‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ wasn’t the only obscure Marvel Comics superhero team to unexpectedly win over the movie-going public last year. Walt Disney Animation surprised the world with ‘Big Hero 6,’ which has raked in over $500 million in the box office and became the company’s third highest grossing animated movie ever behind ‘Frozen’ and ‘The Lion King.’ And on top of all that success, Baymax and the crew scored an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Animated Feature.’ With ‘The Lego Movie’ not even nominated, the Mouse House definitely has a good chance of walking away with the Oscar this weekend. So with all the success that Hiro Hamada and his friends have seen this year, the question now is when will we see the citizens of San Fransokyo on the big screen again. One of the film’s co-directors recently weighed in on that.
In a recent interview with Variety, co-director Chris Williams joined Disney Animation President Andrew Millstein to discuss the success of ‘Big Hero 6.’ After touching on Pixar’s influence on the project and the highly emotional storyline, the topic of a sequel came up. Just like Pixar’s John Lasseter tends to say, Williams said that the team won’t even think of revisiting that world until the right story comes along:
“No sequel will ever get made unless the directors want one and feel strongly that there is a story that needs to be told. If it’s not a great story, it won’t be a great movie. The crew deserves a great story. And we have expectations from the audience, who grew up with Disney animation. They deserve a great story too.”
Considering how popular the characters have become since appearing in the acclaimed Marvel/Disney collaboration, it’s hard to believe that there isn’t someone important over at Disney Animation exploring the avenues of a sequel. On the other hand, there has been talk of a sequel to ‘The Incredibles’ for years and we still haven’t seen it because the right story has yet to come along. As a fan of ‘Big Hero 6,’ I definitely want more, but I also don’t want the sequel to end up being like the haphazard follow-ups to ‘The Little Mermaid,’ ‘Cinderella,’ or ‘Pocahontas.’ Maybe the solution is to follow ‘Frozen’ by giving us a short film that plays in front of one of the upcoming live action fairytales in the pipeline.
What do you think about Chris Williams’ comments on a ‘Big Hero 6’ sequel? Do you want one to happen sooner rather than later? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
