“Big Hero Six,” the latest animated film from Walt Disney Pictures, is a hybrid of genres. It dips its toe into action, adventure, science fiction, comedy and even a little bit of drama. So it would seem appropriate that the film’s urban setting was invented as a hybrid of two locales that blends the architecture and landscapes of San Francisco and Tokyo. It is home to the film’s protagonist, Hiro Hamada, a teenage robotics prodigy who develops a bond with Baymax, a giant inflatable robot programmed to provide health care services. Baymax was created by Tadashi, Hiro’s brother, who is a student at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology.

Invention is at the core of the movie, which opens Nov. 7 and is inspired by a Marvel series of comics of the same name. So the directors, Don Hall and Chris Williams, sought to display that creativity in the development of the film’s narrative and in the design of its world.

“Marvel really encouraged us to make this our own and not worry about setting it in the Marvel Universe,” Mr. Hall said, speaking by phone from Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, Calif. “It gave us the opportunity to create our own fantasy world.”