And he tells us why it never happened.
Its a little emotional.
Ad content continues below
We had a young man working with us, who we lost.
It was Andy, and he was helping us in the marketing department.
It was surprising and sudden.
He was relatively young, and unfortunately we lost him.
Were talking about a film about loss.
He was a lovely, lovely man.
You seem to have made a conscious point here to make a comic book movie without guns.
It would have been easy to go the same way and get the same rating.
So was that a day one decision?
Were there any other boundaries that you set yourself?
But I think there was a common awareness that if we could, itd be really great.
Which, you know…
Were sat in the UK wondering what just happened!
Was it an easy desire?
Was there a point where it changed the film?
Because of the construct of the film, it wasnt necessary.
You dont need guns.
The mind is the greatest weapon in the world.
You know, its funny, because I think storytelling is a craft.
I dont get the sense that people are any less or more right now.
I give that piece of advice because it changed my life.
So who gave the advice to you?
A guy by the name of Bob Gilbert, a great mentor who became a great friend.
I was in my undergraduate year, I think I was a freshman.
I was studying theatre at the time, and he pulled me aside and said read more.
I was all about, at that time, performance.
He just said read more.
It was the greatest lesson.
It is the fundamental tool with which I work.
Did it change the quantity you read, or the breadth?
Its interesting, because I can remember, for me, I took a renaissance literature course.
I find now I read way more historical stuff than I do dramatic literature.
Im a big non-fiction fan.
But that feeds me.
When I was a kid, I loved history, because history to me was a big story.
This is the bit now where you tell me Big Hero 6 was based on a true story?
[Laughs] You didnt know that?!
In recent years theres been a procession of films that could segue into other stories.
Yeah, and those were so separate from what we were doing.
They werent even done in the same building.
It was a different studio.
The film industry is kind of rife with [sequels] right now.
The sequel is something that is very much in demand from certain business units.
Would it be fair to say that conversations are more prevalent now than, say, five years ago?
In terms of sequels?
No, not really.
Ah, talking aboutTangled.
WellTangled, there was a desire to somehow take it into a filmic sequel.
But the directors werent really interested in doing that.
Her hair was gone!
But it grows back!
Not in my case!
At the moment,The Rescuers Down Undersits out as the anomaly amongst Walt Disney Animation Studio projects.
And that was a totally different era!
Last question, then.
Obviously youre nominated for Oscars, BAFTAs, umpteen awards forBig Hero 6.
If you win, are you going to put a random word into your acceptance speech?
Youve piqued my curiosity!
I tried this last year with theFrozenteam.
I think we came up with the word pineapple or something.
Did they do it?
To be fair, they had a far more appropriate acceptance speech.
High stakes, I know.
How about the word sofa?
Ill get the word sofa in there.
Roy Conli, thank you very much
Big Hero 6 is out now in UK cinemas.
