Ba la la la la! Baymax, the cute healthcare robot, has a new show

'Baymax!' returns to the fantastical city of San Fransokyo where the affable, inflatable, inimitable healthcare companion robot, Baymax sets out to do what he was programmed to do: help others. – Photos: Disney+ Hotstar

When Big Hero 6 was released in cinemas back in 2014, there were question marks about just how well an animated film about a relatively unknown Marvel superhero team would do.

That movie eventually went on to gross over US$$657.8mil (RM2.9bil) at the box office, the highest for an animated film that year, and even won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2015, eventually spawning a follow-up animated TV show as well.

While the titular Big Hero 6 was the name of the team of young superheroes led by robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada (voiced by Ryan Potter), the breakout character from the movie is without doubt Baymax, the cuddly, oh-so-huggable inflatable healthcare service robot who will go all out to make sure you get the proper medical care, whether you want it or not.

The character, voiced by Scott Adsit, is the star of a new series of shorts on Disney+ Hotstar, aptly titled Baymax!, which features the loveable robot wandering around the fictional city of San Fransokyo and helping random people on the street.

The new show focuses on Baymax helping one patient at a time, whether they want his help or not.

During a recent virtual global press conference to promote the show, series creator Don Hall, who also directed Big Hero 6, said the show started with just this idea of returning Baymax to what he was created to do.

“The television show at Disney TV had (already) furthered the story of all the characters in Big Hero 6. What I thought we could do with this series is just focus on Baymax and one patient at a time,” explained Hall, who also directed the Oscar-nominated Raya And The Last Dragon, and is currently working on Disney's next big animated feature, Strange World.

While the Big Hero 6 film and series were obviously superhero shows, Hall says they wanted to move away from that with Baymax!.

“It was very intentional to not focus on the superhero thing. Not because I don’t love superheroes – I love superheroes – but I wanted a different perspective to the series,” he said, adding that he was inspired by medical procedural shows he watched as a kid where “in an hour episode there’s a patient who has a thing, and the compassionate doctors end up healing that patient.”

“I thought that would be a fun and funny way to do a show about Baymax. The focus would be on a patient, and it’s just about Baymax trying to help somebody. So by design, it kind of left out the superhero thing and just let him be a more kind of grounded on the street type of superhero.”

Baymax's advice on how to apply bandages tends to stick on you.

He also said that part of the fun of the series was taking the relentless and unwavering way Baymax tries to help people and looking at it from the perspective of a patient who may not want to be helped.

“You've got somebody that doesn't wanna be helped and somebody that is relentlessly focused on helping no matter what, and there’s the comedy (of the show)” he said with a laugh.

That, he reckons, is the main appeal of Baymax, along with the fact that his design makes him so likable.

“From a design perspective, he's just so huggable! It goes back to those original early days on Big Hero 6, when we discovered this inflatable robot technology, then extrapolated that and built it into him. There's a sort of simplicity as well, and it was by design to not give him features, or to not give him a face, to see what we could do with less,” he said.

“Then, a lot of it falls upon Scott's performance as well. That's a huge factor in bringing Baymax to life,” Hall added.

Adsit had to record Baymax's lines for the entire show in a closet full of pillows.

For Adsit, whose television credits include 30 Rock, Veep and The Walking Dead, among others, the challenge was having to do the entirety of his voice work during the pandemic lockdown.

“I wasn't leaving my house, and I couldn't go to a studio, so I built one. I opened my closet doors and built a pillow fort, and that's where the entirety of that performance was made, just in my little closet full of pillows!” he said.

For Adsit, the most rewarding part of getting to voice Baymax was the legacy he is leaving behind.

“It’s pretty cool to be at the beginning of a legacy, and knowing that the character will go on after I'm gone. One day, someone else will officially take over the role from me... that's astounding to me. And that's the magic of the success and creativity of Disney,” he said.

“To know that I was at the beginning of something and helped define it... that just speaks of something larger than just my little life. And that's huge to me. It's quite an honour.”

Baymax! is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.