S.A. artist drew on personal experience for 'Big Hero 6’ scene 

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S.A. artist drew on personal experience for \'Big Hero 6’ scene

November 11, 2014 Updated: November 12, 2014 10:02am

You have to love the magic Paul Briggs brings to the wonderful world of Disney. After all, the San Antonio native has a knack for shaping the stories of some real animated winners.

Consider how the story supervisor helped Walt Disney Animation Studios land its first animated film Oscar with the mega-hit “Frozen,” which, in addition to his guidance, features his growling voice as the monster snowman Marshmallow. Or how Briggs poured his story art skills into other Disney gems such as “Tangled” and “Winnie the Pooh.”

Now Briggs has overseen another big screen champ with “Big Hero 6,” the new film from the House of Mouse that’s won over critics and the box office. The comedy adventure now in theaters centers on young robotics genius Hiro and his inflatable robo-nurse turned robo-fighter Baymax, as the duo and their tech-enhanced friends take on a big bad in a kabuki mask.

Briggs answered a few questions about his latest magical blockbuster.

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Q. You’re co-head of story for “Big Hero 6” with Joe Mateo. What exactly does that mean?

A. What we do is, we supervise the story team, which storyboards the entire film. And we storyboard, too. It’s kind of a process that Disney developed back in the ’30s.

We have a whole team of story artists that draws the film in comic book panel form before it ever gets animated. Our process here is, we’ll make the entire movie in storyboard. It takes about four to five years to make these movies, and two to three of those years just spent on the story.

Q. Your Tumblr (pbcbstudios.tumblr.com) is like a Pinterest board for old-school Disney animation. Does that influence your narrative approach to “Big Hero 6” — a classic sensibility with a modern, computerized way of storytelling?

A. Absolutely. It’s kind of two parts. There is modern technology, and we do want to make films that are very contemporary with our filmmaking abilities and camera choices and everything. But when it gets to its heart, our process hasn’t changed. And those old guys, they were just totally focused on character and emotion. And there’s a simplicity to it.

Even Hiro and Baymax both kind of remind me of Mowgli and Baloo (from “The Jungle Book”) and Timothy and Dumbo. And there’s this great character relationship that those guys dealt with. And even in our movie, it’s a heavy movie and it’s very emotional. It’s very funny and action-packed, but it deals with loss.

Q. Given that “Big Hero 6” is so much about a lad and his robot, did you guys think about adding beats from similar films like “The Iron Giant” or “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”?

A. We’re all filmmakers here, and we do constantly reference films. It’s something that we appreciate and admire, and we draw inspiration from films. But here, and I’m actually really proud of this, when we’re in our story room . . . we draw more on personal experiences and what’s happened in our lives. Because we know we make movies for ourselves. And we just draw on those personal, truthful experiences that are emotional.

Q. What “Big Hero 6” moments can you say are true Paul Briggs?

A. I think with me there’s a sequence called “Discovery,” which Chris Williams, our (co-)director, took the first initial pass on, and then I came in and I helped him with it. . . Baymax wakes up, and it’s just that interaction with Hiro and they talk about puberty.

And (when Baymax says) “I can deactivate if you’re satisfied with my care,” and he even brings up the chart of the stuff from 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain — those little moments, I boarded all that stuff, a good chunk of that stuff. That sequence is really dear and personal to me.

Q. And we should look for “Big Hero 6” Easter eggs, besides a certain Marvel-ous character cameo after the credits?

A. There definitely are. There are a couple of definite “Frozen” Easter eggs in there. One has already been out on the trailer, which people have seen, when the cop is talking to Hiro and Baymax and . . . behind him there’s a wanted poster and Hans is on the wanted poster from “Frozen.”

Baymax has a big rocket fist that he tests out, and he destroys a statue with his rocket fist when he first fires it. And that statue, if you watch really closely, that’s another little Easter egg. . . . Definitely Marvel and Disney Easter eggs throughout the movie.

Q. Why was there a time when it seemed weird things got sneaked into backgrounds? And do you know what we mean by “weird things”?

A. Yeah. I think some of it was unintentional. Sometimes some things just got in there and people read into it.

Q. You get to once again show off your acting chops as the voice of Yama, the street thug who takes on Hiro in illegal “bot” fighting. How did that happen?

A. We have a thing called scratch recording, where we put temporary voices in the film, temporary scores and sound effects and voices as we’re assembling the film, to get a sense of whether it’s working or not. And, fortunately for me, sometimes those scratch recordings stick.

It’s funny. (Yama) used to be a really big part of the film, a big character throughout the film.

A. I actually go out on a development project on a film that will come out in probably late, late 2018 or 2019. Maybe, I don’t know. I’m excited about that. It gives me a little bit of a break

Q. More time to play with your Baymax action figure?

A. Yeah, yeah. I have two boys: a 5-year-old and a 4-year-old, and they’re superexcited. They’re going to see the movie. . . so I can’t wait to see what they think of it.

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