Why Disney's upcoming animated film may be one of the studio's most important 

Why Disney's upcoming animated film may be one of the studio's most important

\'Big Hero 6\' is only the third movie in the Disney animated canon to star Asian protagonists

Born in the United States but now living in Hong Kong, Jeremy Blum is a half-American, half-Taiwanese writer. Prior to joining SCMP, he studied journalism at the University of Hong Kong and lived in Taiwan for two years. He has previously written on a wide variety of topics, including communist video games, Asian American start-ups and the history of dumpling restaurants in Taiwan. You can follow him on Twitter @blummer102

Nose jobs, champagne and Lamborghinis: A hot mess of ‘ultra-rich Asians’ in Vancouver

Time to retire the native English teacher scheme

It's time for radical political groups in Hong Kong to face hard political realities

Occupy Central supporters should beware the risks of breaking the law

\'Big Hero 6\' protagonist Hiro Hamada and his pet robot Baymax. Photo: Disney

, the upcoming 54th Disney animated feature, is an important film in many ways.

It will be the latest entry in Disney’s impressive cartoon canon, standing alongside animated heavyweights like

It will also be the first Disney animation to be adapted from a Marvel property, which in this case is a little-known comic book that first debuted in 1998. Considering that Disney has owned Marvel’s repertoire of characters since 2009 but been fairly slow at integrating them into animation, memorabilia and the theme park business, it’s about time. 

will be one of the very few Disney animated features to star protagonists of colour.

refers to a team of superheroes that act as the protectors of Japan. In the upcoming film, which is due for a November release in the US, the team has been re-imagined in a more international setting that is still rooted in Asian imagery – “San Fransokyo”, a city designed to be a mishmash of San Francisco and Tokyo iconography.

At the centre of the film is Hiro Hamada, a teenage robotics expect who builds a friendly robot named Baymax and assembles a team of heroes to combat crime.

While it might sound a bit cliché at first, the fact that a presumably Japanese-American protagonist is headlining this film is huge.

Despite Disney’s longstanding reputation with quality animation that has inspired children across the globe, calling the company “culturally progressive” would be generous at best.

In fact, in over fifty years of animation, the company has only produced a handful of features starring non-white main characters (animal protagonists like Bambi don’t count).

starred protagonists of East Asian or Pacific Islander descent – which means that

An early trailer for the movie looks promising. Hiro Hamada is shown placing robotic armour on his squishy companion Baymax, and the clip is filled with the fine animation and gags that have defined Disney for generations and will likely drive families in droves to see this new film.

also stands poised to appeal to comic book buyers and supporters of the superhero genre – a dedicated, enthusiastic market that Disney probably should’ve dipped into sooner.

has the potential to once again represent Asian faces in the world of animation. And the timing is good. While 1998’s

may have delivered a tale based on the ancient Chinese legend of a girl who rides into battle to take the place of her ailing father,

stands to capitalize on popular culture rather than history, riding the wave of “coolness” that Japanese manga and anime have delivered to the wide world.

The film’s setting and story also make sense from a business standpoint, since American movies featuring smatterings of the Orient tend to perform well internationally. (DreamWorks Animation’s 2008 hit

became the first animated film to earn more than 100 million yuan at the Chinese box office, and 2012’s

, a blockbuster inspired by Japanese creature features, recouped all of its costs thanks to impressive openings in China and Japan.)

Despite these positive prospects, naysayers could justifiably argue that

’s quasi-Japanese features may ultimately be nothing more than the animated equivalent of yellow face. The truth is, audiences can’t know for sure until they watch the film for themselves.

But in an age where white superheroes dominate the box office (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, everyone in the Avengers…) and there have been 53 animated Disney films starring all manner of princesses, animals and anthropomorphic objects, I’d say that it\'s due time to see something that finally combines the genres together and throws a few coloured faces into the mix.

Because Asian Disney fans could use some big heroes too. And if we’re to get

of them with this movie, as the title implies – well, the more the merrier.

Fat Godzilla, Caucasian samurai and giant robots - The Asianisation of Hollywood films

SCMP.com SCMP Tablet Edition SCMP Mobile Edition 10-year news archive

After reading this article, people also read

European Central Bank may need to join the quantitative easing club

yeah. Kenai is native Canadian that was turned in to a bear.

that's true - Brother Bear did have a few Native American/Inuit characters in it, but they weren't exactly prominent roles since the animals took center stage...

also nobody remembers Brother Bear...it's definitely one of the lesser known Disney films.

Maybe fatty characters, as in Kung Fu Panda, sell.

Well if Kung Fu Panda proved anything its that Americans are willing to watch a funny family flick set in China as long as the story and characters are cute...so this could work! Then again, Kung Fu Panda starred a fat bear and not a human, so who knows

Voices from Tiananmen: Eyewitnesses look back to the spring of 1989

Dragon at the doorstep: Myanmar’s changing ties with China

Historic Hong Kong seen in newly released British video archives

INFOGRAPHIC: Here comes the rain again, Hong Kong's rainfall patterns since 1997

INFOGRAPHIC: Team-by-team historical results of every Hong Kong Sevens since 2000

Canada scraps millionaire visa scheme, ‘dumps 46,000 Chinese applications’

You're choking: Where particulate matter comes from

In the face of escalating physical violence, outspoken Chinese doctors take grievances online

Standing ovation or lost in translation? The 'accidental' popularity of American comedy shows in China

World Cup Fever Giveaway – adidas World Cup merchandise

Log in using your Facebook account. What\'s this?

Don\'t have an SCMP.com account? Subscribe Now!