| “ | Extraordinary. I want your microbots at Krei Tech. | ” |
Alistair Krei is the wealthy and ambitious CEO of Krei Tech, introduced in Big Hero 6. He returns in Big Hero 6: The Series as a recurring character.
Background[]
Mr. Krei is a high-profile person from a very wealthy family. It is stated he even practiced origami with dollars since there were always plenty lying around, but his father never let him fold anything bigger than $50 bills[1]. Despite being rich, his parents were strict with him and wouldn't allow him to have anything that "showed weakness", including a pet bunny that he wanted[2]. He attended boarding school and during each summer when he was home, his parents sent him to Fire Scout Camp. As he did not have many friends and mistreated the few he had, he also would never celebrate Christmas[3]. Instead, he would spend his time alone in the woods learning about forest survival. Krei would go on and study at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, graduating as a distinguished alumnus, but Professor Callaghan claimed he ignored sound science and cut corners to get where he currently is.
Years later, Krei established Krei Tech Industries, a global technology company. Krei Tech funded the Silent Sparrow project, a teletransportation experiment. In the test, Krei ignored the security warnings and turned on the portals, which made it go awry and caused the portals to suck everything inside them, including the test's pilot. Following this, Akuma Island, where the test took place, was placed under quarantine and left deserted and Robert Callaghan sought revenge against Krei for this since the pilot was his daughter, thus plotting his vengeance behind the scenes.
Official Description[]
- San Fransokyo Institute of Technology's most illustrious alumn and owner of the biggest technology company in the world, Krei Tech, is always on the hunt for the next big thing. Krei attends the showcase at San Fransokyo Tech and is overwhelmingly impressed by Hiro's ingenuity.[4]
Personality[]
As a businessman, Krei is economically inclined and morally complex. As an aspirator, he has reached his goals and keep his high position in appearing to the public as an energetic, confident, and affluent man who tries to improve people's lives. However, he is prone to lose himself in his ambitions and unmasks recklessness, arrogance, and ignorance; guided by his self-interest.
Being a billionaire, Krei uses his money to influence people and obtain his goals such as when he told Hiro, after offering to buy Hiro's microbots, that he was offering him more money than any fourteen-year-old could imagine. He constantly tries to obtain the best technology for his business. When he cannot get what he wants, he tries other methods, some of which are morally or legally questionable, such as ripping off people's ideas, blackmailing, or ignoring the rules to get things done faster. This has reflected in his own company, having a record of releasing its products too soon and Callaghan trying to get revenge for the experiment that made him lose his daughter.
After the formation of Big Hero 6, he has used them for his goals as well, getting to the point of threatening to reveal their identities if they do not help him. Thanks to them, he has managed to incarcerate people that have taken advantage of him and his company like Momakase, who was confronted by Big Hero 6, but Krei took the credit for her arrest since she had stolen from his company; as well as Mel Meyer, getting the man imprisoned for trying to get an invention back from him, despite Krei being guilty of his actions as he broke his promise of using his technology for fun things only, and then making his drones attack him.
He has also been shown to be jealous of Liv Amara and her company, Sycorax. He has little regard for his adversaries, and most of the time, he has managed to get away with his plans and not get caught over his shady business deals but has suffered some material losses as well.
Krei also constantly forgets the names of the people closest to him, such as calling Fred "Ted", Ian "Ethan", Honey Lemon "Honey Lemur", and completely forgetting his own assistant's name thinking it's "Jodie" rather than "Judy".
However, despite his amoral traits, Krei is not truly malicious, in that he does not mean to hurt anyone. Rather, he does not think before acting or put any effort into improving the conditions of his business. It is also implied that the reason Krei acts this way is because his parents forbid him from showing weaknesses during his youth and were strict with him. Therefore, it can be hard for him to tell sometimes what it is showing weakness and what is simply making the safe and right decision. A trait that would often lead to things like when he went ahead with sending Abigail into the portal despite the irregularity that was found.
Yet, Mr. Krei is also shown to have a softer side to himself shown especially in the episode Muira-Horror when he helps Hiro and Go Go escape from a mutated Ned Ludd using his vast knowledge of nature he was not shown to have before and often being nicer to Hiro whom he seems to have grown to like since the latter became his intern sometimes ruffling his hair to Hiro's usual enjoyment or showing other forms of affection towards him.
Appearance[]
Krei is a blonde man. He wears a blue blazer which, in the film, is more detailed and shows thin, vertical white stripes. He is rarely seen wearing other types of clothing unless he is on vacation or one time in the woods. Krei also has a pretty well-built body, just as shown in "Food Fight".
Powers and Abilities[]
Krei is one of the few major characters who does not possess any powers or outstanding abilities, nor does he own or wear any special equipment. Most of the time he simply gets people to do the hard jobs for him, whether by paying them or forcing them somehow.
- Origami skills: During his date with Aunt Cass, he folded a bill into a crane. In turn, Cass folded it into a shape similar to Krei.
- Knowledge of Nature: When trying to escape from Muirahara Woods with Hiro and Go Go, Krei demonstrated his knowledge of nature and survivalist skills. This was first shown when he tried to warn the teens not to take the path with extensive foliage due to the fact that it means that a river is nearby. He also uses his knowledge to mask his own, along with Hiro and Go Go's, scent using mud, and crafting a wood brace to sustain Go Go's twisted ankle.
History[]
Big Hero 6[]
Krei is first introduced when he attended Hiro Hamada's SFIT presentation of Microbots. Along with his assistant, Krei walked up to the boy and his friends to check out one of the bots. Krei offered to buy them which greatly flattered Hiro, but Professor Callaghan intervened and told Hiro not to do it. Hiro thought it over and politely thanked but declined Krei's offer. Krei tried stealing one of the Microbots silently. However, Tadashi noticed this and Krei gave it back, pretending he had forgotten he had it, then left.
That night, the hall was set on fire and Tadashi was killed by an explosion when he tried going inside to save Professor Callaghan. Later, Hiro found out someone was replicating his Microbots and set off with Baymax to find the responsible and arrest them. Go Go, Honey Lemon, Wasabi, and Fred joined the quest, but when they found the masked suspect at the docks, he chased them and threw to the ocean. Hiro and the gang then went to Fred's Mansion, where Hiro drew the Silent Sparrow symbol from one of the pieces the mysterious man was moving. Fred assumed this man was Krei due to his comic-book tropes always having rich important men being the villains and that, "Krei wanted your microbots and you said no. Rules don't apply to a man like Krei." but Hiro felt, "The guy's too high profile." Baymax also revealed he had scanned the man's health data, so Hiro created battle armors for each one of his friends and looked for the man with this information until it pointed them to Akuma Island.
Upon arriving, the gang entered the abandoned facility and saw security recordings of the Silent Sparrow test, and the footage makes Fred's previous theory that the mystery man was Mr. Krei more believable, and that Mr. Krei was using the microbots to try to bring the project back. Soon, they were attacked by the masked man but found out it was not Mr. Krei, but rather, Callaghan, who had faked his death. Hiro attempted to use Baymax to murder Callaghan out of rage for Tadashi's death, but his friends prevented this, and later played more footage that showed the pilot of the test was Callaghan's daughter. They now realized that Callaghan became Yokai to try to take revenge, and after mending everything among them, set off to stop him.
Callaghan rushed to Krei Tech, where Alistair himself was giving a speech to inaugurate his company's new campus.
Callaghan then captured him and used the Microbots to lift the portal, activating it to suck all of the Krei Tech building inside it. Hiro and friends arrived to fight Callaghan once more, eventually making him run out of Microbots and destroying the headband that controlled them, thus stopping the machine. Hiro and Baymax come down with the others to find the portal still on, "We have to shut it down." Mr. Krei tells him, "We can't. The containment field is failing, the portal is gonna tear itself apart." They begin to clear the area before the explosion when Baymax detects life inside proving Abigail is still alive. He and Hiro decide to go in to save her, but Krei tries to convince them not to afraid they won't make it. Hiro tells him, "She's alive in there. Someone has to help." Hiro came out with Abigail Callaghan, although Baymax was sadly left inside as the portal closed after sacrificing himself to save Hiro and Abigail. Callaghan was then arrested, and Krei Tech was eventually rebuilt. Hiro also managed to rebuild Baymax, so his gang became a superhero team known as the Big Hero 6 who decided to help out anyone who needed them, in honor of Tadashi.
Krei, however, knew Big Hero 6's real identities as Hiro had taken off his helmet while talking to Callaghan, but kept the secret to himself for a while. In the end credits, he was shown dedicating a new showcase hall to Tadashi and Hiro accepted the honor on behalf of his late brother.
Big Hero 6: The Series[]
Krei comes back as a major character in the series. Although many might think that the issue with Callaghan would've humbled Krei quite a bit, this isn't the case. He's just as arrogant and careless as he was in the film. He's often targeted by villains who work for Obake whom the team more than often have to save him from. Although their relationship suggests they can hardly stand each other, Krei has shown gratitude to the team by keeping their identities secret; but not even this is not concrete as he once threatened to reveal their secret identities if they refused to fix the Buddy Bots in Aunt Cass Goes Out. Though he was unaware of it, his actions in Season 1 played a vital role in Obake's evil schemes.
Season 1[]
Being extremely ambitious, he did not want to miss the chance of having a neurotransmitter of his own and asked his scientists to replicate Hiro's work. Later, he showed the prototype to his assistant, taking her to a warehouse where he hid the invention. Unknown to both, a thief named Dibs, who had recently stolen Honey Lemon's chem-purse was hiding in the warehouse and overheard that the invention was worth billions.
When Krei and his employee left, Dibs came out and tried the headband on. An accident with it and the chem-purse soon absorbed his whole body and turned him into a gelatinous mutant monster. Dibs tried to get a hold of his new body but failed, until he discussed with his friend Felony Carl about it and realized Krei was the only one who knew how the headband worked.
Dibs then broke into Krei Tech while Krei had his shape sculpted into a statue. Dibs first took the statue, but soon returned it and kidnapped Alistair instead. Dibs took him to a skyscraper and said he would let him go once he explained how the invention worked. Krei at first tried to take the headband, but seeing himself unable to do it, told Dibs he just had to think and the neurotransmitter would work by itself naturally.
Both of them were found by Big Hero 6, relieving Krei as he knew they would save him again, though acting arrogant about this. Honey Lemon spoke with Dibs into making the best out of the situation, and while they talked, Krei tried throwing one of Honey's chem-balls at Dibs to get his invention back, only to fall down the high building because of a helicopter strobe light hit his eyes. Dibs however saved him and realized that what Honey said was right—though not in the way anyone expected, because he decided to stop being a petty thief and become a supervillain instead, adopting the name "Globby", and stealing Krei's wallet without anyone noticing, then escaping from the scene by swinging away.
Alistair then hires a professional sushi chef called Momakase in "Food Fight", who claimed she was the best at her job. Unknown to him, Momakase was also a thief who had been hired by Mr. Yama to steal a prototype Gravitational Disruptor from Krei's safe. She looked at Krei angrily when he dipped the sushi in the soy sauce, but Krei ignored her complaints and kept eating. He then felt numb and unable to move due to a poison added to the fish by Momakase, who proceeded to take the anti-gravity device and slice everything in the office. Krei called Big Hero 6 for help, and when they arrived told them that she only stole half of it. Fred found the other half and Krei asked them not to reveal anyone where he kept it.
Soon, Big Hero 6 faced Momakase and ended up capturing her while Krei took the credit for her arrest and was interviewed by Bluff Dunder.
In "Aunt Cass Goes Out," he invites many of San Fransokyo's wealthy residents for a presentation to pre-order a new security robot called Buddy Guard. Fred attends with Go Go, Hiro, and Baymax in place of his father, who was unable to go. After the presentation, the team questions the robots' safeguards, but Krei ignores and says it does have many.
Back at his office, Krei is ambushed by Dr. Mel Meyer, who had sold him part of the technology used for the Buddy Guards and wanted it back because the robots were dangerous. Krei pretended acting nice to make him go away, but Mel insisted, so Krei called some Buddy Guards to take Mel away.
He and his assistant then went to the SFIT and admitted the robots had some dangerous glitches, but Hiro and his friends refused to help him. He responded that otherwise, he would reveal to the world that they are Big Hero 6, so all of them were shocked and left with no option. Aunt Cass then walked into the lab to give Hiro the chemistry homework he forgot at home and accidentally bumps into Krei but manages to catch him keeping him from falling. Her and Krei instantly felt attracted for each other. Cass and Krei decided to go on a date, much to Hiro's disgust and annoyance.
Later, Alistair visited Lucky Cat Café to take Cass to a restaurant, giving Cass some expensive flowers which she asks Hiro to put in water which he instead dumped in the toilet. Cass and Krei then left to their date, followed by Hiro because he wanted to ruin it; and also by Mel, who was trying to steal Krei's ID to get his invention's plans back. Hiro made a waiter spill food on Krei's suit, so Krei went to the restroom where he was surprised by Mel. Mel then used the flexible display technology to duplicate Krei's face on his own and left to Krei Tech. Cass followed Mel, believing he was the real Alistair, but Hiro noticed his weird behavior and Baymax let him know that he was not Krei. Hiro then found Krei tied up in the restroom and alerted Big Hero 6 to help them.
The team and Alistair waited for Mel at Krei Tech, and after arguing, Mel gave the plans back while Krei accepted not to release the Buddy Guard robots for sale until they were fixed. Krei, however, tried using a trio of the drones to scare Mel, which led to more of them being activated due to a fire alarm triggered by Fred, and then the robots started chasing and attacking everyone. After the drones were all destroyed, Mel was arrested under Krei's order, although Cass also blamed him for what happened. Realizing Krei's real nature, Cass stopped taking an interest in him.
Soon, he was involved in one of Obake's plans; a mysterious villain who gained information on Big Hero 6 little by little. Obake anonymously sold Krei a chip in the black market, announcing that the drive was cutting-edge technology and bidding it for an incredibly high price. Krei acquired the chip at night in the sea while on his "Kreifisher" boat, where Obake sent it via a torpedo. However, Obake's plan also involved hiring the Mad Jacks, a group of expensive high-tech mercenaries to steal the chip back. The Mad Jacks attacked Krei but they were stopped by Hiro, Fred, and Baymax, who were on night patrol.
The Mad Jacks reported to Obake, who was angry and told them to finish the mission at all costs (though Big Hero 6's involvement was also part of the plan) so the Jacks broke into Krei Tech to abduct Alistair, then took him to their aerial base. With no choice or way to escape, Krei lent them the chip and so the Jacks dropped him at his building, leaving him hanging from an antenna.
Right there he called Big Hero 6 to get back the drive, so the heroes fought the Mad Jacks and successfully got it back, though the Jacks escaped. They then returned it, so Krei decided to plug it into his computer right away instead of giving it to any other of his workers for inspection, out of fear someone might try to steal it again. Much to his disappointment and anger, Krei found that the chip was actually empty, and thought that everything that had happened was for nothing.
Unknown to him, it was actually Obake's intention for Krei to act this way so that he wouldn't discover that the chip had hacked into Krei Tech's files, allowing Obake to see all of the information that the company had, including Hiro's real identity. Next, Obake would discover the rest of Big Hero 6's alter-egos by stealing an animatronic robot called Noodle Burger Boy. Obake sent him to acquire their secrets and the robot fought the team, but they found that the robot had the Krei Tech logo on his foot.
Honey Lemon, Fred and Go Go then went to see Krei to question him about it, so Krei told them that Noodle Burger Boy was an old abandoned military project and that when the Noodle Burger company approached them requesting Noodle Burger Boy to be made, Krei Tech utilized the project and turned it into their mascot. After revealing this, Krei simply told them to leave if there was nothing else to ask.
In "Big Hero 7" Alistair is seen rehearsing an announcement for Krei Tech's newest invention: Micro-Batteries. However, he was being silently watched by High Voltage, a supervillain duo that had fought Big Hero 6 in the past. One of them, Barb, took the battery to get her electric powers back and tried to escape with it until her partner (and daughter) Juniper fought her for it since the duo had split up and disliked each other now. Krei interrupted them and said that in front of them was another battery, so they took both and escaped. Having seen their family problem, Krei simply decided to call his own mother.
He is seen at his office looking at pictures of himself in "Big Problem", though he is soon scared by Orso Knox, a man he was supposed to meet that day but instead appeared as a mutated beast. Krei used his Buddy Guard robots to attack the monster (who he didn't know was Knox), but the drones were quickly destroyed so Krei hid under his desk and called for Big Hero 6. The beast did not attack him and instead told him "This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine", then left.
When Fred, Go Go Tomago and Honey Lemon arrived, Krei was nervous and shaking. Regardless, he tried to sound heroic by saying he was "barely able to fight it off", though his assistant told the heroes that he just hid the whole time. Krei then described the beast and what it told him and said that he was also supposed to meet with Orso Knox. He, however, blamed Orso's absence on Liv Amara, who he was jealous of. The trio then leaves to find more clues about the monster, and Krei is later seen at an SFIT gala held for Liv Amara, though he still acted jealous and angry. Hiro saw Krei and tried calming his jealousy with the same quote that his friends had told him earlier due to Hiro himself being jealous of Karmi, but Krei didn't listen and said that Liv was the worst. Soon, the team has to face Orso Knox once more, so the place is evacuated and Krei leaves.
Krei also appears in the finale episode "Countdown to Catastrophe". Globby tries stealing a briefcase from Krei Tech but Hiro and Baymax stop him, then take back the case to Krei. He however only shows that it had a piece of trash, which was originally from a failed energy amplifier which his scientists attempted time before. Krei tells Hiro that the technology was ultimately deemed impossible, but Hiro still wanted to attempt creating an amplifier for his SFIT semester's final project.
Fred also comes up with a plan to capture Globby, so he and Mini-Max go ask Krei to pretend he finished the energy amplifier so that Globby would attempt to steal it and be captured in the process. Krei initially refused and looked at Mini-Max to admire him, and soon Mini-Max reminds Krei that Globby had stolen his wallet, so Krei agrees to the plan upon remembering it.
Next day, Krei announces the "amplifier" locked in a briefcase and tries to stall when Globby doesn't show up soon, but then he arrives along with Noodle Burger Boy and his Dumplings, making it more difficult for the heroes to capture either of the villains, especially since Hiro was busy working on his amplifier. In the end, Globby and Noodle Burger Boy escape, so Krei gets sad that Globby stole the briefcase too because it was a gift from his lawyer.
Krei later attends the SFIT expo and looks at Karmi's project which Liv Amara was also admiring, so Krei laughs when they make a joke but then stands there awkwardly when both girls stop laughing and look at him. Honey Lemon then presents her project about Lenore Shimamoto which Krei watches and is shocked when Honey plays a phonograph cylinder that reveals Shimamoto was responsible for the Great Catastrophe of 1906. Soon Momakase, Globby, and Noodle Burger Boy attack the SFIT expo, so Krei leaves the place.
Other Versions[]
Krei makes a brief appearance in Volume 2 of the Baymax manga. Unlike his main counterpart, Krei in the manga story has no involvement with the creation of the Silent Sparrow portal and is absent for the entirety of the main storyline. However, in the prologue of the final chapter, it is shown that Hiro meets him at some point after he and his friends become Big Hero 6.
Trivia[]
- Krei was the first person to learn Big Hero 6's true identities.
- Fred, being from a wealthy family himself, mentioned that Alistair Krei is the richest man in San Fransokyo.
- Since Krei is 44 years old and the story takes place in 2032, Krei had to have been born in 1988.
- Coincidentally, the microbot Krei returned to Hiro was the same one Hiro used to find Yokai. So, in a way, Krei inadvertently helped Hiro find out who killed Tadashi.
- Alistair Krei is the third Disney character from the Disney Animated Canon to be voiced by Alan Tudyk, the first being King Candy from Wreck-It Ralph, and the second being the Duke of Weselton from Frozen.
- He is considered the first character not to be portrayed as an antagonist, despite having a hand in creating the film's true antagonist. Before the film was released, Krei was rumored by fans to have been Yokai. Because of this, Krei is actually a red herring, similar to the Duke of Weselton.
- Alistair Krei could be considered to be a subversion of a Disney villain who appeared good at first. In this case, Krei is assumed by the audience to be the real bad guy but is revealed to be benevolent (even if he's not without flaws).
- In one of the first drafts of the script, Alistair Krei would actually have been Yokai's true identity. In this version of the script, due to the fact that the development of a pioneering defense project costed several times more than it was supposed to, and his company would be on the verge of bankruptcy because San Fransokyo's mayor refused to use it on the town, he would have become Yokai in order to create a menace to the city, in order to force the mayor to buy the project from him. He would have brainwashed and used Robert Callaghan and Tadashi, who would have survived the explosion as scapegoats. This idea was scrapped as the production team felt that Krei being the villain would not have as big an impact on the story.
Appearances[]
| Big Hero 6: The Series - Season 1 | |||
| 1-2. "Baymax Returns": | Absent | 13. "Small Hiro One": | Absent |
| 3. "Issue 188": | Absent | 14. "Kentucky Kaiju": | Absent |
| 4. "Big Roommates 2": | Appears | 15. "Rivalry Weak": | Absent |
| 5. "Fred's Bro-Tillion": | Absent | 16. "Fan Friction": | Absent |
| 6. "Food Fight": | Appears | 17. "Mini-Max": | Absent |
| 7. "Muirahara Woods": | Absent | 18. "Big Hero 7": | Appears |
| 8. "Failure Mode": | Absent | 19. "Big Problem": | Appears |
| 9. "Aunt Cass Goes Out": | Appears | 20. "Steamer's Revenge": | Absent |
| 10. "The Impatient Patient": | Appears | 21. "The Bot-Fighter": | Absent |
| 11. "Mr. Sparkles Loses His Sparkle": | Absent | 22. "Obake Yashiki": | Mentioned |
| 12. "Killer App": | Appears | 23-25. "Countdown to Catastrophe": | Appears |
| Big Hero 6: The Series - Season 2 | |||
| 1. "Internabout": | Appears | 14. "Mini-Maximum Trouble": | Mentioned |
| 2. "Seventh Wheel": | Appears | 15. "El Fuego": | Absent |
| 3. "Prey Date": | Absent | 16. "The Globby Within": | Appears |
| 4. "Something's Fishy": | Absent | 17. "Hardlight": | Appears |
| 5. "Nega-Globby": | Absent | 18. "The Present": | Appears |
| 6. "The Fate of the Roommates": | Absent | 19. "Hiro The Villain": | Appears |
| 7. "Muira-Horror!": | Appears | 20. "Portal Enemy": | Appears |
| 8. "Something Fluffy": | Appears | 21. "Fred the Fugitive": | Absent |
| 9. "Supersonic Sue": | Absent | 22. "Major Blast": | Absent |
| 10. "Lie Detector": | Absent | 23. "Fear Not": | Appears |
| 11. "Write Turn Here": | Absent | 24-25. "Legacies": | Appears |
| 12-13. "City of Monsters": | Absent | ||
| Big Hero 6: The Series - Season 3 | |||
| 1. "The Hyper-Potamus Pizza-Party-Torium": | Absent | 6A. "Big Hero Battle": | Absent |
| 6B. "Go Go the Woweroo": | Absent | ||
| 2A. "Mayor for a Day": | Absent | 7A. "The New Nega-Globby": | Absent |
| 2B. "The Dog Craze of Summer": | Absent | 7B. "De-Based": | Absent |
| 3A. "Trading Chips": | Absent | 8A. "The MiSFIT": | Absent |
| 3B. "Mini Noodle Burger Max": | Absent | 8B. "Return to Sycorax": | Appears |
| 4A. "A Friendly Face": | Appears | 9A. "A Fresh Sparkles": | Absent |
| 4B. "Big Chibi 6": | Mentioned | 9B. "Noodle Burger Ploy": | Absent |
| 5A. "Cobra and Mongoose": | Absent | 10A. "Krei-oke Night": | Appears |
| 5B. "Better Off Fred": | Absent | 10B. "The Mascot Upshot": | Absent |
Gallery[]
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An Image Gallery is available for Alistair Krei.
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