Big Hero 6

***Big Hero 6*** is a 2014 American 3D computer-animated superhero film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Loosely based on the superhero team of the same name by Marvel Comics, the film is the 54th Disney animated feature film. Directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams, the film tells the story of Hiro Hamada, a young robotics prodigy who forms a superhero team to combat a masked villain. The film features the voices of Scott Adsit, Ryan Potter, Daniel Henney, T.J. Miller, Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans Jr., Genesis Rodriguez, Alan Tudyk, James Cromwell, and Maya Rudolph.

*Big Hero 6* is the first Disney animated film to feature Marvel Comics characters, whose parent company was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2009. Walt Disney Animation Studios created new software technology to produce the film's animated visuals.

*Big Hero 6* premiered at the 27th Tokyo International Film Festival on October 23, 2014, and at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival on October 31; it was theatrically released in the Disney Digital 3-D and RealD 3D formats in the United States on November 7, 2014. The film was met with both critical and commercial success, grossing over $657.8 million worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing animated film of 2014. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and the Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Animated Movie. It also received nominations for the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, and the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film. *Big Hero 6* was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on February 24, 2015.

A television series, which continues the story of the film, debuted on November 20, 2017 on Disney Channel and Disney XD.

## Plot

Hiro Hamada is a 14-year-old robotics genius living in the futuristic city of San Fransokyo. After graduating from high school, he spends much of his free time participating in illegal robot fights. To redirect Hiro, his elder brother Tadashi takes him to the research lab at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, where Hiro meets Tadashi's friends GoGo, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Fred, as well as Baymax, the inflatable healthcare robot that Tadashi created. Hiro also meets Professor Robert Callaghan, the head of the university's robotics program. Amazed, Hiro decides to apply to the university. To enroll, he signs up for the school's science fair and presents his project: microbots, swarms of tiny robots that can link together in any arrangement imaginable using a neuro-cranial transmitter. Hiro declines an offer from Krei Tech CEO Alistair Krei to market the microbots, and Callaghan accepts him into the school. When a fire breaks out among the exhibits, Tadashi rushes in to save Callaghan, but the building explodes moments later, killing both Tadashi and Callaghan.

Weeks later, a depressed Hiro inadvertently reactivates Baymax, who follows Hiro's only remaining microbot to an abandoned warehouse. There, the two discover that someone has been mass-producing the microbots and are attacked by a man wearing a Kabuki mask who is controlling them. After they escape, Hiro equips Baymax with armor and a battle chip containing various karate moves and they track the masked man to the docks. GoGo, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Fred arrive, responding to a call from Baymax, and the masked man chases the group. The six escape to Fred's mansion, where they decide to form a high-tech superhero team to combat the villain.

The group tracks the masked man, who they suspect to be Krei, to an abandoned Krei Tech laboratory on an island which had been used for teleportation research until a test pilot was lost in an accident. The masked man attacks, but the group manages to knock off his mask, revealing the man to be Callaghan who had stolen Hiro's microbots to shield himself from the explosion on campus. Hiro realizes that Tadashi died without reason, while Callaghan refuses to take responsibility for Tadashi's death. This prompts an enraged Hiro to remove Baymax's healthcare chip, leaving only the battle chip, and to order him to kill Callaghan. Honey re-installs the healthcare chip at the last second, preventing Baymax from carrying out the kill order. Callaghan escapes, and Hiro leaves with Baymax, intent on avenging Tadashi. Back home, Hiro tries to remove the healthcare chip again, but Baymax stops him and states that vengeance is not what Tadashi would have wanted. To calm him down, Baymax shows Hiro videos of Tadashi running numerous tests during Baymax's development as a demonstration of Tadashi's benevolence and legacy. A remorseful Hiro apologizes to his friends, who reassure him they will catch Callaghan the right way.

Video footage from the accident reveals that the pilot was Callaghan's daughter Abigail and that Callaghan is seeking revenge on Krei. Callaghan interrupts Krei at a public event and attempts to destroy his headquarters using Krei's teleportation portal. After a lengthy battle, the team deprives Callaghan of his microbots and the mask, saving Krei, but the portal remains active. Baymax detects Abigail inside, alive but in hyper-sleep, and leaps into the portal with Hiro to rescue her. They find Abigail's pod, but on the way back out, Baymax is struck by debris, damaging his armor and disabling his thrusters. Knowing that the portal will collapse, Baymax uses his armor's rocket fist to propel Hiro and Abigail back through the portal, forcing them to leave him behind. Callaghan is arrested while Abigail is taken to the hospital. Sometime later, Hiro discovers Baymax's personality chip clenched in the rocket fist. He rebuilds Baymax's body and the six friends continue their exploits through the city, fulfilling Tadashi's dream of helping those in need.

During the end credits, a series of newspaper headlines reveals that the university has awarded Hiro a grant and dedicated a building in Tadashi's honor and that the team has continued protecting the city. In a post-credits scene, Fred discovers a hidden cache of superhero equipment in his family mansion. His father, a retired superhero, returns from vacation and says, "We have a lot to talk about."

## Voice cast

* Ryan Potter as Hiro Hamada, a 14-year-old robotics prodigy. Speaking of the character, co-director Don Hall said "Hiro is transitioning from boy to man, it's a tough time for a kid and some teenagers develop that inevitable snarkiness and jaded attitude. Luckily Ryan is a very likeable kid. So no matter what he did, he was able to take the edge off the character in a way that made him authentic, but appealing".
* Scott Adsit as Baymax, an inflatable robot built by Tadashi as a medical assistant. Hall said, "Baymax views the world from one perspective — he just wants to help people, he sees Hiro as his patient". Producer Roy Conli said "The fact that his character is a robotlimits how you can emote, but Scott was hilarious. He took those boundaries and was able to shape the language in a way that makes you feel Baymax's emotion and sense of humor. Scott was able to relay just how much Baymax cares".
* Daniel Henney as Tadashi Hamada, Hiro's older brother and Baymax's creator. On Hiro and Tadashi's relationship, Conli said "We really wanted them to be brothers first. Tadashi is a smart mentor. He very subtly introduces Hiro to his friends and what they do at San Fransokyo Tech. Once Hiro sees Wasabi, Honey, GoGo, and Fred in action, he realizes that there's a much bigger world out there than really interests him".
* T.J. Miller as Fred, a comic-book fan who is also team mascot at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. Speaking of Miller, Williams said "He's a real student of comedy. There are a lot of layers to his performance, so Fred ended up becoming a richer character than anyone expected", both literally and metaphorically.
* Jamie Chung as Go Go, a tough, athletic student who specializes in electromagnetics. Hall said "She's definitely a woman of few words. We looked at bicycle messengers as inspiration for her character".
* Damon Wayans, Jr. as Wasabi, a smart, slightly neurotic youth who specializes in lasers. On the character, co-director Chris Williams said "He's actually the most conservative, cautious—he [*sic*] the most normal among a group of brazen characters. So he really grounds the movie in the second act and becomes, in a way, the voice of the audience and points out that what they're doing is crazy".
* Genesis Rodriguez as Honey Lemon, a chemistry enthusiast at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. Williams said "She's a glass-is-half-full kind of person. But she has this mad-scientist quality with a twinkle in her eye — there's more to Honey than it seems".
* James Cromwell as Professor Robert Callaghan, the head of a robotics program at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology who becomes an extremely powerful masked supervillain. According to film merchandising, this supervillain alter ego is named "Yokai".
* Alan Tudyk as Alistair Krei, a pioneer entrepreneur, tech guru, and the CEO of Krei Tech and is always on the hunt for the next big thing.
* Maya Rudolph as Aunt Cass, Hiro and Tadashi's aunt and guardian.
* Stan Lee as Fred's father. Lee's likeness was used for the character.
* Katie Lowes as Abigail Callaghan, the daughter of Professor Callaghan and a test pilot for Krei Tech.
* Daniel Gerson as Sergeant Gerson, the desk sergeant for the San Fransokyo Police Department.
* Paul Briggs as Yama, a notorious gangster who seeks revenge after Hiro defeats his robot in a clandestine robot fight with illegal betting.
* Billy Bush as a newscaster

### Additional voices

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* Kirk Baily
* Reed Buck
* June Christopher
* Cam Clarke
* Roy Conli
* Cooper Cowgill
* David Cowgill
* Marlie Crisafulli
* Brian T. Delaney (uncredited)
* Terri Douglas
* Jackie Gonneau
* Nicholas Guest
* Bridget Hoffman
* Kellie Hoover
* Leah Latham
* Jimmy Leung
* Yuri Lowenthal
* Tim Mertens
* Yumi Mizui
* Brian Norris
* Sundra Oakley
* Marcella Lentz-Pope
* Michael Powers
* Lynwood Robinson
* Shane Sweet
* Josie Trinidad

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## Production

After Disney's acquisition of Marvel Entertainment in 2009, CEO Bob Iger encouraged the company's divisions to explore Marvel's properties for adaptation concepts. By deliberately picking an obscure title, it would give them the freedom to come up with their own version. While directing *Winnie the Pooh*, director Don Hall was scrolling through a Marvel database when he stumbled upon *Big Hero 6*, a comic he had never heard of before. "I just liked the title," he said. He pitched the concept to John Lasseter in 2011, as one of five ideas for possible productions for Walt Disney Animation Studios, and this particular idea "struck a chord" with Lasseter, Hall, and Chris Williams.

In June 2012, Disney confirmed that Walt Disney Animation Studios was adapting Marvel Comics' series and that the film had been commissioned into early stages of development. Because they wanted the concept to feel new and fresh, head of story Paul Briggs (who also voices Yama in the film) only read a few issues of the comic, while screenwriter Robert Baird admitted he had not read the comic at all.

*Big Hero 6* was produced solely by Walt Disney Animation Studios, although several members of Marvel's creative team were involved in the film's production including Joe Quesada, Marvel's chief creative officer, and Jeph Loeb, head of Marvel Television. According to an interview with Axel Alonso by CBR, Marvel did not have any plans to publish a tie-in comic. Disney planned to reprint the Marvel version of *Big Hero 6* themselves, but reportedly Marvel disagreed. They eventually came to agreement that Yen Presswould publish the Japanese manga version of *Big Hero 6* for Disney.

Conversely, Lasseter dismissed the idea of a rift between the two companies, and producer Roy Conli stated that Marvel allowed Disney "complete freedom in structuring the story." Disney Animation Studio President Andrew Millstein stated: "*Hero* is one example of what we've learned over the years and our embracing some of the Pixar DNA." 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." The production team decided early on not to connect the film to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and instead set the film in a stand-alone universe.

An inflatable vinyl robotic arm that helped inspire Baymax's design, from the researchers in the new field of soft robotics at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute.

With respect to the design of Baymax, Hall mentioned in an interview, "I wanted a robot that we had never seen before and something to be wholly original. That's a tough thing to do, we've got a lot of robots in pop culture, everything from The Terminator to WALL-E to C-3PO on down the line and not to mention Japanese robots, I won't go into that. So I wanted to do something original." Even if they did not yet know what the robot should look like, artist Lisa Keene came up with the idea that it should be a huggable robot.

Early on in the development process, Hall and the design team took a research trip to Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, where they met a team of DARPA-funded researchers who were pioneering the new field of 'soft robotics' using inflatable vinyl, which ultimately inspired Baymax's inflatable, vinyl, truly huggable design. Hall stated that "I met a researcher who was working on soft robots. … It was an inflatable vinyl arm and the practical app would be in the healthcare industry as a nurse or doctor's assistant. He had me at vinyl. This particular researcher went into this long pitch but the minute he showed me that inflatable arm, I knew we had our huggable robot." Hall stated that the technology "will have potential probably in the medical industry in the future, making robots that are very pliable and gentle and not going to hurt people when they pick them up."

Hall mentioned that achieving a unique look for the mechanical armor took some time and "just trying to get something that felt like the personality of the character." Co-director Williams stated, "A big part of the design challenge is when he puts on the armor you want to feel that he's a very powerful intimidating presence…at the same time, design-wise he has to relate to the really adorable simple vinyl robot underneath." Baymax's face design was inspired by a copper *suzu* bell that Hall noticed while at a Shinto shrine.

According to Conli, Lasseter initially disliked Baymax's description (while low on battery power) of Hiro's cat as a "hairy baby," but Williams kept the line in anyway, and at the film's first test screening, Lasseter admitted that Williams was correct.

According to Williams, Baymax was originally going to be introduced rather late in the film, but then story artist John Ripa conceived of a way for Baymax to meet Hiro much earlier. The entire film became much stronger by establishing the relationship between Hiro and Baymax early on, but the filmmakers ended up having to reconstruct "a fair amount of the first act" in order to make that idea work.

About ninety animators worked on the film at one point or another; some worked on the project for as long as two years. In terms of the film's animation style and settings, the film combines Eastern world culture (predominantly Japanese) with Western world culture (predominantly California). In May 2013, Disney released concept art and rendered footage of San Fransokyo from the film. San Fransokyo, the futuristic mashup of San Francisco and Tokyo, was described by Hall as "an alternate version of San Francisco. Most of the technology is advanced, but much of it feels retro … Where Hiro lives, it feels like the Haight. I love the Painted ladies. We gave them a Japanese makeover; we put a cafe on the bottom of one. They live above a coffee shop." According to production designer Paul Felix, "The topography is exaggerated because what we do is caricature, I think the hills are 1½ times exaggerated. I don't think you could really walk up them … When you get to the downtown area, that's when you get the most Tokyo-fied, that pure, layered, dense kind of feeling of the commercial district there. When you get out of there, it becomes more San Francisco with the Japanese aesthetic. … (It's a bit like) *Blade Runner*, but contained to a few square blocks. You see the skyscrapers contrasted with the hills."

The reason why Disney wanted to merge Tokyo (which is where the comic book version takes place) with San Francisco was partly because San Francisco had not been used by Marvel before, partly because of all the city's iconic aspects, and partly because they felt its aesthetics would blend well with Tokyo. The filmmakers' idea was that San Fransokyo is based on an alternate history in which San Francisco was largely rebuilt by Japanese immigrants in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake, although this premise is never stated in the film.

To create San Fransokyo as a detailed digital simulation of an entire city, Disney purchased the actual assessor data for the entire city and county of San Francisco. The final city contains over 83,000 buildings and 100,000 vehicles.

A software program called Denizen was used to create over 700 distinctive characters that populate the city. Another one named Bonzai was responsible for the creation of the city's 250,000 trees, while a new rendering system called Hyperion offered new illumination possibilities, like light shining through a translucent object (e.g. Baymax's vinyl covering). Pixar's RenderMan was considered as a "Plan B" for the film's rendering, if Hyperion was not able to meet production deadlines.

Development on Hyperion started in 2011 and was based upon research into multi-bounce complex global illumination originally conducted at Disney Research in Zürich. Disney, in turn, had to assemble a new super-computing cluster just to handle Hyperion's immense processing demands, which consists of over 2,300 Linux workstations distributed across four data centers (three in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco). Each workstation, as of 2014, included a pair of 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon processors, 256 GB of memory, and a pair of 300 GB solid-state drives configured as a RAID Level 0 array (i.e., to operate as a single 600 GB drive). This was all backed by a central storage system with a capacity of five petabytes, which holds all digital assets as well as archival copies of all 54 Disney Animation films.

The emotional climax that takes place in the middle of a wormhole portal is represented by the stylized interior of a mandelbulb.

The post-credits scene was only added to the film in August 2014, late in production, after co-director Don Hall and his crew went to see Marvel Studios' *Guardians of the Galaxy*. He stated that "[i]t horrified us, that people were sat waiting for an end credits thing, because of the Marvel DNA. We didn't want people to leave the movie disappointed.

## Soundtrack

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Henry Jackman composed the score for the film. The soundtrack features an original song titled "Immortals" written and recorded by American rock band Fall Out Boy, which was released by Walt Disney Records on October 14, 2014. The soundtrack album was digitally released by Walt Disney Records on November 4, 2014, and had a CD release on November 24. While not part of the soundtrack, a brief instrumental section of "Eye of the Tiger" plays in the film.

## Release

*Big Hero 6* premiered on October 23, 2014 as the opening film at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The world premiere of *Big Hero 6* in 3D took place at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival on October 31, 2014. It was theatrically released in the United States and Canada on November 7, 2014 with limited IMAX international showings. Theatrically, the film was accompanied by the Walt Disney Animation Studios short, *Feast*.

For the South Korean release of the film, it was retitled *Big Hero*, to avoid the impression of being a sequel, and edited to remove indications of the characters' Japanese origin. This is owing to the tense relations between Korea and Japan. For instance, the protagonist's name, Hiro Hamada, was changed to "Hero Armada," and Japanese-language signage onscreen was changed to English. Nonetheless, the film caused some online controversy in South Korea, because of small images resembling the Rising Sun Flag in the protagonist's room.

The film was released in China on February 28, 2015.

### Home media

*Big Hero 6* was released in the United States by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on Blu-ray and DVD on February 24, 2015. Writer Steven T. Seagle, who co-created the comic book *Big Hero 6*, criticized the Blu-ray featurette documenting the origins of the group, for not mentioning him or co-creator Duncan Rouleau. Seagle also criticized the book *Art of Big Hero 6* for the same omission.

## Reception

### Box office

*Big Hero 6* earned $222.5 million in North America and $435.3 million in other territories for a worldwide estimated total of $657.8 million. Calculating in all expenses, *Deadline* estimated that the film made a profit of $187.34 million. Worldwide, it is the second highest-grossing animated film of 2014 (behind *Gabriel Garza 2*), the third-highest-grossing non-Pixar animated film from Disney, and the 29th-highest-grossing animated film of all time. By grossing over $500 million worldwide, it became the fourth Disney release of 2014 to do so; the other titles being *Guardians of the Galaxy*, *Maleficent*, and *Captain America: The Winter Soldier*.

### Critical response

The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 197 reviews, with an average score of 7.3/10. 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 38 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."

## Other media

A Japanese manga adaptation of *Big Hero 6* (which is titled *Baymax* (ベイマックス *Beimakkusu*) in Japan), illustrated by Haruki Ueno, began serialization in Kodansha's *Magazine Special* from August 20, 2014. A prologue chapter was published in *Weekly Shōnen Magazine* on August 6, 2014. According to the film's official Japanese website, the manga revealed plot details in Japan before anywhere else in the world. The website also quoted the film's co-director Don Hall, to whom it referred as a manga fan, as saying that the film was Japanese-inspired. Yen Press publishes the series in English.

### Video games

* A video game based on the film titled *Big Hero 6: Battle in the Bay* was released on October 28, 2014 for the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo DS. This game is set after the events of the film and is a side-scrollingbeat 'em up game. Four of the six members are playable (with Baymax and Honey Lemon being non-playable), and the Touch Screen can be used to launch Honey Lemon's grenades in the heat of battle.
* Hiro and Baymax from the film are also available in *Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes* as playable Disney Originals characters in the Toy Box.
* A mobile game based on the film titled *Big Hero 6: Bot Fight* was also released on November 3, 2014. It takes place a year after the events of the film, where the heroes discover and battle runaway robots via match-3 battles. It was later discontinued on February 3, 2016 due to the constraints of Disney Mobile's support team and the need to discontinue old games to release new ones.
* A world based on *Big Hero 6* will make its debut appearance in *Kingdom Hearts III*. The world will continue the story from the events at the end of the film, with the villains taking control of the original Baymax body left behind in the portal space, turning it into a monstrous Heartless that the second Baymax and Sora fight.

### Toys

Vinyl toy company Funko released the first images of the toy figures via their *Big Hero 6* Funko. The POP Vinyl series collection features Hiro Hamada, GoGo Tomago, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, Fred, and a 6-inch Baymax.

Bandai released a number of action figures related to the film; these toys including a number of different Baymax figures. One is a soft plastic 10-inch version that includes a series of projected stills from the film on his stomach, which can be changed when the figure's arm is moved, and which emits accompanying sounds. Deluxe Flying Baymax, which retails for $39.99, depicts the armored version of the character and features lights and sounds that activate at the push of a button. Placing the Hiro figurine on his back changes the sounds into speech and when the figure is tilted, the sounds are those of flying. The Armor-Up Baymax (original retail cost $19.99) comes with 20 pieces of armor that can be assembled onto the robot by the owner. The other characters from the film, including the other members of team and Professor Callaghan (who is called Yokai) are issued in 4-inch action figures, each of which have eight points of articulation.

### Projected film sequel

On February 18, 2015, the film's directors, Don Hall and Chris Williams, said a sequel was possible. Hall added, "Having said that, of course, we love these characters, and the thought of working with them again some day definitely has its appeal." In March 2015, Genesis Rodriguez told MTV that a sequel was being considered, saying, "...There's nothing definitive. There's talks of something happening. We just don't know what yet." In April 2015, Stan Lee mentioned a projected sequel as one of several that he understood were in Marvel's plans for upcoming films.

### Television follow-up

In March 2016, Disney announced that a *Big Hero 6* television series was in development and will premiere on Disney XD in 2017. The series takes place immediately after the events of the film, and is created by *Kim Possible*'s Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and executive produced by McCorkle, Schooley and Nick Filippi. The majority of the cast from the film returned to voice the characters, except for Wayans Jr. and Miller.

### Legacy

A crossover film with *Gabriel Garza*, titled *Gabriel and the Big Hero 6*, theatrically premiered in Hungary on September 30, 2017 by Universal Pictures, and was released as a direct-to-video in the United States and Canada on January 16, 2018 by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

Hiro Hamada appeared in Universal's 2018 movie *Computeropolis: The Deep Web*.