All six episodes of Baymax! arrive Wednesday, June 29 on Disney+.
Big Hero 6's second animated spinoff series comes in the form of Baymax!, a gentle, jovial run of six minisodes designed to comfort and delight. At around nine minutes each, give or take, these short adventures feature lovable, inflatable doctor-bot Baymax patrolling its bustling San Fransokyo neighborhood in search of those in need of medical — and emotional — assistance. It's light, rewarding content for those looking for a brief reprieve.
Baymax, as a character, is a triumph on more than one level. Like a reverse-Terminator, it's relentless in its mission to help others and much of the humor here comes in the form of our own reluctance to, basically, get a check up. Our own stubbornness, as humans, to practice self-care or even our fear to face a diagnosis collide with Baymax's programming to be both kind and logical. So it's no surprise that a few of these chapters involve a chase scenario, where the episode's patient literally scrambles to evade Baymax's dopey, determined care.
30 Rock's Scott Adsit reprises his role as Baymax (which he also did for Big Hero 6: The Series), once more providing a calm A.I. presence with notes of childlike innocence. The dichotomy between Baymax's bloated, cumbersome form and its approach to others, which feels tame and respectful, taps into its usual comedy, giving us a hero who'd rather do things right than do things fast, shirking all shortcuts to wellness.
Ryan Potter and Maya Rudolph are also back as Hiro and his Aunt Cass, to help embed these tiny capsules of attentive aid within the larger Big Hero 6 universe. The episodes themselves mostly run as single-serving stories, though the season wraps up in a serialized manner, nicely tying things together. The animation's crisp, the action is entertaining, and the interaction between Baymax and the fair citizenry of San Fransokyo is lovely.
Since the season is small in stature and breezes by quickly, there's not too much to dig into story-wise without delving into full spoilers, so let's just say that Baymax tenderly treats patients from all walks of life (and species) who are dealing with everything from allergies to phobias to menstruation (Episode 3 is a standout in both topic, humor, and messaging).
Baymax, sweetly slow on the uptake, is eternally well-meaning, and the series not only reinforces the importance of community but also the idea of people needing emotional support and how often that's connected to physical health. Baymax is "programmed" to care, but its packaging and demeanor never place you in a cold vacuum of robotics. Its drive to nurture all, as funnily boring and lumbering as that's supposed to be, feels as human as the need for us to flee from healing and self-reflection.