Disney Animation anchored the animation presentation today by featuring two upcoming films, Big Hero 6 and Frozen, and announcing its 2016 movie Zooptopia. Here are the highlights from that portion of the presentation.
Big Hero 6 is Disney's attempt to animate an underground Marvel comic. Being that the title is so obscure, director Don Hall said it allowed them to give the story their own spin.
- The film takes place in a fictional city that combines Tokyo and San Francisco (San Fransokyo) and centers on Hiro, a young boy who tragically loses his big brother.
- Hiro meets Baymax, an "inflatable robot" who at first is present to "heal Hiro's hurt." Hiro eventually customizes him to be a superhero robot.
- Baymax's walking style was patterned after baby penguins. The character waddles when he walks.
- A sizzle reel was shown, showcasing the four other members of the Big Hero 6 superhero team. They include Go Go, a bike messenger, Wasabi No Ginger, a sushi chef, Honey Lemon, a chemist and barista, and a comic book fanboy named Fred.
- Big Hero 6 is due in theater November 6, 2014.
Lasseter returned to the stage to introduce one of Disney's 2016 movies, Zootopia.
- Director Byron Howard took to the stage to talk about the film. He described the film, a buddy action-comedy as his dream project.
- The film centers on a predatory fox named Nick Wilde and a bunny named Judy Hopps. Howard also introduced another character, Gazelle, a megapop star gazelle with an extensive wardrobe.
- Artwork was shown for the four neighborhoods where various animals live. There's Tundra Town for the cold-weather animals, Sahara Square for the hot-weathered creatures, Rain Forest, the Canals and Burrow Borough, which is inhabited by a number of rabbits.
- Interestingly, there was no mentioned Jason Bateman voicing the fox, Nick Wilde. Bateman signed on a while back to voice the character, but perhaps there has been a change since then?
- Zooptopia was announced as "a 2016 movie," though previous reports have the film slated for a March 4, 2016 release.
The final Disney Animation feature presented was Frozen. The film is months away from arriving in theaters. Kristen Bell appeared onstage to chat briefly about the film and why she wanted to star in it.
- The film centers on two sisters, a magically gifted one named Elsa and a, well, not so magically gifted one named Anna. Bell voices Anna while Tony Award-winning performer Idina Menzel voices Elsa.
- Elsa is haunted by one night when she almost killed Anna. Since that night, she has shut her sister and the world out of her life and has used her magic to plunge her kingdom into eternal winter.
- Three other characters from the film were also profiled. Kristoff, a a rugged outdoorsman who accompanies Anna on her journey to break her sister's spell; Sven, a bumbling, simple-minded reindeer; and Olaf, a snowman who is magically brought to life by Elsa's magic.
- Josh Gad, who voices Olaf, appeared onstage to talk briefly about his character. When asked why he wanted to be a part of the film, he joked, "The Disney residuals," referring to the money actors get paid for performing in movies once the film has moved out of theaters and onto home video and TV.
- Two clips were screened. The first featured an awkward-yet-humorous first encounter between Princess Anna and a prince from a nearby kingdom. The second featured Olaf singing about what he would do in the summer, having no clue that the heat would melt him.
- The presentation was concluded when Menzel appeared onstage to sing Let It Go, a song from the film that has a good shot of earning an Oscar nod, especially given the power and emotion with which Menzel sang with.
- Frozen is due in theaters on November 27.
Interestingly enough there was no mention of Disney Animation's other 2016 movie, Giants, or its 2018 films Moana and Untitled Dean Wellin Animated Feature. Then again, we have a couple D23 Expos in the future for the studio to present those films.
More D23 Expo coverage:
Maleficent and Cinderella are just a couple of fairy tales Disney is bringing to live action. Read the D23 details.
Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson look like Oscar contenders in Saving Mr. Banks.
Find out what is planned for Marvel, DisneyNature and Star Wars over the next couple years.
Disneytoons has some big plans for the future. Read about them here.
