Before Into the Spider-Verse, Marvel’s Best Animated Movie Beat Out Pixar For an Oscar

Image Courtesy of Sony$SONY When people talk about the successful Marvel$MRVL animated theatrical releases, everyone praises Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse$SPDR:INTO-SPIDER-VERSE and its sequel, and for good reason. These are not only great movies, but they are revolutionary in terms of animation from a technical aspect. The first movie won the Best Animated Feature award at the Oscars, and while the second movie, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse$SPDR:ACROSS-SPIDER-VERSE, didn’t win that, it made more money at the box office and was equally beloved by critics and audiences. However, it wasn’t the first Marvel$MRVL animated feature that saw success. On November 7, 2014, four years before Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse$SPDR:INTO-SPIDER-VERSE, Disney$DIS released Big Hero 6. This movie also won the Best Animated Feature award at the Oscars, and it is equally beloved by fans and critics. However, no one talks about Big Hero 6 in the same way that they do the Spider-Verse movies. Big Hero 6 Is a Highly Underrated Forgotten Marvel$MRVL Movie Image Courtesy of Disney$DIS Big Hero 6 was a Marvel$MRVL Comics property that was released as an animated movie in 2014 without playing into its connection to the comics at all. While it is based on a preexisting Marvel$MRVL Comics title, the movie was marketed simply as a Disney$DIS animated film. That is a big reason it is often forgotten about when discussing Marvel$MRVL releases. However, the movie deserves as much credit and praise as either of the Spider-Verse movies, and it proved that Marvel$MRVL properties could succeed as big-screen award-winning animated releases. The movie is based on the Big Hero 6 characters that debuted in 1998, created by Steven T. Seagle and Duncan Rouleau, although the miniseries they debuted in had the creative team of Scott Lobdell and Gus Vasquez. They also crossed over with Alpha Flight that same year and then again in 2004. With all that said, the movie had little to do with the story from the comics, and it became almost unrecognizable compared with the books. Instead, this is an alternate-world movie that has now broken completely away from Marvel$MRVL. Big Hero 6 focuses on a young boy named Hiro Hamada, a brilliant robotics prodigy who is drifting through life until his brother dies. He then comes around and realizes that he has a life ahead of him that involves science and camaraderie. He works with his brother’s friends, all scientific geniuses, and together they become a superhero team using their scientific knowledge and inventions. The world is brilliantly realized, taking place in a city called San Fransokyo, an amalgam of San Francisco and Tokyo, and between that and the fan-favorite Baymax healthcare robot, the film became a massive critical and commercial success. Big Hero 6 Matches Up Well With Into the Spider-Verse$SPDR:INTO-SPIDER-VERSE Image Courtesy of Disney$DIS Critics loved Big Hero 6, awarding it a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score, while the audience score is even higher at 91%. It was also an award-winning success story, winning the Best Animated Feature award at the Oscars, an Annie Award, and five aw