymax objects to this, not wanting to become a mindless killing machine again, and asks him if killing Callaghan will make him feel better. Baymax then shows several video recordings of Tadashi during Baymax's development. Hiro realizes that killing Callaghan is not what Tadashi would want and he makes amends with his friends.

After examining more footage of the teleporter test, they discover that the test pilot was none other than Callaghan's daughter Abigail and realize that Callaghan is seeking revenge on Krei, whom he blames for her demise. Using the microbots, Callaghan repairs the portal device so it will become unstable and destroy everything Krei loves: his business. The heroes arrive, battle Callaghan and manage to neutralize the microbots and take the transmitter from him. However, the portal remains active and is becoming increasingly unstable.

As everyone prepares to leave, Baymax detects female life signs from within the portal. Realizing that it must be Abigail, they rush in to save her. However, on their way out, Baymax's armor is damaged and the only way to save Hiro and Abigail is to send them through with his rocket fist. Hiro refuses to leave Baymax behind, but Baymax convinces him that it is the only option. Baymax asks Hiro if he is satisfied with his care, to which Hiro says yes and Baymax deactivates. Hiro and Abigail make it back through the portal and Callaghan is arrested.

Later, as Hiro settles into Tadashi's old lab, he discovers Baymax's healthcare chip (which contains his entire personality as well) within the rocket hand. He successfully rebuilds Baymax's body and reactivates him and they happily reunite. The six friends then continue their exploits through the city, helping those in need as the Big Hero 6.

In a post-credit's scene, Fred, back at his mansion, talks to a photo of his father, telling him he'd be proud of him. Fred accidentally opens a secret door and, upon entering, finds weapons, armor and superhero gear. His father (voiced by Stan Lee) arrives and states that they have a lot to talk about before the two embrace.

Voice cast

 * Ryan Potter as Hiro Hamada, a 14-year-old robotics prodigy.
 * Scott Adsit as Baymax, an inflatable robot built by Tadashi as a Medical Assistant.
 * Jamie Chung as Go Go Tomago, a tough, athletic student.
 * Damon Wayans, Jr. as Wasabi, a smart, slightly neurotic youth.
 * Genesis Rodriguez as Honey Lemon, a chemistry enthusiast at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology.
 * T.J. Miller as Fred, a comic-book fan who also plays the mascot at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology.
 * Maya Rudolph as Aunt Cass Hamada, Hiro and Tadashi's aunt and guardian.
 * James Cromwell as Professor Robert Callaghan/Yokai, the head of a robotics program at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology.
 * Alan Tudyk as Alistair Krei, a pioneer entrepreneur.
 * Daniel Henney as Tadashi Hamada, Hiro's older brother and Baymax's creator
 * Stan Lee as Fred's Father
 * Daniel Gerson as Sergeant Gerson
 * Paul Briggs as Mr. Yama
 * Katie Lowes as Abigail Callaghan, the daughter of Professor Callaghan and a test pilot for Krei Tech.

Production
After Disney's acquisition of Marvel Entertainment in 2009, President/CEO Bob Iger encouraged the company's divisions to explore Marvel's properties for adaptation concepts. In 2011, while Don Hall was co-directing Winnie the Pooh with Stephen Anderson, he chose Big Hero 6 from Marvel's library and later pitched the concept to executive producer John Lasseter, as a possible production for Walt Disney Animation Studios. In June 2012, Disney confirmed that Walt Disney Animation Studios was adapting Marvel Comics' series and that the film was commissioned into early stages of development.

It has been confirmed that Big Hero 6 will be a stand-alone film and have no relationship with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film is based on an obscure 1998 series written by Steven T. Seagle & Duncan Roulea. Although Big Hero 6 will be produced solely by Walt Disney Animation Studios, several members of Marvel's creative team will be involved in the film's production including Marvel's Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada. Regarding the film's story, Quesada stated, "The relationship between Hiro and his robot has a very Disney flavor to it...but it's combined with these Marvel heroic arcs". In terms of the film's animation style and settings, the film will combine Eastern Asian culture (predominantly Japanese) with Western culture.

On December 31, 2013, it was reported that Chris Williams (Co-director of Bolt) had joined Hall as the new director, while Roy Conli, p.g.a. had replaced Kristina Reed as producer.

On January 27, 2014, Disney had announced that Warner Loughlin had joined the project. But, she was an acting coach for Amy Adams, Ryan Reynolds, Zooey Deschanel and others. It was reported that she will help the project by providing breathtaking emotions and quality acting for the characters of Big Hero 6.

Production on the film was completed on August 11, 2014.

Release
Big Hero 6 was released theatrically on November 7, 2014 in the US, Canada India, Vietnam and Indonesia, the 26th of December, 2014 in Australia and New Zealand, and will be releasing January 30, 2015 in the UK and Ireland. The film was accompanied by the Walt Disney Animation Studios short Feast. It premiered on October 23, 2014 as the opening film at the Tokyo International Film Festival and the world premiere of the film in 3D took place at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival on October 31, 2014. The film's premiere in US was at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on November 5, 2014. The teaser trailer was released on May 22, 2014 while the first full trailer arrived on July 15th, 2014.

Home media
Big Hero 6 was released by Disney on Digital HD on February 3, 2015, and was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on February 24, 2015.

International releases

 * October 25, 2014 (Russia, Ukraine)
 * November 6, 2014 (Greece, UAE, the Philippines)
 * November 12, 2014 (Trinidad and Tobago)
 * November 13, 2014 (Singapore)
 * November 14, 2014 (Mexico)
 * November 28, 2014 (Poland)
 * December 12, 2014 (Venezuela)
 * December 18, 2014 (Italy, Portugal)
 * December 19, 2014 (Spain)
 * December 20, 2014 (Japan, released locally as Baymax)
 * December 25, 2014 (Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, South Africa)
 * December 26, 2014 (Australia, New Zealand)
 * January 1, 2015 (Argentina, Uruguay)
 * January 2, 2015 (Paraguay)
 * January 21, 2015 (South Korea, retitled as Big Hero)
 * January 22, 2015 (Germany)
 * January 30, 2015 (United Kingdom, Norway)
 * February 28, 2015 (China)
 * March 28, 2015 (Iran, by Glory Entertainment)

Reception
Big Hero 6 earned $222,527,828 in North America, and an estimated $429,600,000 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $652,127,828.

In North America, the film earned $1.4 million from Thursday late night showings which is higher than the previews earned by Frozen ($1.2 million) and The Lego Movie ($400,000). In its opening day on November 7, the film earned $15.8 million, debuting at number two behind Interstellar ($16.9 million). Big Hero 6 topped the box office in its opening weekend, earning $56.2 million from 3,761 theatres at an average of $14,947 per theatre ahead of Interstellar ($47.5 million); it is Walt Disney Animation Studios' second best opening behind Frozen ($67.4 million), both adjusted and unadjusted. In its second weekend, the film fell to number two and earned $34.7 million (down 38%), overtaken by newcomer Dumb and Dumber To ($36.1 million) for a two weekend total of $110.3 million.

Other territories
Two weeks ahead of its North American release, Big Hero 6 was released in Russia (earned $4.8 million) and Ukraine (earned $0.2 million) in two days (October 25–26). The main reason behind the early release was in order to take advantage of the two weeks of school holidays in Russia. Jeff Bock, box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations, said: "For a two-day gross, that's huge. It's a giant number in Russia." In its second weekend, the film added $4.8 million (up 1%) bringing its total nine days cumulative audience to $10.3 million in Russia and $10.9 including its revenue from Ukraine.

In its opening weekend, the film earned $7.6 million from seventeen markets for a first weekend worldwide total of $79.2 million, which was behind Interstellar ($132.2 million). It went to number one in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. It is the second highest-grossing Disney animated film of all time in Russia, in the Philippines behind Toy Story 3, and the highest in Vietnam.

In its second weekend, the film earned $11.9 million from twenty-three markets for a two weekend international total of $36.7 million and worldwide total of $147 million.

The highest debut came from Mexico ($4.8 million). In Japan, where the film is locally known as Baymax, it opened at first place with $5.3 million which is the second biggest Disney opening in Japan behind Frozen.

Critical Reception
Big Hero 6 has received widespread critical acclaim. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 186 reviews, with an average score of 7.4/10. The site's consensus states: "Agreeably entertaining and brilliantly animated, Big Hero 6 is briskly-paced, action-packed, and often touching." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 74 based on 35 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."

Michael O'Sullivan of Washington Post gave the film 3.5/4 stars, writing that "The real appeal of Big Hero 6 isn't its action. It's the central character's heart." Maricar Estrella of Fort Worth Star-Telegram gave the film 5 stars, saying it "offers something for everyone: action, camaraderie, superheroes and villains. But mostly, Baymax offers a compassionate and healing voice for those suffering, and a hug that can be felt through the screen." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, stating, "The breakthrough star of the season is here. His name is Baymax and he's impossible not to love. The 3-D animated Big Hero 6 would be a ton less fun without this irresistible blob of roly-poly, robot charisma." Kofi Outlaw of Screen Rant gave the film 4/5 stars or "excellent," explaining that "Big Hero 6 combines Disney wonder and charm with Marvel awe and action to deliver a film that exhibits the best of both studios." Alonso Duralde of The Wrap gave the film a positive review, calling it "sweet and sharp and exciting and hilarious" and says that the film "comes to the rescue of what's become a dreaded movie trope the origin story and launches the superhero tale to pleasurable new heights." Calvin Wilson of St. Louis Post-Dispatch gave the film 3.5 of 4 stars, writing that "the storytelling is solid, propelled by characters that you come to care about. And that should make Big Hero 6 a big hit."

Bill Goodykoontz of Arizona Republic gave the film a positive review, writing, "Directors Don Hall and Chris Williams have made a terrific movie about a boy (Ryan Potter) and his robot friend, who seek answers to a deadly tragedy," calling it an "unexpectedly good treat." Soren Anderson of The Seattle Times gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, saying that "Clever, colorful, fast on its feet, frequently very funny and sweet (but not excessively so), Big Hero 6 mixes its myriad influences into a final product that, while in no way original, is immensely entertaining." Michael Rechtshaffen of Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, saying that "the funny and heartwarming story about the bond between a teen tech geek and a gentle robot represents another can't-miss proposition by Walt Disney Animation Studios." Jon Niccum of Kansas City Star gave the film 3.5 out of four stars, writing that while it "may hit a few familiar beats inherent to any superhero "origin story,"" it is still "the best animated film of the year, supplying The Incredibles-size adventure with a level of emotional bonding not seen since The Iron Giant," and that it "never runs low on battery power." Elizabeth Weitzman of The Daily News gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, calling it a "charming animated adventure," saying that with "appealing 3D animation" and a smart and "sharp story and script," it is "one of the rare family films that can fairly boast of having it all: humor, heart and huggability." Rafer Guzmán from News Day gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying that "Marvel plus Disney plus John Lasseter equals an enjoyable jumble of kid-approved action," with "rich, vivid colors and filled with clever details."

Trivia

 * Big Hero 6 has become the thirteenth highest grossing Disney movie, and the third highest that is not a Pixar movie, only following The Lion King and Frozen.
 * Big Hero 6 won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2015. It is the second Disney animated film, that wasn't made by Pixar, to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature after the previous year's winner, Frozen.
 * The film mainly draws from Big Hero 6 's mini-series, where Wasabi and Fred first appeared, replacing Silver Samurai and others.
 * Although it is based on a Marvel comic of the same name, there are many changes, including character names, the setting, the ethnicities of characters, the backstories, and several plot points:
 * Several characters don't appear in the film due to copyright issues.
 * The character originally known as Wasabi No-Ginger has his last name officially dropped from the film, and is simply referred to as Wasabi. Many official Disney merchandise and sites, however, still refer to him as "Wasabi No-Ginger".
 * Although based on a Marvel property, Big Hero 6 is not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
 * This is the first Disney animated feature to show the studio logos in the beginning, and the main title, the full closing credits sequence and the studio logos at the end.
 * At the beginning, the logo combo was similar to the previous film Frozen, but the logo's music is heard instead of the opening song (That plays over it.)
 * At the end, the logo combo was the same as Frozen.
 * Although this isn't technically the first animated Marvel movie as there were previous ones that were made to be released for home video, this is the first animated Marvel movie to be released theatrically.
 * James Cromwell and Alan Tudyk previously co-starred in the 2004 film I, Robot.
 * This is the first Walt Disney Animation Studios feature to have the "Created and Produced at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Burbank, California" credit at the end.
 * Pixar Animation Studios does the same thing in movies (Beginning with Monsters, Inc.), except is says "Created and Produced at Pixar Animation Studios, Emeryville, California."
 * This is the first WDAS feature to have Disney's Hyperion Rendering.
 * The last feature to use old rendering was the previous feature Frozen.
 * According to Big Hero 6 's character design supervisor, Jin Kim, one of the main goals of this movie was to introduce multiracial characters to allow everyone to feel some familiarities about their own culture and introduce the world's racial diversity.
 * Hiro Hamada and Tadashi Hamada are Japanese-American.
 * Go Go Tomago is Korean.
 * Honey Lemon is Latina.
 * Wasabi is African-American.
 * Fred is Caucasian.
 * Kim revealed that the lead characters, although they were later given Japanese names, were originally envisioned as Koreans during development with the chief character designer, Shiyoon Kim.
 * BBC Radio 1 presenters and Youtubers Dan Howell (danisnotonfire) and Phil Lester (AmazingPhil) were given the roles of Male Technician 1 and 2 in the UK Cinema version of the movie, however that version didn't end up in the UK home release.
 * Big Hero 6 is Disney's seventh CGI animated feature, and the thirteenth that isn't a musical.
 * Big Hero 6 is the first superhero movie to be released by WDAS.
 * At the beginning of this film, robot-fighting may have been inspired by cockfights, a traditional medieval blood sport that is indeed illegal in the United States.
 * In the same way, Tadashi says robot fights are illegal. Both him and Hiro are sent to prison for this.
 * This is also the second Disney film to contain a blood sport, the first being White Fang.

Cameos

 * When Hiro is talking with his aunt, there is a painting of Mochi wearing a Stitch costume behind him.
 * In Fred's mansion, there is a Stitch pillow as well as one with Splodyhead on his bed in the background.
 * There is a Wreck-It Ralph toy on Hiro's bedroom desk.
 * Hans is seen on a wanted poster at the police department and as a statue in Fred's mansion.
 * There is a picture of Bolt as well as one of Esther in the desk at the police department.
 * If you look closely, the statue Baymax destroys with his rocket fist, it closely resembles Hans.
 * An Arendelle ship can be seen at the bay of San Fransokyo during Baymax and Hiro's flight sequence.
 * A statue of Olaf is also spotted in the middle of the city.
 * In the UK version of Big Hero 6 (but not in the UK home release), two British YouTube stars Dan Howell and Phil Lester have two voice cameos as Technician 1 and 2.
 * Stan Lee makes another cameo in a Marvel film, this time as Fred's father.
 * Honey Lemon's phone case has Nick Wilde on it.
 * Chicken Little is seen on an electronic billboard in one of the Big Hero 6 trailers.
 * In the Korean version of the film, there is a picture of Elsa the Snow Queen's head silhouette on the wall of Hiro's house.

Possible sequel
On February 18, 2015, the film's directors, Don Hall and Chris Williams, said a sequel could be possible.

However, they stated:

""[Laughs] We'll see. We just finished this one, and the truth is, we're exhausted from the ordeal of making it. It was really fun, but it was long hours, and it was pretty intense. It's a pretty emotional time for us. These are characters that we've grown to know very well, now it's time to let go of them, and they're going into the world without us. We're in the middle of that phase. So we haven't talked about or thought about any sequels or anything like that. Having said that, of course, we love these characters, and the thought of working with them again some day definitely has its appeal.""

- Chris Williams

""John Lasseter is very supportive of the directors, and he won't force them to put out a sequel unless they have a story that [sic] really excited about. It has to feel like a story that really has to be told, or deserves to be told. It can't just be cashing in on the success of a previous film.""

- Don Hall

On March 10, 2015, Lasseter, speaking about Toy Story 4, reiterated his philosophy on sequels.:

""We do not do any sequel because we want to print money ... We do it because each of these films was created by a group of filmmakers, and to my mind, they are the owners of that intellectual property. So we look at it with the simple question: Is there another story we can tell in this world? And that desire has to come from the filmmaker group. Sometimes, the answer is an obvious yes. And sometimes it's, 'I love the characters and I love the world, but I don’t have an idea yet.' And sometimes it's just, 'that movie is a great movie,' and the filmmaker wants to move on and do something else. And that's fine, too.""

- John Lasseter

The next day, Génesis Rodríguez confirmed talks of a sequel to MTV, saying, "...There's nothing definitive. There's talks of something happening. We just don't know what yet."

In April 2015, Stan Lee said that he understood several franchises which had been in Marvel's plans for future films, with Big Hero 6 being one of them.