Episode 80: Big Hero 6 – Don’t Even Compare It to Frozen! 

We review Disney’s newest animated feature, the superhero film that everyone loves:

Impressions from our screenings and Morgan’s experience from the 

Technical mumbo with Mason! Disney’s Hyperion image engine.

Thoughts about Tadashi and act 1. Problems with telling and not showing.

Let’s talk about the Big Hero 6 gang. We need more of them!

Baymax was adorable. Much more lovable than Olaf. Great sidekick character who morphed into a main character.

Listener Twitter Question: What was your favorite moment from

Mail bag: Daniel, S, Eric, Alice, Rob, Mike

Don’t forget to use the hashtags #AnimAddicts and #AnimAddicts80 when talking about this episode on Twitter!

Questions, comments, suggestions? Send us an email at [email protected].

Great podcast as always but damn I didn’t know you were doing a podcast for Big Hero 6 so I never had time to send in a voice mail.

Love the podcast as always. I wish I had known so I could send in a nerdy couch discussion about a boy/girl and his/her (dragon, robot, alien, etc) and how they compare to Hiro and Baymax..

I can’t listen to the podcast because we don’t get BH6 here in the UK until late January next year. I’m trying to avoid spoilers! D=

Until January? Okay, that is so not fair! I don’t understand why Disney and other companies do this when they release movies.

I’ve heard various reasons why they do this but I suppose all it boils down to is steady cash flow.

(By the way, I apologize in advance since this is way too long. I got this info awhile ago from a page that doesn’t seem to exist anymore LOL.

Studios split the International market into three main areas:

– Distributors will consider their strategies from (at least) four perspectives:

– Global: where will the film work?

– Regional: how will we make it work in (say) Europe?

– Local: are there any particular local conditions that need to be taken into account within each country?

– … the distributor will prepare a Territory Contribution Report identifying the revenue estimates for each market.

The views of senior studio bosses and regional and local managers will also be sought, with screenings held as early as possible to help build up a picture of the film’s estimated International performance.

Campaigns for each title are planned well in advance, taking into account such factors as:

– Competitors’ release schedules (information is generally shared between the majors to avoid clashes wherever possible)

– The distributors’ annual budget and the rest of their slate for the year seasonal positioning (to take account of holiday periods, relevant awards ceremonies, other local factors)

– The strategy and timing of the release will also take into account:

– censorship issues – when and how must the film be submitted for classification?

– any promotional tie–ins and when the partners will be spending their money

With the various exploitation windows closing, there is an increasing trend towards films being released internationally on the same day as (or close to) their North American release.

– enabling marketing campaigns from the US to roll over into other territories

– and allowing earlier exploitation of other windows.

On the other hand, day and date releasing requires new prints and means that marketing spend must be committed internationally before the studio knows how the film has played in the US.

It also reduces the time that the distributors have for sorting out dubbing, classification and other issues in each territory and makes it less likely that the talent will be available to promote it in as many markets.

Huh. Okay, a lot o this makes sense. Guess it’s not easier to release the film everywhere at the same time.

Oh…woops forgot to credit the exact person where this info came from. My apologies once again, Rotoscopers.

It all came from Andrew Cripps (former president of Paramount Pictures International and United Internationl Pictures)

I have had so many projects lately that I haven’t even gotten to see this yet! I must resist listening to the podcast!

I know I shouldn’t be listening, but I don’t want to miss my bi-weekly dose of the Rotoscopers!

“Big Hero Six” or “How to Train Your Baymax” ^^

Can’t watch yet because I havent seen Big Hero 6, but I thought Ratatouille was going to be perfect for these week, as it is going to be Thanksgiving soon.

YES! This was such a fun episode to record! If you haven’t watched the film yet, don’t listen to this episode! There are spoilers galore.

I think that it’s funny that the two Disney/Pixar movies that people really want sequels for are superhero movies. I think that Big Hero 6 will become The Incredibles for the kids growing up watching this movie in the theaters. Do you guys think that Big Hero 6 will also be like the Incredibles in the fact that a sequel won’t be made for almost 15 years?

If they make a BH6 sequel, I hope it comes relatively soon (I’d actually prefer a TV series), because the film didn’t satisfy me enough on the team aspect front – I want to see the rest of the team members develop greater individuality, something The Incredibles was able to accomplish in its first film. Wasabi, Honey, Fred and GoGo could have almost been combined into one character the way the story was written, IMO.

YES! I’d compare Big Hero 6 to Wreck-It Ralph before Frozen

I know this is silly but….were the three of you physically present in the same room, or the whole conversation was done via some form of teleconferencing? just curious xD

We recorded through Skype from three different locations! But we always try to make it as sound like we’re all sittin’ on the couch talking animation.

LOVED this film, and I wasn’t even that excited for it. Here are my top 5 reasons why in no particular order:

1) The vibrant cast of characters. Who doesn’t want to see more of them?

2) San Fransokyo! I was really transported there through the gorgeous animation and the creative fusion of two iconic cities.

3) The laughs. In particular, Baymax and Fred are two of the funniest Disney creations in a long time.

4) The celebration of science, technology, comic books, and all things nerdy

5) Dedicating serious time to exploring the themes of dealing with the grieving process and letting go of the burden of trying to seek justice. I could really relate to those scenes and I can’t say I didn’t shed a few tears.

I think all of the recent Disney films are unique enough that they don’t need to be compared, but Tangled as the best? It’s so overrated and hasn’t stood the test of time. I can’t believe Mason loves it that much.

Em, Frozen is more overrated than Tangled will ever be.

People. People. We can all agree that Tangled, the Rachael Leigh Cook movie from 2001, is terrible.

Tangled is overrated? It’s my favorite animated movie of all time. It’s wonderful. and it wasn’t even nominated for best animated feature the year it came out, don’t think you can qualify it as overrated.

In in the online Disney fandoms, yes, it’s overrated. People are far more eager to be hypercritical of Frozen because of its popularity (and I admit there is an oversaturation problem), but it’s a much stronger film on every level.

Tangled has mediocre songs, juvenile humor, a simple and overall dull story that requires tons of filler scenes, weak voice acting (with the exception of Donna Murphy), and muddled character motivations. With that said, I still like it, but it’s not the flawless masterpiece of this era by any means.

Well then, we’ll have to agree to disagree.

Tangled has an organic story that develops by itself in a natural way, the character relationships and growth are also much more natural for me than in Frozen. They have much clearer goals that move the story forward.

Songs, yes, I think Frozen has stronger songs, but the songs in Tangled did serve the story and work in the film. I enjoyed Frozen very much, but I still think that Tangled is a better movie overall.

Also I feel the animation in Tangled is more pushed and I enjoyed it more there. You have several golden moments between characters (performance-wise) that I keep getting back to.

Anyway, movie experience is subjective. I just don’t feel how Tangled is overrated so I wanted to point that out.

I was comparing this more to How to Train Your Dragon. Fred felt like Fishlegs in all the superhero jargon he spouted off. The Scene in which Hero and Baymax fly over the city looks similar to the scene in the first HTTYD when Hiccup and Toothless fly for the first time.

I disagree that Honey, Gogo, Wasabi and Fred treated Hiro as “one of the gang” too soon. They just seemed protective of him and he was their last connection to their dead friend Tadashi. I’m sure they had heard a lot about Hiro even before they met him, and as someone with a somewhat significantly older brother who at times was the “little brother” of his older group of friends, I could relate.

To the point about Hiro having no power. Visually, I’m reminded of the kid in Gigantor. The robot sort of IS his power. That said, I hope in addition to some extra team development, that we can get some kind of techy anime weapon in Hiro’s hands at some point.

This is one of those times where I really dug the movie, but I hope the ground work laid here paves the way for an incredible sequel.

#UnpopularOpinionsAboutCharacterDeaths : Stoick’s death did nothing for me. I was surprised that DreamWorks did it, but I think any other character’s death would have been better.

The death in BH6 reminded me more of Uncle Ben in the Spider-Man movies or Ellie in Up. It is easy to feel the impact of the death because you have seen what a positive impact the character had in the life of the protagonist, and that impact is felt through the character’s motivations during the rest of the story.

With that, I think this has been a fantastic year for animated films, both in an entertainment sense and in a technical sense. We’re getting higher quality with a better consistency than ever before. It will be great to see what 2015 has to offer.

I have an extended metaphor; this movie felt like I was visiting an art

museum… only I get there and I realize that closing time is in ten

minutes!! There’s all this beautiful work hanging on the walls and I

want to stop and savor it, but I’m being rushed from one amazing piece

to the other that after a while it all starts to feel like a blur. I’ve

heard about the artists and how much love and care they’ve put into

Personally I really wouldn’t have minded another half hour or

so to really savor all the characters and environments that this movie

had to offer, most notably Aunt Cass and the amazing layout of her

house/cafe. Really, I’m dying to visit that place! I enter into this rich world with SO much to offer and

experience, but it moves so fast that everything begins to nullify

Despite that, I still really loved this movie!

It almost seems selfish to say I wanted more, but when you have such

phenomenal people creating such incredible characters inhabiting a world

so teaming with life, it seems only natural to want to spend as

I cannot see how anyone mistook Go Go Tamago as Hispanic. She looked

completely Asian. Apparently, she was designed by Shiyoon Kim over at

Disney who purposely made Go Go look Korean in a tough, big sister way.

surprised how long Tadashi was in the film. Usually, movies seem to

story. Much of your complaints about this have more to do with the

limitation of movies and their 1.5 – 2 hour time frames. If this were a

TV series, Disney would have been able to give more detail on Tadashi

You guys make a great point about the microbots.

How is is that six, super-smart people never thought to create a device

to block the transmissions of the neural device and make the villian

Oops, just realized it’s Honey Lemon that was supposedly Hispanic.

But I really agree that Baymax had to come back in the end. As Tadashi said: The green health chip is what makes Baymax Baymax. As long as that chip was there, Hiro, being a braniac like his brother, could recreate him. And seriously people, don’t only think as a critic, but as a human being: This boy has lost his parents and his brother. Losing his best friend, who is like a surrogate/parallel of his brother, would be just TOO harsh. Maybe it’s just me being biased, but I couldn’t have handled losing Baymax, too.

And the thing about the villian: Of COURSE everyone thought Tadashi could be the villian, and though that would have been a very Hans-esque revelation, but it would have made ABSOLUTELY. NO. FRICKING. SENSE. Think. about. it.

I would have been totally heartbroken and disappointed. No no no.

Krei would have been very clicheé, so this could be ruled out pretty soon.

But Callaghan .. hit me really hard. Especially WHY he’d gone evil.

This kind of ‘parallel’ (losing an important person) to Hiro made it so much more .. chilling.

Although I am STILL getting headaches trying to figure out that fire.

Did he really start the fire to extinguish his tracks? (Which wouldn’t make sense because at that point no one expected him to be evil, plus he had JUST found out about the Microbots … right?)

Maybe it was really just an accident which he used to his advantage. And Tadashi .. was really just at the wrong place at the wrong time. (Which makes it even more TRAGIC >O<)

Still .. I think Callaghan was really scary, especially in that scene where he was revealed, and Hiro was totally devastated to find out this man actually DESERTED the guy who gave his life to save him. This still makes me so angry and sad.

This really is a movie that broke my heart into millions of pieces and made me sad and on the other hand made me laugh so hard until my stomach hurt.

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