In one of the biggest panels of the con, the joint Tomorrowland and Big Hero 6 was absolutely packed. The crowd was electric and the energy was through the roof. Throughout the hour and a half, exclusive footage was shown to an enraptured audience.
The panel opened up with the filmmakers of Big Hero 6, Dan Hall, Chris Williams, and Roy Conli, thanking everyone at Marvel. The film is described as a mash-up between Disney and Marvel styles, along with Eastern and Western culture, which gives us the city of San Fransokyo. We learned more about the protagonist, Hiro Hamada, who is a genius that wastes his talent with underground robot fighting.
Before the cast came out, a never before seen clip was shown. In the clip, Hiro meets his future Big Hero 6 teammates in an extremely high tech workroom. Their names are Wasabi, Honey Lemon, GoGo, Tomago, and Fred. Wasabi is an extremely OCD mechanic, GoGo is an aggressive adrenaline junkie, Honey Lemon is a hyperactive super scientist, and Fred is a total slacker who has aspirations of being a hero. After the characters are met, we see Hiro meeting Baymax for the first time. Baymax is primarily a medical robot who springs into action whenever someone says “Ow!”
Once the clip is over, Gogo (Jamie Chung), Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez) Honey Lemon), and TJ Miller (Fred) came onto the stage with moderator Chris Hardwick. According to the actors, the film took many years to make. Miller spoke about how he improvised a lot and told the crowd that working with Marvel and Disney was a big dream come true.
Another clip was shown where Hiro discovered that someone was attacking his city. If you’ve seen the trailer, you know that at some point, Baymax loses battery life. That’s what this clip was about; it was Hiro trying to sneak Baymax into his house to put him back onto his battery pad. This primarily showed that this film is going to be really fun and goofy.
Once that clip ended, the Scott Adist (Baymax) and Hiro (Ryan Potter) came out to join the rest of the cast. Potter’s dialogue was a little brief, only talking about how his character becomes a hero really. It was Adist who took over the proceedings, chatting excitedly about how he’s never been on the Main Stage at NYCC before. As a long time fan of the Con, Adist was always an attendee. He’s completely blown away that he’s finally a speaker on a panel.
The rest of the panel was more of the same. Two more clips were shown and each showcased tantalizing hints of what this movie will be. In one, Hiro is programming Baymax on how to be a fighter. The tone was primarily happy and comical, ending with a really goofy fist bump scene, which drove the crowd nuts. This clip is in stark contrast to the final clip of the night, which had our heroes escaping from the film’s main villain. It was an exciting car chase that was beautifully animated and very exciting. The crowd ate it up like candy.
Once the Big Hero 6 panel finished up, the creators of Tomorrowland came right out. Damon Lindelof and Brad Bird, already experience Comic-Con guests, opened up with exactly what the audience wanted: never before seen footage of their film. It was primarily a teaser and it only focused on setting up what this movie will be. In the clip, Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) finds a pin that teleports her to some unknown field of grain. She has no idea what is going on, but is sufficiently intrigued.
Shortly after the clip, Robertson, Raffey Cassidy (Athena), and Hugh Laurie (David Nix) joined Lindelof and Bird on stage. The crowed welcomed Robertson and Cassidy with plenty of applause, but went completely ape shit when Laurie gradually walked on in. Laurie, clearly loving the moment, gave the audience a big bow, which garnered a standing ovation. But while the crowd couldn’t get enough of Laurie, Laurie couldn’t stop talking about how amazing it was to work on this movie. To him, already a massive star, it was big experience that he will never forget. Both Robertson and Cassidy agreed. Speaking of Cassidy, she was surprisingly coy on whether or not her character was evil or good. Robertson was also very tight lipped.
Then something funny happened. Hardwick asked about how there was a “rouge” George Clooney in the trailer. Laurie, silly as ever, openly talked about how Clooney was a drunk and a shouter. Essentially he was the worst person to ever be around. Poor Clooney! He’s not even around to defend himself…
OR IS HE?! Taking this obviously set up golden opportunity, George Clooney himself sauntered out onto the stage to uproarious applause. At least five girls fainted, probably. Clooney joked about how he’s on his honeymoon right now and how his new wife simply loves the fact that they’re at Comic-Con. He also apologized for his bat suit in Batman & Robin. Even he knows that the nipples were a bit much.
After a lot of prying by Clooney, a final clip for Tomorrowland was shown. This one was the big nail biter of the night. In short, Newton meets the reclusive Frank Walker (Clooney), and the two quickly get caught in an insane home attack by smiling robots. The scene was intense and it ended with the two escaping. Or did they? The screen cut to black before we really knew…
http://youtu.be/XDgJsRcI9wE
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Luke Kalamar is Pop-Break.com’s television and every Saturday afternoon you can read his retro video game column, Remembering the Classics. He covers Game of Thrones, Saturday Night Live and The Walking Dead (amongst others) every week. As for as his career and literary standing goes — take the best parts of Spider-man, Captain America and Luke Skywalker and you will fully understand his origin story.
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