Co-Director Chris Williams Talks BIG HERO 6; Will There Be A Sequel?
In a recent interview with Variety, Big Hero 6 co-director Chris Williams and Disney Animation President Andrew Millstein talked about their movie's recent success, and how they were influenced by Pixar. Williams also touched upon the possibility of a sequel. Check it out here!
Walt Disney Animation's Big Hero 6 ended up being the surprise CBM hit of 2014 for many people. In addition to nabbing an Oscar nod for 'Best Animated Feature', it has also raked in over $500 million at the Box Office - making it Disney's third highest grossing animated movie ever (only trailing Frozen and The Lion King). The film's co-director Chris Williams (Bolt) and Disney Animation president Andrew Millstein recently sat down with Variety to chat about the film's success.
In the interview, Millstein praised Disney's new approach to filmmaking, and the decision to focus on "elevating storytelling and putting filmmakers in the center of the process". This tactic has clearly reaped huge rewards for the studio, having first topped the global box office in 2013 with Frozen, and then producing another hit in Big Hero 6 just a year later. "The change was about the Pixar team sharing ideas with us, sharing their key principles," Millstein continued, "‘Hero’ is one example of what we’ve learned over the years and our embracing some of the Pixar DNA."
A common theme in Pixar movies, Chris Williams went on to emphasise the importance of crafting an emotional storyline for the movie. "The movie centers on loss, and so we all talked about our own experiences," Williams claimed. "We made ourselves vulnerable once the doors were closed, when we were in the sacred space of the storyroom."
Given the film's international success, talk soon shifted towards the potential of a sequel. When quizzed about it, Williams chose to refer to Pixar head honcho John Lasseter's phillosophy: "No sequel will ever get made unless the directors want one and feel strongly that there is a story that needs to be told." He then went on to state: "If it’s not a great story, it won’t be a great movie. The crew deserves a great story. And we have expectations from the audience, who grew up with Disney animation. They deserve a great story too."
These quotes are in-line with an older statement from Williams' co-director, Don Hall - made around the time of movie's release back in November, when the pair talked to creativescreenwriting.com:
"We’ll see. We just finished this one, and the truth is, we’re exhausted from the ordeal of making it... We haven’t talked about or thought about any sequels or anything like that. Having said that, of course, we love these characters, and the thought of working with them again some day definitely has its appeal."
Both directors' comments would suggest that, for the time being at least, neither they nor Disney have any solid plans for a sequel to their blockbuster superhero hit. However, given the Walt Disney Company's recent sequel plans with some of its Pixar properties (including the superhero-centric Incredibles 2), it's hard to rule a Big Hero 6 follow-up out just yet.
What do you guys think? Were you a fan of the movie? If so, would you like to see a sequel at all? Some movies are best kept to one installment. Sign off with your thoughts down below!
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