Walt Disney Animation Studios has released new art and additional details about their upcoming animated feature Big Hero 6. Co-directors Don Hall and Chris Williams spoke with USA Today this week about the film. Three new images of Hiro and Baymax were included in the article and released to media outlets. A new teaser trailer for the highly anticipated film will debut online this Thursday, May 22nd.
The three images show 14-year-old teen genius Hiro Hamada and his robot Baymax, a “squishy, soft, and pliable robot meant for a career in health care.” When “forces of antagonism” arise and “a mystery develops in the city,” Hiro turns Baymax “into an armored fighting machine ready to save the day,” according to Chris Williams. “As he’s doing that, they form a relationship and a bond that Hiro wasn’t counting on.” Hiro and Baymax are “the beating heart of the movie,” says Don Hall.
The article tells us more about the film’s setup, as well. “In American-Japanese mash-up locale San Fransokyo, Hiro is a brazen, fast-talking kid inventor who is squandering his potential, and it’s his older brother, Tadashi, who wants to steer him toward being a more productive member of society.” According to what Don Hall told us at the 2013 D23 Expo, Tadashi sadly dies. When grieving Hiro, along with his constant companion Baymax, finds himself in the middle of a dangerous plot that threatens the city, he forms a heroic team with his big bro’s talented teen friends: adrenaline junkie Go Go Tamago, neat freak Wasabi No-Ginger, master of chemistry Honey Lemon and resident fanboy Fred”—the six members of Disney’s version of the Big Hero 6 team.
USA Today states, “the main question knocking around in the heads of the directors at first was, ‘What does a Disney superhero movie look like?’ The late-1990s Marvel comic on which the movie was very loosely based was ‘a love letter to Japanese culture,’ so an anime influence and Asian flavor is definitely in Big Hero 6.” According to Hall, “They do have a long way to go before they’re the Avengers, however — instead of superheroes, these kids are super-nerds. 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.”
With the film, the directors have wanted to “honor the Disney legacy but also give it a personality all its own with a cinematic look and scientific bent.” Hall states, “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 really seen before.”
About voice casting, the co-directors said that the voice cast will officially be announced later this summer (no word was given about the various casting rumors floating around).
Well, it all looks and sounds awesome to us! We can’t wait to see the teaser trailer and learn more. Stay tuned to Animation Fascination for the latest in Big Hero 6 news and information. Mark your calendars— Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Big Hero 6 comes to U.S. theaters in 3D on November 7th, 2014.
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