Big Hero 6 Directors Don Hall & Chris Williams

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Big Hero 6 Directors Don Hall & Chris Williams

*Disclosure: I received an all expenses paid trip to Los Angeles for the coverage of several press events for Disney. All opinions are 100% my own.

If you haven’t seen Big Hero 6 yet, you need to get onto the bandwagon! This movie is a must watch and one that will be enjoyed for decades to come by kids and adults around the world. While on my trip to Los Angeles at the beginning of February I was given the opportunity to set down with Big Hero 6 Directors Don Hall and Chris Williams. I love getting the insider edition to the making of the movies and am always in awe of the decision making processes that take place in order to complete the finished movie.

The Beginning

Don actually pitched this story idea to Chris and 6 other directors at Disney but they wanted to keep the comic tone with light hearted characters infused with the Super Hero story. Because Big Hero 6 is such an emotional story it was the one chosen out of the other 6 ideas that were pitched that day. Because the 14 year old looses his brother, the robot (Baymax) whom the brother created, really became the surrogate big brother in the end and Big Hero 6 was starting to take shape. But every story or movie has to have a core emotion as well as a setting, so they got to work on what is now known as San FranTokyo.

San FranTokyo

John Lassiter feels that world building is very important to an audience as well as the story line. So in all Disney/Marvel movies the setting plays an important role in the film. Because Big Hero 6 is based up a comic book, they knew it had to be a mash up between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Thus San FrankTokyo was born because it was new and familiar at the same time and the perfect setting for Big Hero 6! They kept the Japanese aesthetic from the Marvel comic but mashed it with the Golden Gate bridge, Cable Cars and made the perfect setting!

Animation

Most of the people in animation are in animation because they fell in love with Disney when they were kids. This was the case for both Don and Chris, but they wanted Baymax’s character to have a purity and sweetness just like Bambi, Dumbo, Pinocchio and so on. Because they are a part of Disney’s heritage and they expect Baymax to follow suit. It is a dream come true for them to be working on Animation and with Disney.

They have both worked with Disney for about 20 years and every story is hard because if you are going to do something original it is going to be hard. But Big Hero 6 was one of the most challenging that they worked on because of the size of Baymax, the number of characters, size of the world, and a depth of emotion for this film which turned out perfect enough to be nominated for an Academy Award as well as Best Feature Film.

The Success

They wanted Big Hero 6 to resonate with readers and while I was watching it, I laughed, gasped and cried to name a few so I would say that they did their job correctly. Baymax is a character that is a little unpredictable, but the directors did say this, “It’s just resounding. It’s pretty cool, cause he’ll, you know, outlive all of us, you know, and to have contributed a character like that to sort of the Disney Legacy is pretty cool.” And I for one would have to agree that it is beyond cool!