‘Big Hero 6’ Contains a ‘Zootopia’ Easter Egg Only the Most Hardcore Fans Could Have Noticed
Posted on Thursday, April 6th, 2017 by Ben Pearson
We know Walt Disney Animation is fond of dropping easter eggs into their own films as a way to give shout-outs to other projects in the company’s past or ones currently in development. Even though these references are often hidden in the background, most eagle-eyed fans can pick them out if they look hard enough. But I just learned about a Zootopia easter egg in Big Hero 6 that is so obscure, I’m convinced even the world’s biggest Disney fans probably have no idea what it is.
The sharp-eyed fanatics over at OhMyDisney spotted the shout-out, which is contained within this image. See if you can see it, too:
Got it? I didn’t either. But if you take a closer look at Honey Lemon’s phone near the center of the frame, you may recognize a familiar fox from Zootopia. Yep, her phone case is based on an early character design for Nick Wilde, the crafty con man (con fox?) voiced by Jason Bateman.
Big Hero 6 Art Director Scott Watanabe explained the connection:
Early on, Honey Lemon’s phone case was designed to look like a bear, to conjure up a ‘honey’ connection, but we came across a few similar designs in our research. I began to think of other animals and Nick Wilde, the fox from Zootopia (which was in production at the time), came to mind. Thought it might be a fun Easter egg for fans to look out for in the film.
Watanabe also shared a look at a piece of art his team created to show the animators what Honey Lemon’s phone should look like:
I mean, that kind of looks like Nick Wilde, but basing this design on an early version of the character seems like a tiny bit of a cheat. Sure, it technically works as a reference, but without the green shirt to give us a fighting chance to recognize the easter egg, I can see how fans might have assumed that was a cat on Honey’s case and not a fox.
Regarding obscure Disney Easter eggs, this ranks pretty high on the list. For me, this is about as tough to spot as a painting of The Little Mermaid’s fish buddy Flounder during one of the songs in Moana:
But maybe that’s just me. Did you notice this Zootopia easter egg in Big Hero 6? If so, well done – I hope you’re putting those skills to good use as a forensic analyst or something.
