November 7, 2014
Big Hero 6 is a 2014 American animated superhero film loosely based on the superhero team from Marvel Comics. 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 tells the story of Hiro Hamada, a young robotics prodigy and Baymax, a healthcare robot invented by his late older brother, Tadashi. They form a superhero team to combat a masked supervillain responsible for Tadashi's death.
Big Hero 6 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. The film 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 also received seven nominations for Annie Awards, winning one, and a Golden Globe nomination.
Big Hero 6 was followed by three television series: Big Hero 6: The Series premiered in 2017, Baymax Dreams premiered in 2018, and Baymax! premiered in 2022.
Storyline
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 robot fights. Hoping to get him out of this dangerous lifestyle, his inventive older brother Tadashi takes him to the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, where Hiro meets Tadashi's four best friends – gritty Go Go Tomago, neurotic Wasabi, bubbly Honey Lemon and comic book fan Fred. Tadashi also introduces his project, inflatable healthcare robot Baymax. After meeting Tadashi's mentor Professor Robert Callaghan, Hiro applies to the university, impressing the school's showcase with his project—microbots that can link together into any configuration using a neural transmitter. Hiro is accepted, but the celebration is brief when a fire breaks out while Callaghan is still in the building. Tadashi rushes back inside to save him, only for the building to explode, with both declared dead.
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 Hiro's friends, whom Baymax contacted, meet up with them. Yokai pursues the group through the streets, but Baymax saves them. At Fred's house, 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 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 and he is revealed to actually be Callaghan, who had faked his death using the stolen microbots.
Hiro, enraged at Callaghan's indifference to Tadashi's death, removes Baymax's healthcare chip and orders him to kill Callaghan despite his friends' objections. Baymax obeys Hiro's commands before the rest of the group reinstall his healthcare chip, returning him to his former personality as Callaghan escapes. Feeling betrayed by his friends' actions, Hiro leaves with Baymax, intent on avenging Tadashi. When Hiro attempts to remove his 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 others. 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, Callaghan reactivates the teleportation portal to demolish his company'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, Baymax and Hiro enter it and find Abigail trapped in stasis. Baymax is struck by debris, damaging him and 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, the awakened Abigail is taken to the hospital while her father is taken into custody for his crimes. Sometime later, after beginning his tenure at the institute with his friends, Hiro discovers Baymax's healthcare chip clenched in the rocket fist. He rebuilds Baymax and they and their friends continue to protect the city as a team of high-tech superheroes called Big Hero 6 on behalf of Tadashi.