OK folks, here's my report from Big Hero 6 opening night at Disney's El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood! This was an amazing experience so I'm describing it as thoroughly as I can. No spoilers here so it's safe to read!
Getting there meant braving I-5 during rush hour (shudder), but I was determined! Thankfully we survived that ordeal in one piece. After making it to Hollywood, we grabbed a quick dinner and then emerged onto Hollywood Blvd. We were greeted by a huge Baymax on the roof of the building next to the El Capitan.
Of course we had to go treat ourselves to a Ghirardelli sundae from the
Disney store next door to the theater.
For my daughter I had purchased the upgraded VIP ticket that included a limited edition pin. This pin is pretty cool, the red Big Hero 6 part pulls out and slides back into the main pin. Those two sets of black Mickey ears are just the rubber pin backs, not part of the pin.
Inside was a Baymax display where one of the theater "cast members" kindly offered to take our photo.
The interior of the theater from our awesome front-row balcony seats. The only downside was the the front of the balcony is way too close to the seats, so your legs are kind of cramped.
Down front was the organ where
Rob Richards was playing organ renditions of Disney tunes, including
The Circle of Life,
Be Our Guest and of course
Let It Go! The organ sinks into the floor when the show starts.
Before the show, an MC raffled off some prizes including passes to the upcoming film
Into the Woods and a couple of
Disneyland Park Hopper passes. We didn't win anything, which was probably a good thing since you needed to be in LA for most of the prizes and we aren't local. Then came a big surprise -
Ryan Potter, the voice actor for Hiro, took to the stage to welcome us to the show! Yup, we got to see the main character's voice actor live on stage!
Next up were the trailers. There was a trailer for
Into the Woods (opens Christmas Day),
Tomorrowland (May 2015),
Inside Out (June 2015), and a brief ad for the live action
Cinderella (March 2015).
At this point it was finally time for the - laser show?!?! Yes, before the feature there's a full blown laser show, and guess who showed up on stage during the show!
That's not just a prop, it was a walking, talking, dancing (sort of!) Baymax, in the flesh (err, vinyl?).
Now we had to put on our 3D glasses and the film started rolling, but there was one final diversion before the main attraction - Disney's new short
Feast, about a little dog named Winston who loves human foods. I won't give anything away, but this short is delightful - super cute and funny and we all enjoyed it very much. I'm assuming that this will be shown with the film everywhere so most moviegoers will get to experience it.
Finally, the main attraction,
Big Hero 6! Thankfully, after this epic journey and intro to the film, we weren't disappointed. It's a very good movie with lots of heart and adventure. I give it a solid 8/10. My chief complaint is that some things were too predictable. I've got to give kudos to the environment designers - San Fransokyo is an amazing fusion of San Francisco and Tokyo. I've only personally been in San Francisco, but it seemed to me to be a perfect blend of those two places. That's all for now folks, I hope you enjoy the movie when you see it!
Really looking forward to seeing it!
I think this is going to be very successful but won't reach Frozen's level domestically. How it does overseas will determine a lot. I am very curious to see how it does in Korea, China and Japan. It is already a hit in Russia where it opened first.
All of the characters were just friends and nothing else, which I thought was great. Personally my favorite character is GoGo, but I kinda expected that-she was my favorite from character descriptions too. I would have liked to see more with her, but it IS Hiro's and Baymax's story, after all. So it's all good.
