Big Hero 6 learning resource
This is a study guide about the film Big Hero 6 (2014) made by Walt Disney Animation Studios and directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams.
Learning areas: English, Media
Year levels: 5–8
About Big Hero 6
Hiro Hamada is a 14 year-old tech genius who wastes his time at underground bot fights until his big brother, Tadashi, talks Hiro into applying for a place at the prestigious San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. Just as Hiro starts to get back on track, a devastating explosion rips his life apart.
Who will help Hiro pick himself up again? And can he defeat the villain, get revenge and save the world?
Big Hero 6, DIsney’s first Marvel film, is a self-professed superhero origin story that also examines how to cope with grief and loss, what it means to be a hero and the importance of friendship.
Before watching Big Hero 6
Discuss:
- What superhero films have you seen?
- Why do you think superhero films are so popular?
- What characters are often in superhero films?
- What themes are often explored in superhero films?
- What is an origin story?
- What usually happens in an origin story?
Watch the Trailer (below)
- What aspects of the story does the trailer emphasise?
- After watching the trailer, what do you want to know more about?
- What audience is the trailer targeting?
- Does it make you want to see the movie?
Big Hero 6 trailer:
After watching Big Hero 6
Initial response to the film
- Make a list of adjectives that describe the film.
- How did the film make you feel? Did you go through a range of emotions? Describe them.
- What was the message of the story?
- Did you have any favourite characters in the film? What did you like about them?
- Which scene was the most memorable?
A great way of learning how to pay attention to the framing and editing of a scene is to try recreating it yourself. It can be lots of fun to create a ‘Sweded’ or stop-motion version of a scene.
To provide some inspiration, we've linked (below) to a sweded and a stop-motion version of a Big Hero 6 trailer.
Big Hero 6 trailer sweded:
Big Hero 6 trailer in stop-motion:
World building
Sanfransokyo is a mash-up of cities from the real world and fictional future cities.
- What stood out most to you about Sanfransokyo?
- Would you feel comfortable living in this city? Why/why not?
- What elements of the city were familiar? What aspects were strange?
Look at these stills from the city, what is being communicated by the colours, the lighting, the choice of objects?
Worldbuilding and storytelling
Watch this interview with directors of Big Hero 6. The filmmakers talk about exaggerating elements of real cities to create a city that was a caricature:
- What elements of San Francisco did they exaggerate?
- What elements of Tokyo did they incorporate?
- How did they make the world believable?
- If you designed a futuristic city, what real present-day cities and fictional cities would you include in your mash up? What elements of a city might you exaggerate?
Worldbuilding and storytelling interview with Big Hero 6 directors:
Narrative
Imagine you are explaining the story of Big Hero 6 to someone who has not seen the film.
Write a couple of sentences explaining what happens to Hiro and the choices he makes.
The Hero’s Journey
Hiro is the hero of the film: he draws on his personal strengths and enlists the help of his friends to defeat the villain despite many difficulties and setbacks. The story can be described as a classic story structure called the Hero’s Journey. This story structure contains three main stages: Departure, Initiation and Return.
Research the Hero’s Journey and find out how Big Hero 6 fits into this type of story structure: what happens in the film to signal Hiro’s departure, initiation and return?
A Hero’s Journey story does not have to be an epic tale. It can also be used to structure a short story too. Create a short story that uses the structure of the Hero’s Journey. It could be a story about an animal, a person or even an object. Make a stopmotion animation to illustrate your story and narrate what you have written for the soundtrack. Never made a stopmotion animation before? Find out how here
Character
The character of Baymax provides humour and heart for Big Hero 6.
Think/Pair/share: What makes Baymax a funny character? What are the funniest scenes in the film that include Baymax? What did he do or say that made you laugh?
"Tadashi is here" scene from Big Hero 6:
Watch the scene Tadashi is here (above)
- What happens to make the scene emotionally moving?
- What do the characters say? How do they say it?
- What do the characters do?
- How does the lighting highlight key moments in the scene?
- How does the lighting help change the mood of the scene?
- How does the music help make the scene more emotional?
- If you would like to dig deeper into this scene, you can learn more from the directors in this interview.
Stereotypes
What is a stereotype?
Did you notice any character stereotypes in Big Hero 6?
Sometimes we are so used to seeing certain people portrayed in a certain way that it’s hard to notice stereotypes. One way of seeing films or other media from a different perspective is to gender flip the characters:
- Work in small groups to make a list of all the characters you can remember from the film.
- Write the gender of each character next to the name.
- Now imagine you are remaking the film but changing each male character to a female character and vice versa.
- Imagine each character kept the same name, clothing style, way of speaking and character traits.
- What seems normal?
- What seems weird?
- From doing this exercise, what conclusions can you draw about gender stereotypes in the movie?
The stereotype of robots in films is that they are always evil: they are trying to defeat the hero or take over the world. But Baymax is different. The filmmakers wanted Baymax to be a “huggable robot” and got inspiration from the soft robotics industry.
- What are the various aspects of Baymax’s design that make him a heroic and friendly robot?
- You can find out more about the inspiration for the design of Baymax in this interview.
Create your own superhero robot:
- What physical characteristics does it have?
- How does it move?
- What kind of voice does it have?
- Does it use any catch phrases?
- What can this robot do?
Draw and annotate a design of this character.
Big Hero 6 Robot design worksheet:
Music and sound effects
Choose a scene from the film where the sound effects and/or music are particularly important.
- What is happening in this scene?
- How does the music enhance the scene?
- Describe the mood of the music?
- Why was the music important to the scene?
- Would the scene be different if there were no sound effects/music?
It can be really interesting to play a scene without any sound and consider what is added by sound and dialogue. This will also highlight how much of the story is told through the visual narrative.
Themes
Loss/Grief/Death
The movie shows different ways of expressing grief and responding to loss.
- How does Hiro initially respond to the death of his brother?
- What does Hiro think will help him feel better?
- What actually helps Hiro feel better?
- Are there other characters in the film who are dealing with grief? How do they respond?
- What message do you think the film is sharing about healthy ways to respond to loss?
- Think of some of the times you have felt a sense of loss or faced a particular challenge. What are some of the ways of dealing with the feelings that arise in these situations?
- In small groups, design a 'how-to video that provides advice for coping with loss with difficult times. Suggest what a person might be able to do and who they could talk to.
Helpful resources:
Headspace offers resources to support young people dealing with grief and loss.
Go to Beyond Blue for their grief and loss fact sheet.
Lifeline offers a toolkit for coping with sorrow, loss and grief.
Heroes
Big Hero 6 explores what it means to be a hero.
- What does the word ‘hero’ mean to you? How would you define it?
- Who is heroic in Big Hero 6? What do they say or do that makes them heroic?
- Who are some real-life heroes that you know of? Why are they heroic?
- Would you like to be a hero? Why/why not?
Friendship
Big Hero 6 explores friendship between family members, friendship among peers and even friendship between a human and a robot.
- Who are Hiro’s friends in the film? How do they help him?
- How does Baymax demonstrate friendship?
- Think/pair/share: What does it mean to be a good friend?
Problem solving / brainstorming
"Shake things up. Use that big brain of yours to think your way out. Look for a new angle." Tadashi and Hiro use problem solving methods that help them see things from different viewpoints.
- What different problem-solving strategies do you know about?
- Which ones have you tried?
Think of a problem that is on your mind at the moment. Try using a problem-solving strategy to view your problem from different angles. You could try De Bono's Six Thinking Hats: a way of looking at decision making from different perspectives. Each perspective is represented by a different hat:
- Blue Hat: organisation and planning
- Green Hat: creative thinking
- Red Hat: feelings and instincts
- Yellow Hat: benefits and values
- Black Hat: risk assessment
- White Hat: information gathering
“By ‘wearing’ each of the Six Thinking Hats in turn, you can gain a rich understanding of the issues you face – and the best ways forward.