Fatima Poggi

Archetypal Psychology For Storyteller

05/19/15
Big Hero 6: The Marvel/Disney perfect blend
This years Oscar winner for best-animated film was Big Hero 6, a perfect blend of a
Disney and Marvel story. While the Disney film shares the same name with its Marvel Comic
series inspiration, the story and the world it is set in is entirely different. Big Hero 6 tells the
story of Hiro Hamada, 14-year-old science prodigy who specializes in robotics and pulls together
a team of nerds to bring down the evil man who killed his brother. The original story from the
comic book takes place in Tokyo, but the Disney version is set in the near future of the hi-tech
fictional city of San Fransokyo (a hybrid of San Fransisco and Tokyo). "It's a very high-tech city
that blends Eastern and Western culture, so we wanted it to be a mashup, just like the movie is a
mashup between Disney and Marvel," said Don Hall, director of the film during an interview.
From a synopsis alone, the overlapping similarities between Big Hero 6 and superhero origin
stories, particularly of the Marvel variety, are fairly self-evident. Big Hero 6 has a narrative
structure typical for heroic stories, which is explained by the characters that follow the
archetypes and their functions. Throughout the rest of this paper, we will mostly follow the full
exploits of our main hero, Hiro, but also the adventures of Baymax, and the rest of the hero team
while exploring the best aspects of Disney and Marvel put together to make a heartwarming,
relatable, yet still comically fantastic film.
Hiro is entirely the archetypal hero who will learn that with great power comes great
responsibility. His true colors emerge when he is close to his brother, showing him to be free
spirited, warm, but ultimately very loving and appreciative. However, these aspects are not seen

again until the lovable Baymax, who cares for Hiro in the same sense, forming a strong
companionship and bond between the two, eventually fills the void left by Tadashis death. While
Hiro has a kind heart, he also has a very complex character, and is far from perfect, engaging in
dark behaviors when highly provoked. He is similar to the villain of the film in the fact that they
both experienced the loss of a loved one, thus mutilating their hearts and causing them to seek
revenge to those responsible. However, what separates the two and ultimately classifies Hiro as a
hero is that he learns the error of his ways and makes an effort to right his wrongs. These
revelations are due to the comforting nature of Baymax who carries out the Legacy of Tadashi,
and the support of his closest friends. Hiro undergoes a transition from boy to man throughout
the movie, resulting in a newly reformed Hiro who values the lives of all human beings and
refuses to carry out acts of justice through the use of violence.
Hiros ordinary world is presented when he is spending his free time after graduating
high school at 14 by participating in illegal backstreet robot fights for money. Hiro wins to a big
and rowdy challenger, using his youth and an innocent-looking robot to disguise his true robotic
skills.
The meeting with the mentor happens when Hiro becomes endangered by his opponent
and his older brother Tadashi rescues him. Tadahi is Hiros mentor and herald in this movie. He
loves his little brother with an easy acceptance for all his quirks and fallibilities and guides him
to his call to adventure by successfully refocusing Hiros talents and introducing him to nerd
school
After rescuing Hiro, Tadashi has a serious talk with Hiro telling him that he is wasting his
life street bot fighting when he could be perfecting his craft. Seeing his younger brother
squandering a great mind for robotics, Tadashi sneakily convinces Hiro to apply at his university

by bringing Hiro along through the schools robotics lab under dubious pretenses. Its in this
scene that the movie really begins to shine in the characterization department. As Hiro and
Tadashi stroll through the lab, they meet the other main characters of the film one by one, each
immediately establishing their quirks and personalities. Wasabi is clearly a neat freak, GoGo a
speed-obsessed tomboy, Honey Lemon an optimistic chemistry whiz, Fred fits into the archetype
of characters like Shaggy from Scooby Doo, and finally there is Baymax. Hiro is astonished
and impressed by all the cool inventions his brothers friends are making that he immediately
wants to enroll in nerd school. This is his call to adventure.
During this call to adventure, we meet professor Robert Callaghan, the head of a robotics
program at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology and Tadashis professor and mentor. He is the
shadow archetype of the hero, who is the villain of the movie.
We also meet Baymax, who is an ally and a mentor throughout Hiros journey. Baymax
was never in the original comic books, instead his character was a creation based on a research
trip to Carnegie Mellon, where the creators learned about soft robotics. The writers were
involved in the entire research process. They met with chemists, doctors, police officers, and
other experts to make sure the film is authentic as possible. (Hollywood Reporter) Baymax
stands out as one of the best characters in the film and is the epitome of an extremely likable
character. Baymax is an inflated robot built by Tadashi to serve as a healthcare companion. His
design is unique and appealing among robot-kind. Instead of shiny metal and hard angles,
Baymax is rounded, soft and friendly; you can't help but love the big balloon bot. As described
by Chris Atkeson, a robotics expert from Carnegie Mellon, Baymax is balloonlike' robot
(NPR) who Despite being a robot, Baymax has character and is the comic relief of the movie; he
brings emotion, humor and wit to the character. He's not a silly sidekick belting out one-liners,

his comedy comes from his attempts to help others when the movie places the characters in
situations where they don't need any medical attention. Baymax is a great surrogate brother for
Hiro, and he also keeps the spirit of Tadashi alive throughout the film.
Hiros first set of trials happens when he has a hard time to creating an innovative project
that will help him get into brother's university. After a lot of time and hard work he creates the
microbots, which are tiny bots that he can control with his thoughts. He amazes everyone at the
schools expo and is invited by Callaghan to join the university. On the other hand, Krei, a tech
CEO also approaches Hiro to convince him to sell his project to him, but Hiro refuses.
After the expo, theres an explosion. Tadashi believes that the professor is still in the
building and when he rushes in to save him, he is killed. Hiro is devastated and depressed after
his brothers death so he ends up giving up on college. This is his refusal of the call.
While in his room, Hiro hurts himself and accidentally inflates Baymax. He tries his
hardest to put him away but is unsuccessful. While this is happening, Hiro finds one of the bots
that wasnt destroyed in the explosion. It starts to move around as if it were trying to find other
bots. In an effort to make Hiro feel better, Baymax rushes out to find the other bots. Hiro chases
after him and Baymax leads Hiro to a warehouse. They climb inside and Hiro discovers tiny
bots, just like the ones he created, being manufactured. When Hiro discovers that someone is
making more bots, a guy in a mask attacks him. After the attack, Hiro discovers that the
explosion wasnt an accident. The guy in the mask is responsible for Tadashis death. Hiro
decides to catch him and he updates Baymaxs programming so that he can fight. Thats is when
he crosses the first threshold and begins his journey with Baymax.
Another set of trials happens when Hiro updates Baymax to defeat the masked man. Hiro
and Baymax go back to the warehouse but are defeated once again. When the bots start to attack

them, Tadashis friends show up and try to help him. This is when Tadashis friends become
Hiros allies. Honey Lemon who is an energetic, sweet chemistry enthusiast. GoGo Tomago who
is definitely more deadpan and a little standoffish, as she loves anything that gives her an
adrenaline rush. Wasabi who is a neat freak, and his OCD makes for some wonderful comic
relief. And last but not least is Fred, who is also a lot of fun and the film's ticket to meta jokes.
Fred also embodies the trickster archetype; he always creates chaos in order to destabilize
established power structure.
The guy in the mask chases Hiro and his allies all through the city. After they escape,
Hiro assumes that the bad guy in the mask is Krei, the tech CEO who tried to buy his bots at the
expo. Hiro and his allies decide to build powerful suits to fight the mysterious man. They each
develop amazing fighting skills using their own special talent to be ready for when the time for a
faceoff with the villain came.
Wasabi who is the laser expert, and who is deliberate in all of his movements and
obsessed with precision develops a pair of electromagnetic beams as a weapon. Honey Lemon
keeps colorful chemical potions on hand (which she dispenses from her purse) that erupt with
colorful, over-the-top effects. Since Go Go Tomago is an adrenaline junkie, she develops rotating
disks that she can skate around San Fransokyo with. Finally, there's Fred. He's a huge fan of
Kaiju Big Battel, which is a show where people play roles of giant monsters such as Godzilla
(wired.com) so it's no surprise that his super suit is a fire-breathing kaiju outfit.
They approach the inmost cave when Baymax finds the mysterious man on an island
and Hiro and his allies decide to go fight him. The six friends break into the building in the
island and fight the masked man. When Baymax finally removes the mask from the mysterious
man, they discover that its Callaghan, and that the seemingly-nice professor is actually the villan

who stole Hiros microbots and let Tadashi brother die.

The ordeal happens when Hiro is possessed by anger and decides to avenge his brothers
death by using Baymax to kill Callaghan. Hiro throws out Tadashis smiley face chip so that he is
able to kill. Baymax chases Callahan and attacks everyone. Hiros friends find a way to put
Tadashis smiley face chip back into Baymax to stop him. Hiros friends say they dont want to
destroy Callaghan; they just want to catch him. Hiro is upset and takes off with Baymax leaving
his friends behind.
Hiro crosses the second threshold when Baymax show him videos of his brother. He
realizes that his brother created Baymax to be a healer not a killer.
Hiro also seizes the sword when he understands what is the right thing to do. His friends
show up after that and Hiro apologizes to his them and tells them that he does want to catch
Callaghan, but he wants to do it the right way.
During the road back, Hiro and his friends discover the reason why Callaghan turned into
a bad guy and wants to take revenge on Krei. They discover that Krei was doing a
teletransportation experiment where an astronaut was sucked up by a portal and killed. The
astronaut turned out to be Callaghans daughter. Hiro and his friends deicde to show up at the
event where Callaghan is planning to kill Krei in order to stop him. There is a huge fight where
the heroes are endangered when the portal that killed the astronaut is opened. When our heroes
seem to be trapped, Hiro comes up with a plan to defeat Callaghan by making the bots get
sucked up into the portal.
The resurrection stage happens they are close to losing the fight but Hiro shows his
friends to see things from another angle. They gain forces once again to fight Callaghan and they
succeed at destroying his mask so that the microbots can't be controlled anymore.

The ultimate boon is presented when Baymax detects signs of life in the portal. They
discover it is Abigail (Callaghans daughter). Shes still alive. Hiro and Baymax go into the
portal to save her. They rescue Abigail, but the only way to get Hiro and Abigail back to earth is
for Baymax to sacrifice himself and stay behind. Hiro decides to say goodbye to Baymax, and
Baymax pulls the thruster, which pushes Hiro and Abigail back through the portal.
During the return with the elixir stage, an ambulance takes Abigail to the hospital.
Callahan is arrested. Hiro and his friends are back at nerd school. Hiro finds out that Baymax had
taken his memory card out his body before he saved Hiro; therefore he is able to create a new
Baymax.
At the very end, during the magic flight, Hiro and his friends become super heroes and
we see them taking action to keep the city they live in a safe place.
One of my favorite things about this film is the way the hero archetype is represented.
Even though Hiro is the main focus of the movie, his allies turn out to be heroes as well. All of
these heroes are very diverse. Hiro and his friends also come from a number of racial
backgrounds, but none of them are limited to representing their race, instead acting as unique
individuals. Not only is this group racially diverse, but also offers characters of both sexes who,
for the most part, pull away from stereotypical presentations of gender. For example,
independent Go Go may be a petite woman, but shes not afraid of breaking rules or charging the
enemy while Wasabi is a strong male character who prefers caution, order, and rules. I was most
fearful of Honey Lemon who, at first glance, appears to be a stereotypical girly-girlblonde,
chipper, and fashionable. But the movie does a good job of showing that Honey Lemon is indeed
all of those things, but shes also a brilliant chemist, and certainly not confined to being one thing
or the other. Even Fred, a dude who harkens back to stereotypes of young men as unhygienic

and not particularly bright has some surprises up his sleeve.

While the princess movie has served as sort of a trademark for Disney movies since the
very early days with Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, Big Hero 6 was a much welcome reminder
that Disney can tackle the darker stuff just as well. The grief that completely consumes Hiro after
his brothers death causes him to react in a way that would have previously been unheard of in a
Disney movie, adding to the darker undertones that Disney takes with this movie. Big Hero 6
also developed a sympathetic villain, seeking revenge for the loss of his daughter. Rage
completely consumes him and he will not stop until he gets her back and the people responsible
pay. This adds much more depth to the story than a simple power grab and is yet another
indication that this movie is more Marvel than Disney, signaling a change of direction in the
animation studios. Big Hero 6 is a superior film plot-wise, character-wise, and quality-wise. In
my opinion, its a sign that Disney is slowly moving away from the predictable Disney fairy tale
movies. I really can't wait to hear what obscure marvel character/series will get the Disney
treatment next.

Works Cited
"The Challenge Of 'Big Hero 6': How To Make A Huggable Robot." NPR. NPR, n.d.
Web. 21 May 2015.
Giardina, Carolyn. "Oscars: 'Big Hero 6' Filmmaker Reveals the Inspiration Behind
Baymax's Look." The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Feb. 2015. Web. 21
May 2015.
"Godzillas Got Nothing on Live Monster Wrestling." Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 27
Apr. 2012. Web. 21 May 2015.
"Big Hero 6 Q&A with Don Hall and Roy Conli | BFI." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 21
May 2015.