"Big Hero 6" Is Disney’s Most Diverse Movie Yet 

This BuzzFeed homepage is tailored for our readers in the USA. Make it your default. This BuzzFeed homepage is tailored for our readers in the USA. Switch to US Have you seen BuzzFeed English? Come check it out!  

US Edition UK Edition Australia Brasil Deutschland Español France India Edition

Women Are Sharing Photos Of What They Wore When…

Cute Baby Finds Dog Trying To Jump On Bouncing…

Fabulous! Don\'t forget to share with your friends on Twitter and Facebook.

With its latest release, Disney is daring to go where almost no other big budget animated movie has gone before:

Big Hero 6, which opens in theaters on Nov. 7, puts diversity on the front lines, not only breaking, but destroying racial and gender stereotypes in the process. Should the masses head to see it, the pay-off will be enormous. But the biggest potential boon here isn’t financial; it’s the moral victory.

Big Hero 6, inspired by Marvel Comics’ superhero team of the same name, directors Chris Williams and Don Hall aim to eradicate commonplace portrayals in a fictional Utopia: the futuristic town of San Fransokyo, a mash-up of Tokyo and San Francisco. “This [film] gave us a perfect opportunity to create a diverse cast,” Hall told BuzzFeed News. “When you look outside your window, you go to any city anywhere in America — the world for that matter — and it’s a diverse world. Our films should reflect that. So very early on, we decided that we were going to have a lot of diversity in this film, and the main characters were going to be a mash-up as well, because this is a mash-up of Disney and Marvel. It’s a mash-up of Eastern and Western culture.”

It’s also a world where the brightest kids in the school are people of color and the team mascot is the white student. At the center of Big Hero Six is smartypants Hiro Hamada, a biracial (Japanese and white) student who would rather hoodwink goons in seedy after-hours joints and take part in gambling illegally in a robot-fighting racquet than go to school and learn.

“One of the things that I am proud of is the fact that we do have this very diverse cast. In one sense, we don’t make a big deal out of it. The characters are certainly not defined in any way by their race and I’m very proud of that,” Williams told BuzzFeed News. “Ryan Potter, who voices Hiro, at one point, he said to us that what he loves about the film is that everybody’s gonna see themselves up there. I’m really proud of that.”

Big Hero 6 is filled with subtle, teachable moments. In Wasabi, voiced by Damon Wayans Jr., viewers get a strong, physical presence in a large brown body with cropped dreadlocks — the type of guy we might typically see on screen guarding a nightclub door or working as a scary-but-silent henchman for a movie villain. Instead, Wasabi is a by-the-book guy, who also happens to be extraordinarily brilliant when it comes to robotic engineering.

“My character, when you look at him, he looks like a big, burly guy who would take care of things and take charge, but really, when he opens his mouth, he’s a neatnik kind of guy who needs a plan in order to take action,” Wayans Jr. told BuzzFeed News. “And he doesn’t like to get hurt. And he likes rules! He’s neurotic and OCD.”

Big Hero 6 also aims to breakdown gender stereotypes with bold and brainy girls taking center stage in the form of Go Go Tomago (Jamie Chung) and Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez), both of whom are women of color. As much as they didn’t want their characters’ races to be limiting, Hall and Williams didn’t want them to be defined by gender either.

“I love that they represented Go Go as one of the stronger characters,” Chung told BuzzFeed News. “And I love that the cast is multicultural. Growing up in San Francisco, I’m quite used to the diversity and very grateful for it, and glad that [the filmmakers] represented this city in its entirety.”

But in some respects, diversity plays second fiddle to

Big Hero 6’s emotional storyline itself, one that Disney has mastered. Orphaned before the film actually begins, Hiro’s older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) and his Aunt Cass (Maya Rudolph) are his only family. He experiences unthinkable loss at a young age, and finds comfort in the form of Baymax, a health care robot prototype that his equally intelligent older brother Tadashi created.

“The Lion King, Bambi, Dumbo: The thing that we pride ourselves on is that we’re emotion first. You have to be emotionally engaged with the character, so… we knew that the emotional spine of the movie was going to be the story of Hiro and Baymax,” Hall said. “It was going to tackle the subject of loss, and tackle it head on, and that was going to be the main thematic idea. … When I hear people sniffling or tearing up or you hear that little gasp that says people are really emotionally invested in the film, that is the most gratifying thing.”

But even through tears, it’s difficult to ignore the cultural richness in Big Hero 6. Though it doesn’t feel forced, it does feel like a moment, a chance to tell a story with characters who look like what the world looks like.

“Diversity was never a marketing decision or a cash grab or any kind of a ‘This will guarantee success,’” Williams said. “It was really a reflection of the world and where we are now. It’s not a story set in the historic past. It is very present and now and it’s futuristic, actually, and it should reflect the now.”

The New "Into The Woods" Trailer Finally Features Singing...

"Big Hero 6" Is Disney's Most Diverse...

Oops! It looks like you\'ve already used that reaction on this post.

Rebuzzed! This post has been added to your Feed

I know, right? And there’s more where that came from.

Broken hearted? Maybe you’ll like something over here instead?

I know, right? Will your friends agree?

"Big Hero 6" Is Disney's Most Diverse Movie Yet

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kelleylcarter/big-hero-... With a biracial protagonist and brilliant women of color, the new animated film breaks down cultu...

10 Disneyland Rides That Should Be TV Shows ×

Shonda Rhimes’ Leading Ladies Say Others Need To Measure Up In Terms Of Diversity ×

Why “Big Brother” Has Remained TV’s Most Addictive Reality Show ×

6 Reasons To Fall In Love With Disney’s "Big Hero 6" ×

26 Reasons Kids Are Pretty Much Just Tiny Drunk…

50 Things That Look Just Like Your Childhood

big hero 6, damon wayans jr, disney, disney movie, jamie chung

Don\'t forget to share! Want to add another one? Go for it!

Meet The Network Of Guys Making Thousands Of Dollars Tweeting As "Common White Girls"

Facebook Twitter Tumblr BuzzFeed Apps Newsletter

3-Year-Old Boy Allegedly Beaten And Tortured To Death For Not Eating His Breakfast

Making Friends In Your Twenties Vs. Your Thirties

This Little Girl Accidentally Launches Her New Flying Fairy Toy Straight Into The Fireplace

Women Are Sharing Photos Of What They Wore When They Were Catcalled

If Girls’ Boobs Problems Were Guys’ Balls Problems

Watch Matthew McConaughey Get Psyched About Sports

The Referendum Will Stop Scots From Becoming Prime Minister, Says The Scottish Secretary

Sorry, this post has been promoted by BuzzFeed editors so it can no longer be edited or deleted.

Sorry, this post cannot be edited at this time.

BuzzFeed is currently working with select partners to help them track what’s hot on their sites using the same advanced social tracking and analytics tools used on BuzzFeed.com.

Upload an Image Crop Image Are These Thumbnails Okay? ×

Preview Thumbnails Save Thumbnails Choose a new image Save

Oops! We had a problem sending your message. Please try again later.

Great! You\'ll get your first email soon.