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Japan Prepares for Invasion of Baymax Standies
posted on by Eric Stimson
A veritable army of Baymax standies are all set to assault Japanese cinemas. At 6½ feet tall and numbering 300, these robots might pose a menace... if they weren't so poofy and cute, that is.
The standies are promotions for Big Hero 6, an upcoming Disney animated film loosely adapted from the Marvel Comics series. The film is set in "San Fransokyo," an amalgam of San Francisco and Tokyo, and it merges American and Japanese sensibilities throughout. Baymax itself is an example of this: the film's director, Don Hall, cites traditional Japanese bells he saw at a temple as the inspiration for Baymax's minimalist face. "They appealed to me somehow, and my heart felt at ease. They stayed in my head, and I thought they should become a robot face." Shiyoon Kim, the character designer, also took cues from a Japanese rice cooker infomercial. "It was the cutest rice cooker I'd ever seen. The design was simple and good-looking, but inside, it's hiding all this technology," he notes.
Appropriately enough, Big Hero 6 will be released as Baymax in Japan. It opens on December 20 there, although its premiere is scheduled for the Tokyo International Film Festival on October 23. Its North American release date is November 7.
[Via Oricon Style; Image from Twipple Trend]
