Big Hero 6 is a 2014 American animated superhero film loosely based on the Marvel Comics superhero team Big Hero 6. Produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, it was directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams, and written by Jordan Roberts, Robert L. Baird and Daniel Gerson. It stars the voices of Scott Adsit, Ryan Potter, Daniel Henney, T.J. Miller, Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans Jr., Genesis Rodriguez, James Cromwell, Maya Rudolph and Alan Tudyk. The film follows Hiro Hamada, a young robotics prodigy, and Baymax, a healthcare robot invented by Hiro's elder brother, Tadashi, as they form a superhero team to combat a masked supervillain responsible for Tadashi's death. It is the first Disney animated film to feature Marvel Comics characters, whose parent company was acquired by Disney in 2009. Walt Disney Animation Studios created new software technology to produce the animation.
Big Hero 6 debuted at the 27th Tokyo International Film Festival on October 23, 2014 and was released in the United States on November 7. It received positive reviews from critics and grossed $658 million, becoming the highest-grossing animated film of 2014. At the 87th Academy Awards, the film won Best Animated Feature. It additionally received a septet of nominations for Annie Awards, winning one, and a Golden Globe nomination. The film was followed by a trio of television series: Big Hero 6: The Series premiered in 2017, Baymax Dreams premiered in 2018 and Baymax! premiered in 2022.
Plot
In the futuristic city of San Fransokyo, Hiro Hamada, a 14-year-old high school graduate and robotics prodigy, spends his time competing in illegal underground betting for robot fights. Hoping to get Hiro out of this dangerous lifestyle, his inventive older brother Tadashi takes him to the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, where Hiro meets Tadashi's best friends – gritty Go Go Tomago, neurotic Wasabi, bubbly Honey Lemon and laid-back Fred. Tadashi additionally introduces his project, an inflatable artificially intelligent healthcare robot named Baymax. After meeting Tadashi's mentor, Professor Robert Callaghan, Hiro applies to the university, impressing the school's showcase with his own project – microbots that can link together into any configuration using a neural transmitter. Hiro is accepted, but a fire breaks out while Callaghan is still in the building. Tadashi rushes back inside to save him, only for the building to explode, killing them both.
Two weeks later, Hiro inadvertently activates Baymax. His only remaining microbot begins to move on its own, so he and Baymax follow it to an abandoned warehouse. Inside, they discover the microbots being mass-produced by a Kabuki mask-wearing supervillain known as "Yokai", who tries to dispose of Hiro and Baymax, but they narrowly escape. Deducing that Yokai was the mastermind behind the fire, Hiro weaponizes Baymax for defense and Tadashi's friends, whom Baymax contacted, meet up with them. Yokai pursues the group through the streets, but Baymax saves them. At Fred's residence, Hiro upgrades Baymax and the group weaponizes their own inventions to combat Yokai.
Believing Yokai to be Alistair Krei, a tech mogul who had wanted to buy the microbots at the showcase, the group tracks him to an abandoned Krei Tech laboratory on a remote island. They discover that it was used for teleportation research, but the government shut it down after a prototype portal destabilized, trapping a test pilot inside. The group are soon ambushed by Yokai, but they manage to remove his mask, revealing him to be Callaghan, who had faked his death using the stolen microbots. Enraged at Callaghan's indifference to Tadashi's death, Hiro removes Baymax's healthcare chip and orders him to murder Callaghan despite his friends' objections. Baymax obeys Hiro's commands before the rest of the group reinstall his healthcare chip, restoring his former personality as Callaghan escapes. Feeling betrayed by his friends' actions, Hiro leaves with Baymax, intent on avenging Tadashi. When he attempts to remove Baymax's healthcare chip again, Baymax recognizes Hiro's recklessness and shows him archived footage of his development, reminding him that Tadashi's goal was to help people. After Hiro apologizes to Baymax and his friends, they discover that the lost test pilot was Callaghan's daughter, Abigail.
Now prepared to take revenge on Krei for Abigail's apparent death, Callaghan reactivates the teleportation portal to demolish Krei's headquarters, but the heroes defeat him and save Krei. Baymax detects Abigail still alive inside the portal. Despite Krei's warnings about the portal being too unstable, Hiro and Baymax enter it and find Abigail trapped in stasis. Baymax is struck by debris and damaged, forcing Hiro to leave him behind. Baymax uses his rocket fist to propel Hiro and Abigail out of the portal before it is destroyed. In the aftermath, Callaghan is brought to justice while an awakened Abigail is hospitalized. Sometime later, after beginning his tenure at the institute with his friends, Hiro discovers Baymax's healthcare chip clenched in the rocket fist, allowing him to rebuild Baymax, and they continue to defend San Fransokyo in Tadashi's memory.
Voice cast
Ryan Potter as Hiro Hamada, a fourteen-year-old robotics prodigy. Speaking of the character, 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 invented by Tadashi as a medical assistant. Co-director Don 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 robot limits 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". Jamie Chung as Go Go Tomago, a tough and 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". T.J. Miller as Frederick Flamarian "Fred" Frederickson IV, a comic book fan and slacker who serves as a team mascot at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. In regards to Miller, co-director Chris 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. Damon Wayans Jr. as Wasabi, a smart and slightly neurotic youth who specializes in lasers. On the character, Williams said "He's actually the most conservative, cautious—he 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 the 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". Rodriguez reprised her role in the Latin American Spanish dub of the film. James Cromwell as Professor Robert Callaghan / Yokai, the head of a robotics program at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology who becomes an extremely powerful masked supervillain to take revenge on Krei. Alan Tudyk as Alistair Krei, a pioneer entrepreneur, tech guru and the CEO of Krei Tech. Daniel Henney as Tadashi Hamada, Hiro's elder brother and Baymax's creator. On Tadashi and Hiro'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, Go Go, and Fred in action, he realizes that there's a much bigger world out there that really interests him". Maya Rudolph as Cass, Hiro and Tadashi's maternal aunt and guardian. Katie Lowes as Abigail Callaghan, Callaghan's daughter and a test pilot for Krei Tech. Daniel Gerson as Desk Sergeant Gerson, the desk sergeant for the San Fransokyo Police Department. Paul Briggs as Yama, a gangster who seeks revenge on Hiro after his robot is defeated in a clandestine fight with illegal betting. David Shaughnessy as Heathcliff, Fred's family butler. Billy Bush as a newscaster Stan Lee as Fred's father, who appears during the tour of Fred's home in a family portrait and briefly appears in the film's post-credits scene where it is revealed that he was once a superhero.
Production
After the Walt Disney Company'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 (2011), 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 L. 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 Comic Book Resources, 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 Press would 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.