Around the Hat

I was on Riverside Drive at the Hat Building today. Big Hero 6 is in its last week or work. (At least that's what staff told me.) Animation is done, surfacing and lighting are all but complete.

Just some retakes and repairs are all that's left. There's a few minor rewordings for foreign releases. Outside of that, we're done. ...

The picture launches in weeks, and the Mouse is starting the rollout.

I’ve just left The Soho Hotel in London where Disney were showing clips of Big Hero 6, Disney’s new animated movie. ...

It begins with a night shot of San Fransokyo. Immediately the topography is recognisable as San Francisco, from the lights on the bridge in the bay, a clanging tram running down the steep hills, but everywhere is alive in moving flashing neon, Tokyo advertising, branding and building styles mapped out across the architecture. It is impressive, but it will become more so.

We are shown shots from the real-life Carnegie Mellon school of robotics, where Chris Atkinson has been working on soft robotics that inspired the look, and indeed the very nature, of Baymax in the film, robotics intended not to hurt people who come into contact with them in a medical context. This is real, folks. ...

Staffers seem upbeat about BH6's box office prospects. I told a couple of guys in layout that I thought the picture would do robust business, but probably not quite as robust as Frozen.

But what do I know? Maybe the world is waiting for a kid and his robot. Maybe Big Hero 6 smashes records everywhere.