Adding to Disney’s vast pantheon of films is a daunting task. We only remember the biggies – the likes of Cinderella, Snow White, The Lion King and, more recently, Finding Nemo, Toy Story and Monsters Inc.


As an audience, we’re increasingly tough to please, but if you thought the internet and its abundance of content meant Disney’s popularity might be on the wane, you’d be wrong. 2013’s Frozen proved the studio remained capable of world domination as its snowy singalong swelled into a mega-hit, nabbing an Oscar and becoming the top grossing animated feature in history – and number five on the list of all-time box office sales.

With such sweet success under their belt, Disney had the industry waiting with bated breath for its next move. Their answer? Big Hero 6, an action-packed crossover with Marvel comics that’s already topped worldwide box offices and earned its own nomination for next month’s Academy Awards.

The film introduces a fresh batch of superheroes – recognisable to comic book fans – named Big Hero 6 and headed up by teen braniac Hiro Hamada and Baymax, an inflatable personal healthcare assistant created by his big brother Tadashi.

Big Hero “does a Bambi” within the opening half hour, as Hiro loses his older sibling and is left with his invention – Baymax – which is where this film scores big. His cuddly caregiving serves up plenty of opportunity for humour and provides Big Hero 6 with the emotional punch responsible for putting all those bums on seats.

But winning over cinema-goers – and critics – is a tricky business and, for every Frozen, there’s a Treasure Planet. (What? Exactly…)

So, when we caught up with the men behind Big Hero 6, producer Roy Conli and co-director Don Hall, we drilled them on the key ingredients to making a hit animated film. Here’s what they had to say…

1. Heart.

“I think it’s always heart,” says Conli, who drew on the entire Marvel canon for inspiration. “Every great superhero film always has a heart. We knew that and we went for that immediately. This is a Disney animated film with Marvel DNA. I absolutely love Iron Man and I love Tony Stark and the reason you love it is even though Tony Stark is an egotist, there’s a selfless quality there.”

2. A focus on characters

“It has to have really strong, really interesting characters that you kind of fall in love with,” according to Hall. “If you fall in love with characters then you can tell pretty much any story you want to tell,” adds Conli. “Heart and character, those are the two most important things.”

3. Escapism

“It’s got to be a world that you want to stay in and you want to live in and a unique world,” says Hall. “We obviously put a lot of work into making it entertaining and funny.”

4. Be relatable

Conli advises, “when we’re working with theme, we’re looking for as universal themes as possible – just like the Greek dramatists did, we’re looking for the same thing. And for us, loss was always a big aspect to this film – it’s really about how those who go before us live on through us. There’s also a huge theme of friendship here and how people come together to help one another and how friends actually transcend into family at some point.”

5. Passion

“The directors drive all the stories so, no matter what, the story comes out of the director’s passion,” says Hall who co-directed Big Hero 6 with Chris Williams. “That’s what John [Lasseter, chief creative officer at Walt Disney Animation Studios] is looking for us to do. That’s the first thing he asked us to do: ‘Okay, you’re driving the story. Pitch me three things that you’re passionate about.’ You have to start with that.”

6. Know your stuff

After passion comes… “research. We put so much research into these movies,” stresses Hall. “You cannot believe, because we really want to be the masters of the world we are creating and make sure it’s believable and that it feels true to whatever subject we’re dealing with.”

7. Don’t patronise the kids

“I think the key issue is never play down,” warns Conli.”I’d say Chris is probably a 7-year-old at heart, Don is probably a 12-year-old, and I’m probably somewhere in the middle around 10. No matter where you’re at, everybody has an inner kid in them and it’s about allowing that to come out. The physical humour of Baymax which the kids love, the adults also love. We’re really lucky that we spend our days telling stories that can touch people from six to 86.”

8. Learn to take criticism

“The strength of our studio right now really has to do with the fact that we are really brutally honest with one another,” reveals Conli, “and as a studio we have matured to the point where we can accept that really easily. There’s a balance between how you give criticism and how you take criticism. You have to train and develop your ability to do both, take and receive, and that’s what we try to do.”

9. The audience has to care

“Truly, the thing that is the common thread that makes these movies great is the emotional core of it and the care with which we put into crafting the emotion in the film,” says Hall. “Because if it doesn’t have that, it’s going to come and go and you’re never going to remember it. Walt [Disney] always had that saying – ‘For every laughter, there’s a tear’ – and we take that pretty seriously.”


Big Hero 6 is out in UK cinemas now. Watch the trailer below: