When the news of Walt Disney and Marvel Studios' first collaboration Big Hero 6 was announced, the world collectively lost its cool. Animation plus comic books plus lovable futuristic robots equals yes, please.
So the movie probably would have done just fine on its own without the cast and creative team behind Big Hero 6 coming to New York Comic Con 2014 to give us an extended first look at the film on Oct. 9. But the panel's audience sure did thank them for it.
Chris Hardwick of Nerdist and @Midnight fame introduced the directors of Big Hero 6, Don Hall and Chris Williams, as well as one of the film's producers Roy Conli. They explain how they wanted to create a film that combined eastern and western cultures, much like how the movie is a collaboration between Disney and Marvel.
It's fitting then that Big Hero 6 takes place in a fictional city called San Fransokyo. The movie follows a boy named Hiro Hamada, who seems to be a bit of a troublemaker as he competes in an illegal underground bot-fighting ring, as he embarks on a, dare I say it, big adventure.
In one of the clips shown during the panel, Hiro visits his brother in college, probably as an attempt to guide him down a better path. Hiro meets his brother's friends in the university lab, Fred (voiced by T.J. Miller), Honey Lemon (voiced by Genesis Rodriguez) and Go Go Tomago (voiced by Jaime Chung). They've made all kinds of crazy scientific discoveries, such as electromagnetic suspension on a bicycle, lazer-induced plasma and a huge ball of tungsten carbite that disintegrates into a cloud of pink dust.
But the best discovery is the robot his brother has built, Baymax, who is like a one-stop-shop for all your healthcare needs. We also saw clips of Hiro trying to hide a wobbly Baymax from his aunt as he gets the robot to his charging station and Hiro upgrading Baymax's armor after he encounters a villain in San Fransokyo. Baymax still has a bit of a gut after his makeover, but he successfully karate chops some wooden boards and finally figures out how to do a fist bump. Major accomplishments indeed.
The panel also included a glimpse at Big Hero 6's villain Yokai, who wears a creepy Kabuki mask. In the clip, Hiro, Baymax and the budding scientists try to flee Yokai as he chases them with some sort of sinister black substance following behind.
Miller, Chung and Rodriguez joined the creative team of Big Hero 6 onstage for the panel, along with Ryan Potter, who voices Hiro Hamada, and Scott Adsit, who voices Baymax. Miller had some ideas for what we should take away from the exclusive clips.
"We should all refer to cats as 'Hairy Baby,'" Miller joked, referring to the clip where Baymax calls Hiro's cat Mochi by that name. If nothing else, it looks like Big Hero 6 promises to inspire a new catchphrase.
