Big Hero 6

Joe Brody

Well-known member
Le Saboteur said:
Point of clarification: A very small portion of 'frisco's architecture is actually Victorian.

Good assessment of SF architecture -- but all I was doing was looking at the poster you put up in post #14 and calling out the SF elements that got the Japan-treatment for the film.


Le Saboteur said:
Yes, Big Hero 6 will do better box office than Wreck-it-Ralph. The people who track this kind of stuff for a living are already suggesting that it'll do ~$60-million over its opening weekend. That would put it at ~$10-million more than Ralph did in his debut. With Halloween right around the corner, that number could go up as Disney makes its last big advertising pustch. I'll put it @ $500-600-million when all is said and done.

I respect you stepping up and making the call. Those are good numbers, and I agree they are doable (though I've got to go toward the low end and with a big non-U.S. %). Speaking of percentages, what is your projected U.S. box office number? That's what matters. Good luck to the film. The attendants at the theatre where I saw Fury last weekend were sporting BH6 shirts, so the Disney marketing machine is at work.

Le Saboteur said:
I've mentioned this elsewhere, but ~50% of the people who pass the turnstile at Disneyland are childless couples, often in their late-twenties through late-thirties. Now imagine several evening audiences filled with nothing but similarly minded people and you've found your audience. While Disney wants families to spend all of their disposable income, they were never going to carry the day.

I'll take you at your word on this one.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Joe Brody said:
I respect you stepping up and making the call. Those are good numbers, and I agree they are doable (though I've got to go toward the low end and with a big non-U.S. %). Speaking of percentages, what is your projected U.S. box office number? That's what matters. Good luck to the film. The attendants at the theatre where I saw Fury last weekend were sporting BH6 shirts, so the Disney marketing machine is at work.

I've also mentioned this elsewhere as well, but movies are increasingly not made for domestic audiences. The general rule of thumb is to recoup expenses at the domestic box office, and seek profits abroad. People still attend the theatre in emerging markets, unlike here. This is part of the reason why you see tentpole pictures opening in foreign markets first.

That said, I'm going with a roughly 50-50 split, with room for as much as %60 of the final take coming from domestic audiences. With the advance buzz being so overwhelmingly positive, there's a chance for Hiro & Co. to capture lightning in a bottle a second time for Disney. (Even though I don't realistically think it will.)

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A quick look at some of the technical work that went to bringing Big Hero 6 to the big screen.

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Even the just announced Moana sounds fantastic.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
wired-catmull-lasseter-full.jpg


Great Wired article on Lasseter and Catmull with fold-out cover.
 

kongisking

Active member
That article was excellent..but I reserve the right to still be bitter at Lasseter for killing Disney's barely-resurrected 2-D department so callously.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Moedred said:
Great Wired article on Lasseter and Catmull with fold-out cover.

Nice fluff piece.

Le Saboteur said:
The people who track this kind of stuff for a living are already suggesting that it'll do ~$60-million over its opening weekend.

Big Hero 6 didn't quite reach that projected sixty million opening, but $57-million isn't anything to cry about. Though, after six days in theatres it's sitting at ~$97-million; about ~$40-million more than Wreck-It Ralph in the same time period. It should comfortably eclipse $100-million over the weekend, and then some as it begins to open in really wide release (it's currently playing in only 8 international markets). That should start to even out the current splits.

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Fun read on the perils of translation-dubbing from the late great Roger Ebert's collection of scribblers.

Jana Manji said:
When Hiro becomes a hero in ?Big Hero 6,? it?s a cute homophonic wordplay, but one that borrows from Japanese and slips into English without finding any reciprocal chuckles in Japanese. There might be one if the Japanese knew what Hiro stood for, but that?s one of the difficulties of translations and a reason why some people who, like myself, prefer to see a movie and hear the original voice actors while reading the subtitles.

?Big Hero 6? is renamed "Baymax" (ベイマックス) in Japan, which makes it seem as if the story is about the robot named Baymax instead of Hiro. Hiro is the 14-year-old boy whose brother, Tadashi, created Baymax, who resembles Honda?s ASIMO if the robot had a cousin training for sumo wrestling. He?s not fat, he?s big boned and pleasantly plump and that is played for laughs. Instead of a dark mask for a face like ASIMO or the robot in ?Robot & Frank,? Baymax has two dots for eyes.

The full article is here if you don't mind minor spoilers.

I'll be seeing it this weekend.
 

Forbidden Eye

Well-known member
A very fun movie, though I felt it fell a bit on the short side.

Great characters(Baymax of course being the highlight), the two scenes that explored the City of San Fransokyo were as beautiful as any animated scenes your going to find in animated movie, and seeing how a good chunk of this thread was me and Joe debating whether male audiences would embrace Big Hero 6 or not, I can guarantee there's no problem there. Young kids(males and females) are really enjoying this movie, Baymax is selling everywhere, and the film crossed the $100 million dollar mark this weekend, even topping Nolan's Interstellar. It should hold its own through Thanksgiving and Christmas. Disney has really made good use of its Marvel purchase and I think people have finally warmed up to the fact Disney owns Marvel with this and Guardians of the Galaxy.

That said, I do think the movie felt a little bit like a pilot for a Saturday Morning cartoon. A little rushed, some trite dialogue, a bit on the slight side. I also think the soundtrack could've been a lot better. While not many of us at TheRaven were particularly impressed with Frozen, me being one of them, one area you have to admit the film owned was in the soundtrack department. Not only did it make older audiences nostalgic for more musical Disney films like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, the songs really did benefit from our YouTube age, and was the real reason for the film's monsterous success. Every time "Let It Go" was played on the radio, more people were curious about the movie. Big Hero 6 has nothing like that, with one forgettable song from some boyband of today and an ok score influenced by anime shows.

But I did like the movie, I just preferred Wreck-It-Ralph.
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
Forbidden Eye said:
While not many of us at TheRaven were particularly impressed with Frozen, me being one of them, one area you have to admit the film owned was in the soundtrack department.

Unless you've got a blondish 9 year old son who has to listen to numbers like "Fixer Upper" (that catalogs a long list of male faults) whenever his older sisters watch the film. Study the lyrics. Yeah, that soundtrack is awesome. And as for said two older daughters, the film strikes a narcissistic chord that is at odds with what I'm trying to teach.

As for BH6, this Entertainment Weekly article pretty much sums up what I suspected about the film. My younger daughter saw it this weekend as part of a Birthday party and thought it was really funny but didn't think her younger brother would care for it that much. When all is said and done, I see this as a solid Disney 'B' - 'B+' film. And as I thought, Katniss fever has struck and my kids are all fired up for next week. My oldest has her last outdoor soccer tournament and we're looking to Hunger Games for some pumpitude.

As for BH6 box office, I admit these are really good box numbers (but now I would like to compare BH6's production and marketing budget against Wreck-It's) but it gets real tough from here on out. Older kids will go Hunger Games and younger kids will go Penguins. Nevertheless a big hit for Disney.

Me? I've got Guardian on pre-order on Apple TV and I'll watch that with my son (along with other favored movies) until Disney get's it right for the fixer upper part of the population.
 
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russds

New member
Saw it. Loved it. Man, the animation is incredible. Disney animation is really cranking out some good movies these days.
 

kongisking

Active member
Joe Brody said:
Unless you've got a blondish 9 year old son who has to listen to numbers like "Fixer Upper" (that catalogs a long list of male faults) whenever his older sisters watch the film. Study the lyrics.

The film strikes a narcissistic chord that is at odds with what I'm trying to teach.

???

Nevermind, just walk away, kong...
 

kongisking

Active member
Joe Brody said:
Just read the lyrics.

Yup. And they form a song that's about teaching Anna that its better to love one who is imperfect because its more realistic than the seemingly-perfect Prince she's engaged to, and those imperfections make their good qualities all the more special.

I'm sorry that you somehow read a misandrist message into a song about tolerance and love for non-paragons. Which is....everyone.

(I'm also sorry my opinion will be casually dismissed because everyone will just think I'm an nonobjective. naive party. Damn whatever actual sense is in my words)
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
kongisking said:
Yup. And they form a song that's about teaching Anna that its better to love one who is imperfect because its more realistic than the seemingly-perfect Prince she's engaged to, and those imperfections make their good qualities all the more special.

And you seriously think that's how a kid interprets that song?

You cut me up. Teaching? You want to learn something about teaching to kids watch Fred Rogers, and trust me, he would have thrown up all Frozen and all of its narcissistic b*ll-sh*t.

Her flaw? She's what? Engaged. His? Too many to count.
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
Looking like the domestic run will land somewhere between $200M and $210M. Not bad but not the greatest ROI.
 

kongisking

Active member
Joe Brody said:
And you seriously think that's how a kid interprets that song?

You cut me up. Teaching? You want to learn something about teaching to kids watch Fred Rogers, and trust me, he would have thrown up all Frozen and all of its narcissistic b*ll-sh*t.

Her flaw? She's what? Engaged. His? Too many to count.

I honestly feel like you give kids far too little credit. But of course, I do not know your son or the family dynamics you have going, so I could be sounding like a jackass here. But believe me, the song is much more innocent than you read it as.

And for the record...Anna's flaws are impetuousness, naivete, temper, overly trusting, reckless and the occasional insensitivity. So its not a case of 'oh, the heroine is flawless perfection while the guy's a pathetic example of humanity.' I agree, that would be messed up and damaging.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
I haven't been back in this thread because I still haven't seen the flick. Other obligations have kept me from the theatre, but there is a thread dedicated to Frozen. Feel free to adjourn your particular brand of grousing and carping to that thread.
 

Forbidden Eye

Well-known member
Joe Brody said:
Looking like the domestic run will land somewhere between $200M and $210M. Not bad but not the greatest ROI.

Perhaps, but given that you were predicting a possible flop three months ago, that's not bad at all. Not every film can be a Lion King/Frozen sized juggernaut. You need modest-sized hits in addition to the smashes in order to create a brand like Disney(same to how the occasional flop is inevitable).

Either way, the masculine side of Disney Animation can breathe a sigh of relief. ;)
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
Forbidden Eye said:
Perhaps, but given that you were predicting a possible flop three months ago[.]

I love chatting on the internet. In this thread, I observed that BHG will not do bofo box office due to stiff competition (post #23 in this thread) and would likely come in on the lower end of a predicted range (#42). How those observations got turned into me predicting a flop is beyond me.

Forbidden Eye said:
[T]hat's not bad at all. Not every film can be a Lion King/Frozen sized juggernaut. You need modest-sized hits in addition to the smashes in order to create a brand like Disney(same to how the occasional flop is inevitable).

Whatever you say.

BH6 Production and Marketing Budgets: $165M + $100M+ = $265M

BH6 Box Office = $210M Domestic + (what?) $300M International (of which Disney only gets half) = $360M

That's not the type of results that gives any c-suite executive comfort. Guardians of the Galaxy was made for less, marketed for less and released in the dogs days of summer and still kicked ass and helped move the needle of Disney stock. Do some searches, and you will even find early 2014 press out there predicting Guardians was going to be a flop.

Compare to the BH6 tailwinds: Marvel Property + Frozen & Wreck-It Halo + Huge marketing dollars + stunning animation + humor + prime release date, + Star Wars trailer buzz, and the end result is $210M domestic? That's not good. Something is lacking. Someone in Disney is not getting the job done. I submit the fundamental miss is the story.

Forbidden Eye said:
Either way, the masculine side of Disney Animation can breathe a sigh of relief. ;)

The only sigh I hear is over another could've been for Disney animation. For BH6 to end (as I understand it) with an introduction of the BHG team as if the sequel is a forgone conclusion is arrogant and further evidence of the fundamental problem of not getting it.
 

kongisking

Active member
This was a delightful experience. I definitely will be rewatching this many times in the future. Another winner from Disney. :D

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