Come with us as we preview the hotly anticipated new magical worlds before their grand opening.
Big Hero 6
Belle, Beast, and Big Hero 6’s biggest hero part of extensive renovations planned for the park and its neighbor Tokyo Disney Sea.
While many gamers initially scoffed at the concept of Kingdom Hearts, a tale of adventure blending an original cast with characters from the Final Fantasy series and Disney animation, it’s since gone on to become one of publisher Square Enix’s most beloved franchises. So even though there’s still no firm release date for the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 3, fans are always happy to hear any developments about the latest chapter in the saga of Keyblade-wielder Sora and his eclectic group of costars.
Disney has just announced that in Kingdom Hearts 3, Sora will be sharing the screen with the Big Hero 6 team, including the show-stealing Baymax, in a segment that acts like a sequel to the Academy Award-winning film.
If you’ve seen Disney’s Big Hero 6, you know that the film’s most memorable character, marshmallowy medical helper/combat robot Baymax, spends about half of his screen time being awesome, and the other being adorable. In one of the best examples of the latter, he becomes a mattress for his exhausted friends, letting them lean into his soft, cushioned body during a brief respite during the bumpy transition to their new lives as superheroes.
If you’re feeling similarly worn out after a hard day, you’ll be happy to know that, just as the trailer for the film promised, Baymax has your back…or your front, or your side, depending on how you sleep, in the form of this amazingly heart-melting semi-posable Baymax bed.
As events unfold in Disney’s Big Hero 6, teenage genius Hiro finds himself and caretaker robot Baymax getting into increasingly dangerous situations. Recognizing their increased need to be able to defend themselves, Hiro takes it upon himself to develop new combat software for Baymax and train him in how to use it, turning him into a karate master.
Given Baymax’s considerable size and girth, though, we’re not sure karate allows him to make full use of his brute strength. Wrestling might be a better discipline for him, as demonstrated in this Ultra Street Fighter IV video starring the huggable Baymax unleashing a string of spinning pile drivers on Big Hero 6 costar GoGo.
If you’re as addicted to your phone as we are, there’s a good chance you can draw 95 percent of the emoji you know with your eyes closed. Much to the chagrin of high school English teachers everywhere, it can sometimes seem that half of our communication is taken up by the colorful little faces. And it’s understandable–they can express quite a bit!
But thanks to a new site, anyone can freely combine emoji for a hundred times more expressiveness. That’s exactly what Kazuki Takakura, art director for a Tokyo theatre company, did–and the results are nothing short of spectacular! And slightly nightmarish.
You might not guess it, given the country’s well-known acceptance of stoicism as an admirable virtue, but Japan absolutely loves puns. In fact, the characteristics of the Japanese language, such as multiple potential pronunciations for the same kanji character, make it a veritable pun-producing machine.
For example, the character for “rice,” 米, is usually read as kome. When it’s combined with other characters, though, it’s read as mai or bei, with the latter being pronounced like the English word “bay.”
Of course, that also means bei is pronounced like the first half of Baymax, the loveable caretaker/combat robot from Disney’s Big Hero 6. And now that Japanese fans of the film have figured out how to put a little rice into Baymax, they’re also coming up with ways to put a little Baymax into their meals by making Baymax curry rice, rice balls, and nabe hot pots.
“How is your cosplay so perfect…?” “How did you escape from the movie screen?!” “Are you ACTUALLY Hiro?”
For Filipino artist and self-confessed “cosplay dork” Jin, questions like these are a regular occurrence. Already an internationally recognised cosplayer, when promo images for Big Hero 6 were released last year, Jin began to get messages from fans pointing out an uncanny resemblance to the film’s central protagonist Hiro Hamada. Which is pretty interesting, seeing Big Hero 6 is a Disney movie and Hiro is, of course, computer-animated.
Intrigued, Jin tried it out – and has been cosplaying Hiro ever since. Fast-forward a few months and Jin and friends continue to produce incredibly realistic, beautifully produced photos of cosplayed Big Hero 6 scenes. Join us after the jump as we take a look!
While I’m not exactly a huge Disney fan, I have to say that Big Hero 6 was easily one of my favorite movies of 2014, and I’ve fast become a big fan of the bubble-like Baymax. There’s probably a mathematical formula to prove how adorable his head is, but it looks like Jin Kim, character designer for the movie, has found a way to up the awesome level by combining Hiro and Baymax with a certain iconic Japanese film…
Taking up cosplay as a hobby takes a pretty significant time commitment to put together that perfect costume to dress up as your favorite video game, comic book or movie character. And for those of us without the, ahem, natural assets to boost our cosplay game, buying all those wigs, fashion accessories and snowman apparel can make the hobby an extremely expensive way to spend your free time.
However, this innovative cosplay enthusiast from Thailand doesn’t let his limited budget get in the way of making some creative, and frankly, kind of creepy costumes. We’ve spotted him before, but click below to see his latest creative, if not incredibly cheap, take on Dragonball Z, the Teletubbies, Taylor Swift and much more.
There’s just something soothing about the face of Baymax, the caretaker (and superpowered) robot that plays a prominent role in Disney’s Big Hero 6. Baymax looks like a big pillow to some people. Others say he more closely resembles Japanese dumplings, or the rounded discs of mochi used as New Year’s decorations in Japan.
Or, as these photos show, you could also duplicate Baymax’s inviting aura of soft plumpness with a white T-shirt and large pair of breasts.
Last summer, we took a look at a series of ads from Okinawa’s Bank of the Ryukyus, known locally as Ryugin, that featured magical girl idol singers and giant robots. Those are certainly more visually appealing images than a staid banker or graphs explaining interest fees, but if we’re being totally honest, the sort of CG animation shown in the commercials really isn’t Japan’s forte.
Where the country’s artists really shine is in a more traditional discipline that mimics the style of hand-drawn artwork, regardless of whether or not it’s done with pencil and paper or all on a computer. Thankfully, that’s just what we get in the bank’s newest ad, which comes from one of anime’s top veteran action directors, plus one of its most accomplished voice actors.
While not everyone in Japan quite knew what to expect from Disney’s newest hit Big Hero 6 (or Baymax, as it’s known over here), it hasn’t stopped audiences from loving the film. Or sobbing through half of it like big babies. (That wasn’t just me, right?) So, it was hardly a surprise when I spotted Baymax mitrashi dango at convenience store chain FamilyMart. And, being the curious person I am, it also wasn’t really a surprise when I found myself buying a pack just to see what they taste like!
Check out our review of the Baymax mitarashi dango and see if you’ll want to pick up a pack for yourself before you head to the theater!
Last weekend, my wife and I decided to go to watch Disney’s Big Hero 6, which had just opened in Japan under the title Baymax, after its marshmallow-like central robot character. As we made our way into the theater, she asked me if I had a pack of tissues, adding, “I heard the movie is really touching.”
This kind of took me by surprise. Sure, most Disney films have a heartwarming side to them, but wasn’t this movie about a team of superheroes and their robot?
If you’ve seen Big Hero 6, you know by now that it does a solid job of handling both action and emotional scenes. You probably wouldn’t get that impression from the tender Japanese ads for the movie, though, which is why many Japanese moviegoers were pleasantly surprised to find that Baymax isn’t just sweet, but also pretty awesome.
It looks like Disney fans may have something to look forward to when they visit Family Mart stores in Japan this winter — especially if they have a sweet-tooth. That’s right, for a limited time, Japanese convenience store chain FamilyMart is offering some delightful-looking desserts in collaboration with Disney’s mega hit film Frozen and their newest release (or soon to be released in the case of Japan) Big Hero 6. And as if that doesn’t make us happy enough, they even have a campaign going on where you can win special goods tied in with the two movies.
Let’s see what Disney sweetness is being served up at FamilyMart stores across Japan!
Back in May, we reported to you about how we would be getting our first Japanese Disney hero in the upcoming film Big Hero 6 based on the Marvel comic of the same title. Since then, we’ve found out that the film will be titled Baymax in Japan, after the protagonist Hiro Hamada’s white fluffy companion robot. We’ve also learned from a recent announcement that Disney will be getting involved in a highly unique crossover for Big Hero 6 that’s never been done one with any of their other movies before — in advance of the movie release, Big Hero 6 will be serialized as a manga here in Japan starting in the beginning of next month, and there will even be a prequel manga published as well! Now, that’s a piece of news we’re certainly excited to hear!
After the huge success of Frozen, Disney fans are eagerly awaiting the next Disney project! Well, Japanese fans have a really good reason to rejoice! Walt Disney’s Animation Studio’s new movie, Big Hero 6, will feature the first Japanese protagonist!
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