Big Hero 6 Director "A Big Nerd," Says Quesada

Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada, in an interview earlier today, said that Big Hero 6 will be Disney's first animated feature based on a Marvel Comics property because Don Hall, the director behind the property, came to Marvel with that particular property in mind. "The idea actually came from Don Hall, the director, who is a huge Marvel fan and obviously a big nerd if he remembers Big Hero 6," Quesada told CBR. "Don came to us with suggestions for maybe six of our lesser known properties, and we started working with him on some ideas for how these could be approached as Disney animated movies. Don took three of those possibilities to John Lasseter, and John really gravitated to the story that we spitballed on Big Hero 6. That's how it came to be, and it's been really fun. I've been involved some with those guys, and it's great to see how someone else's creative process works. I was lucky enough to spend two days last week with John and the animation guys beating out the story and seeing how these guys work, and it was not unlike the process we have here at Marvel." Asked why Big Hero 6 was chosen instead of other viable properties, Quesada said, "Well, I think the x-factor was that when we started reimagining Big Hero 6 with Don and his crew, there was a story there of two brothers. I think it was a boy and his robot kind of thing that makes it very Disney in the traditional sense. But the beauty of this is that Don is a real Marvel fan, and he's embraced the visual history of Marvel. I think we've gone and lectured to the animators over there about what Marvel is and how we look at visual dynamics in our comics -- everything from Jack Kirby to John Romita Sr. to John Romita Jr. So there's a lot of Marvel influence in this, which is really cool. It's going to be an amazing blend of what Disney does in animation and what Marvel does in the action adventure genre."