Disney Has its First Animated Movie Featuring Marvel Characters: Big Hero 6

I know what you’re thinking: Who the heck is Big Hero 6? Well, it’s not who is, it’s who are, and if you’re not thinking this and know who Big Hero 6 are, congratulations, you probably love comics. Like, a lot.

Big Hero 6 are a misfit superhero team of teens, robots, robot-dragons and weirdos who first appeared in Marvel Comics in 1998, and now they’re going to be the first Marvel characters to get a film animated by Disney Studios.

Big Robot 6’s big film debut was rumored nearly a year ago, but now Disney has officially announced the project, with photos and video from the ongoing production. And I can see why Big Hero 6 would be their go-to property to adapt. For one thing, it’s a core group of teens (or characters who might as well be teens) with some pretty bombastic, kid-friendly powers: being the creator and controller of a giant fighting robot, having an extradimensional purse that theoretically contains any object you might need (including random high-tech weapons), the ability to turn into pure energy, and being able to turn yourself into a kaiju at will. The team are also native to Japan (if you hadn’t already guessed from the kaiju/giant robot theme), a setting that’s been packaged by American media companies for consumption by American kids for so long now that it’s practically a genre. Sure, the team could use a bit of a cleanup from the cultural sensitivity standpoint (see: a blade-wielding chef superhero named Wasabi-no-Ginger), which Disney will undoubtedly provide.

(Click for high-res.)

But Don Hall, who’s directing the feature, nails the other reason on the head. From The LA Times:

For Hall, the absence of a detail-obsessed fan base for the series was part of its appeal, as it left every character and setting open to interpretation.

“I was looking for something on the obscure side, something that would mesh well with what we do,” Hall said. “The idea of a kid and a robot story with a strong brother element, it’s very Disney.”

As Hall says: it sounds like the movie will be using boy inventor Hiro Takachiho and his robot/creation/guardian/brother/father figure Baymax as its main character who joins the government sponsored super-team, but we hold out hope for kickass ladies Gogo Tomago and Honey Lemon. Just… maybe with names that are less embarrassing to say out loud.

The animators on the movie have already delivered a bit of b-roll to give an idea of what the movie’s fictional city of San Fransokyo will look like, and from that alone you should already assume: this is proooobably not going to tie into the live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe.

(via The LA Times.)