Since the acquisition of Marvel by Walt Disney Pictures, everyone has been wondering when a Disney animated Marvel film would happen. Or better yet, a Pixar animated Marvel film! Well, Pixar may not be involved, but it seems like Disney does have some plans to bring a certain Marvel team to life with their special brand of animation. And I guarantee you, it’s not who you were expecting.
The Grid, with a very interesting choice of words, broke the news that ‘Big Hero 6’ would be the first animated collaboration between the House of Mouse and the House of Ideas. Blue Sky Disney then reaffirmed the news and added that Don Hall, the director behind the 2011 version of ‘Winnie the Pooh’ and one of writers behind ‘The Princess and the Frog’, ‘Meet the Robinsons’, and ‘Tarzan’, would be helming the project. According to the report, Hall pitched the idea to John Lasseter, the chief creative officer of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, who then approved it for development. Tentatively, we will be seeing ‘Big Hero 6’ in 2014. As of now, the project is “not fully green lit”, but there are storyboards and it “has been deemed strong enough to tentatively put in the production line”.
I know what you’re thinking: Who the hell is Big Hero 6? Well, according to Marvel’s Wiki, here’s the answer:
When the Japanese government wanted a team of state-sanctioned super-heroes at their disposal, a top-secret consortium of politicians and business entities known as the Giri was formed to recruit and train potential superhuman operatives for “Big Hero 6.”
Despite reservations by some members of the Giri, Silver Samurai, a freelance ronin and former bodyguard of the terrorist Viper, was appointed as field commander. Secret agent Honey Lemon, inventor of the nanotechnology-based Power Purse from which she could access any object, also agreed to join the team. The tough-talking GoGo Tomago, able to transubstantiate her body into a fiery force blast by uttering her code-name, was released from prison on the condition that she serve on the team. The Machiavellian bureaucrat known only as Mr. Oshima was appointed as the Giri’s spokesperson and coordinated Big Hero 6′s activities.
While I’m a huge Marvel fan, I’m no expert when it comes to their massive gallery containing over 4,000 characters, so obscure teams who have only had a few limited runs and who stay mostly out of the mainstream Marvel Universe go under my radar. However, one name does stand out and that’s Silver Samurai, who has had some history with Wolverine. Other than that, all this is new to me and the premise sounds like the Japanese government wanted their own Avengers Initiative.
I would have rather seen a ‘Power Pack’ or ‘Squirrel Girl’ or ‘Howard the Duck’ animated movie before I even thought of digging that deep for characters, but it sounds like Hall has won over head honcho Lasseter, who hasn’t really let me down yet, so we’ll see how this turns out. Maybe we’ll even see some Miyazaki influence or involvement in the film once the ball gets rolling. Time will tell on this one, folks, but at least we finally have our Disney-Marvel animated team-up.
