Disney & Marvel’s Next Crazy Experiment: ‘Big Hero 6’

Somehow, Disney decided to take one of the most obscure comic book franchises on the market and turn it into their next animated film.

Not only that, but Big Hero 6 is Disney’s first major attempt to adapt a Marvel comic book using their animation playbook. The trailer itself even advertises that the movie is “from the makers of Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph.”

As someone who is a huge fan of both superheroes and Disney, this is clearly a dream come true, but for those of you wondering just what the heck Big Hero 6 is, here’s a brief introduction that should get you pretty excited about this upcoming November release.

But first, here’s the trailer:

What you saw in the trailer is just a small part of the superhero team known as “Big Hero 6.” The character above is one of the main protagonists, Hiro Hamada, and the robot he is building is called Baymax.

The rest of Big Hero 6 will be introduced later on, and they’re a diverse bunch. Though we don’t have the full roster confirmed yet, we know that the team will consist of:

#1 Wasabi-No-Ginger: a highly skilled chef and swordsman who can materialize throwing knives (like Gambit, pretty much).

#2 Honey Lemon: a dimension-crossing woman with the ability to pull out almost anything from her purse.

#3 GoGo Tomago: once she utters her name, she can turn herself into a ball of energy that moves at incredible speed.

#4 Fredzilla: a tough guy who can transform into a Godzilla-like creature. He also has a major connection to S.H.I.E.L.D.

And then, of course, there’s Hiro and Baymax, who presumably make the 5th and 6th members of the team. Hiro is a 13-year-old prodigy who builds Baymax for a high school science project, not realizing that the synthetic behemoth would become his best friend and even father figure.

Aside from the interesting characters, the setting for Big Hero 6 is one of the most exciting aspects of the upcoming film. It takes place in San Fransokyo, a tonal combination of San Francisco and Tokyo. The rich themes borrow heavily from both Japanese and Western culture, making the world of Big Hero 6 stand out from other comic book offerings.

Speaking of comic books, you’ve no doubt noticed that this clearly takes place in the Marvel universe. In fact, two members of the team (in the comics) are actually from the X-Men universe, including Silver Samurai (the villain from The Wolverine) and Sunfire (a former X-Men). For legal reasons, they had to be left out of this film, at least until Fox allows Disney and Marvel to use X-Men characters.

As you can see, Disney is repurposing a lot of content from the original comic, and I’m expecting the final film to be a huge departure from what inspired it. It’s too early to know if that’s a good or a bad thing, but it’s for that reason I’m actually going to suggest that most of you go into this film without reading the comics.

Naturally, you should check them out if you’re curious and want to read a good story. All I’m saying is that if you want to look into them for the sake of knowing more about what the film is going to offer, than I suspect you may be disappointed, and the film may even be ruined for you.

You may also be wondering why Disney would choose this as their follow-up to last year’s massive hit, Frozen. Well, it’s not really complicated. First, Disney had no idea that Frozen would be the moneymaker that it was, and Big Hero 6 has been planned since way back in 2011.

If you’re waiting to see how Disney truly tries to replicate the success of Frozen, just wait about two more years. Until then, we’ll get to enjoy the risky projects they’ve already been working on, and I couldn’t be more excited for this one in particular.

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