"Big Hero 6" co-directors Chris Williams and Don Hall say their movie is not just about giant armored robots, but is also about smart kids, the nerd culture, diversity, and people of color, reports USA Today.
"You can see things have changed and nerd culture is the culture," says Williams.
Roy Conli, the film's producer, claimed that "Big Hero 6" is a hero origin story that combines Japanese anime, comic books and real science, things that could appeal to one's intellect. He said that their film "honors nerdy knowledge with characters whose superpowers is their intelligence."
The film also offers diversity and introduces more people of color on screen and off, and the directors prided themselves on "casting true to the ethnicity of the characters." An example of this is Ryan Potter, who voices the movie's lead Hiro Hamada. The voice actor and his character share a half-Caucasian and half-Japanese ancestry.
"It's such a diverse cast in terms of ethnicities and personalities, which allows every moviegoer to see himself or herself on screen," said Potter.
"Big Hero 6," Marvel and Disney also wanted to showcase diversity, go against gender and racial stereotypes and talk about important social issues, according to Buzz Feed News.
Williams and Hall wanted a film where the lead hero could be biracial, the intelligent students are the ones who ruled the school, young girls of color can be bold and take charge and where appearances can be deceiving with robotics genius Wasabi who was first mistaken as a scary henchmen.
"One of the things that I am proud of is the fact that we do have this very diverse cast. In one sense, we don't make a big deal out of it. The characters are certainly not defined in any way by their race or gender and I'm very proud of that," Williams said.
"Big Hero 6" tells the story of Hiro Hamada, a young, orphaned, robotics tech genius who lives in San Fransokyo with his older brother, Tadashi. Hiro spends most of his time participating in illegal robot fights and making various contraptions, until his older brother Tadashi convinces him to try out for engineering school. It is there where Hiro meets and befriends Baymax, a large, white, bouncy caregiver robot created by his brother.
Tragedy strikes when Tadashi passes on, leaving Hiro to look after Baymax and deal with his grief. However, a mysterious threat suddenly endangers the city and Hiro decides to honor his late brother by trying to help. Hiro gives Baymax an upgrade, suiting him up in armor and making him weapons.
Together with Baymax and the other genius kids at his school, GoGo Tamago, Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Fred, Hiro tries to find out who was responsible for his brother's death and maybe save San Fransokyo too.
"Big Hero 6" features the voices of Ryan Potter as Hiro Hamada, Scott Adsit as Baymax, Daniel Henney as Tadashi Hamada, Jamie Chung as GoGo Tamago, Damon Wayans Jr. as Wasabi, Genesis Rodriguez as Honey Lemon, T.J. Miller as Fred, , and more.
"Big Hero 6" is to hit theaters on Friday, Nov. 7.
