Chatting With The Cast of Big Hero 6 & The Producer of Feast!

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I recently had the amazing opportunity to attend a media day at Disney Animation Studios to chat with the cast and filmmakers of the upcoming Disney extravaganza Big Hero 6. I also got to chat with the producer of the short film entitled Feast that will be playing before Big Hero 6. I also spent some time snuggling with Baymax of course.

In attendance for this media day were DON HALL & CHRIS WILLIAMS (Directors of Big Hero 6), SCOTT ADSIT (Baymax) & RYAN POTTER (Hero), JAMIE CHUNG (Go Go) & GENESIS RODRIGUEZ (Honey Lemon), DAMON WAYAN JR. (Wasabi) AND TJ MILLER (Fred), and KRISTINA REED (Producer of Feast). I got the opportunity to do some one on one interviews with Don and Chris and Jamie, so stay tuned for those interviews!

In case you didn’t know, “Big Hero 6” comes to us from the team behind “Frozen” and “Wreck-It Ralph.” It’s an  original action-comedy-adventure about a robotics prodigy and a plus-sized inflatable robot, who develop a special bond on a quest to solve an unsettling mystery. “Hiro Hamada’s older brother Tadashi has created a cutting-edge robot, Baymax, who’s designed to take care of people,” says director Don Hall (“Winnie the Pooh”). “Baymax’s one programmed desire is ‘How can I help?’ He’s filled with compassion. And Hiro is a teenager who has lost his way—their personalities play off each other in a way that is both funny and heartwarming.” When a devastating event befalls the city of San Fransokyo and catapults Hiro into the midst of danger, he turns to Baymax and his brilliant fellow nerds: adrenaline junkie GoGo Tomago, neatnik Wasabi, chemistry whiz Honey Lemon and fanboy Fred. Determined to uncover the mystery, Hiro transforms his friends into a band of high-tech heroes called “Big Hero 6.” I’ll have a full review on the film later this week.

I first got to sit down with SCOTT ADSIT (Baymax) & RYAN POTTER (Hero) to chat about their characters and what the process was like making the animated film.

It’s amazing how much Ryan actually looks like his character Hero. Ryan stated that the animators did sketch him when he was recording the voice and he was pleasantly surprised to see they used so much of his likeness in the character.

Chatting with Scott is a blast. He’s just as hilarious as you see him in the characters he plays. He does a fantastic job in this film as Baymax. While the interview was happening Scott and Ryan decided to bring their characters to life and perform the Baymax hand shake Hero and Baymax do in the film. Check out the video below:

Since they did use some of the actors likeness in the films, I wanted to know if they also saw their mannerisms and any piece of themselves within their characters.

RYAN:

Absolutely. You guys saw the film right? So the best example of it is, in real life, if I see someone in the back, and I know them, I go, “huh”, right? Or if I see something funny or entertaining, I’ll go, “huh” and, Hiro does it twice in the film. And they mirror each other.

Once when he’s on the back of the moped with Tadashi, they jump up, he sees himself in the reflection of the glass and goes, “huh.” And the second time when he’s on the back of Baymax and it’s a very symbolic moment. And what- but he sees himself in the reflection of the glass again and he goes, “huh” and it’s almost like, “I did that”, or “that’s cool”. But how they mirror each other is very interesting.

It’s like, coming back to a familiar place once he’s up- when-when he’s on the back of Baymax, comes back to the place where he was on the back of Tadashi. That’s something that I noticed and I then absolutely loved seeing.

Since they didn’t record together we were of course curious to learn about the experience of getting to know the rest of the cast?

RYAN:

Oh, it’s been awful.

SCOTT:

Divas. Every single one. We felt very close. It-it’s really inappropriate.

RYAN:

We didn’t miss a beat. I get it- like it sounds kinda corny to say, but we’ve been-working with each other for a year and- a year a half and when I first met Scott, I was like, “Baymax?” “Hiro?” It was like, like it- there was no awkward…

SCOTT:

We were walking in to see the completed film.

RYAN:

Yeah. Last week.

SCOTT:

Yeah. That’s when we met. But, but we feel like we’ve been together, as I said, like in a, theater company for a year.

The voice of Baymax was so distinct and so expressive with out losing it’s signature robotic tone. I of course was curious to know how Scott created such a unique voice and still conveyed the emotion of the character through it.

SCOTT:

When I first went into audition I had a whole voice prepared. I wasn’t really sure of what the character would be and how he should sound. It wasn’t until I walked into the room and saw the actual images of Baymax that made me think I got this. I know exactly what he should sound like. I tried to keep the same vocal pattern for every line except when he’s in the scene where he’s losing power. I got the opportunity to do some spontaneous work there. They allowed us to be very free to explore the lines and how we said them when we were recording. I couldn’t really convey too much emotion in the voice because he is an emotionless robot, but the great animators are truly the ones who brought that emotion to the characters.

Since Ryan’s character Hero is truly stressed about the importance of education by his family and Ryan himself will be attending college shortly I of course wanted to know what his message about the importance of education to young children would be?

RYAN:

Yes I think it’s important to educate yourself, but I don’t think everyone’s way of educating themselves has to be the same. Some people may be fine going to a 4 year college and learning that way. Some people want a more creative and free learning experience like an art school. I think it all depends on the person and you shouldn’t limit yourself to one way of learning. You can learn from everything you do and you just have focus on doing the things that you love and finding a place that can help you achieve doing the things that you love. For kids to find continued education where they feel inspired daily is really important.

After the fun times with Ryan and Scott we then moved on to DAMON WAYAN JR. (Wasabi) AND TJ MILLER(Fred) who of course are also hilarious. Damon comes from a long line of funny lineage being a part of the legendary Wayans family. He looks very much like his famous dad.

Chatting with Damon we quickly learned about how his character changed from when he signed on to do the film, to when he started recording his voice work for the film. Apparently his character was one of the few to be completely redone storyline wise. Damon is also a huge fan of Japanese animation and also wanted to be an animator and illustrator when he was a kid. He actually went to school at Ottis to be an animator but dropped out to pursue comedy. Since this film really incorporates Japanese culture and a little anime, I of course wanted to know if that’s what drew him to wanting to be in the film.

DAMON:

Anime is my favorite. Honestly before I saw any of the artwork for the film I was hoping that was going to be a part of it. Once I saw the drawing and saw the little plasma blades coming out of Wasabi’s hands I thought this is going to be awesome. It was definitely something I wanted to be a part of. Then when they were showing me test work and the first time I saw my voice come out of the character and then the whole movie. It was like next level. I was just thankful to be a part of it.

TJ chatted about how much he loved adlibing he did for his character.

TJ:

You’re in the booth alone but you can see the producers and directors behind the glass in the booth. And the writers and the directors are so funny, so they give you a good foundation to start with and improvise off of. They would say things like come up with some inventions. I would throw out line after line and rattle them off, then the one that stuck with the character would be the one that got the most laughs in the recording booth. That’s the great thing about working with Disney. You already have everything you need for your character, but then they say you have the freedom now to do anything you want and work with you for as long as you like to bring more to it.

We then chatted with GENESIS RODRIGUEZ (Honey Lemon) who confessed she has a whole shrine of Big Hero 6 toys in her closet.

And last but not least was KRISTINA REED (Producer of Feast) about the amazing short that truly touches the hearts of all who see it.

She confessed her sister in law owns two Boston Terriers (which is the breed of dog featured in the film) so the breed was near and dear to her heart.

Being a dog owner I immediately related to the short film and Kristina was quick to acknowledge that it’s a unique effect the film has on pet owners.

KRISTINA:

We actually found that if you own any dog, not just a Boston Terrier, you can still relate which is great and the idea came from something the director of the short Patrick was doing in his life in which he was using an app to record one second of his life every day and he was filming himself having dinners for a year. It was at first just plates of food after plates of food. He sat down and watched the entire year of videos and meals and he realized he could see what was going on in his entire life through his meals. He thought what if we could showcase that in an animated short and tell a story in this way.

It obviously worked as the short is fantastic and honestly just as good as Paperman!

It was so fun to chat with so many amazingly talented individuals in one day.

Stay tuned for my one on one interviews with DON HALL & CHRIS WILLIAMS (Directors of Big Hero 6) and JAMIE CHUNG (Go Go) as well as my review of the film Big Hero 6!

For More Info:

“Like” BIG HERO 6 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyBigHero6

Follow Walt Disney Animation Studios on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/DisneyAnimation

Follow BIG HERO 6 on Tumblr: http://bighero6fans.tumblr.com/

Visit the Website: http://www.disney.com/BigHero6

BIG HERO 6 opens in theaters everywhere on November 7th!