Everyone's favorite healthcare companion is taking a break from his superhero job with Baymax!, now streaming. The Disney+ animated series revolves around the titular Big Hero 6 member as he ventures around San Fransokyo helping various people with everything from allergies affecting their family business to a young girl dealing with the trials of growing up.
Scott Adsit first brought Baymax to life in the Big Hero 6 movie, loosely based on the Marvel superhero team of the same name, and carried the role over to the Disney XD sequel series. Now, the character is getting his own series with Baymax! premiering this month on Disney+.
In anticipation of the show's premiere, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with star Scott Adsit to discuss Baymax!, his time in the franchise, bringing heart to a robotic character and more.
Screen Rant: I am very excited to talk about Baymax!, I have been a big fan of Big Hero 6 since the movie first came out. You've been with this franchise now almost a decade, what has it been like for you carrying Baymax through this whole journey?
Scott Adsit: Honor comes to mind first, being part of the Disney family and being trusted with something that is a legacy kind of character who will go on after I'm gone. That is a wonderful burden, which is no weight on my shoulders at all, because I feel so at home with everyone on the creative team at Disney. We all have the same goal, so we all work together really well and I feel very honored to be part of something so grandly intimate.
I remember in the press conference earlier, it was mentioned that the show has been in the works for about three years now, were you involved in the writers room during that time?
Scott Adsit: They don't need me at all. No, we have one writer, and she did a wonderful job. She, as we said in that press conference, really understands the characters and the tone. I love writing and I love writing cartoons, so if they ever asked me, I would love to jump in, but I don't think they need me, I think it's just perfect the way it is.
What was your reaction, then, when you first got your hands on the scripts for Baymax!?
Scott Adsit: I was really thrilled that it was about him being a nurse, about Baymax going around and helping people rather than punching them. That aspect of him is one that I kind of always knew in my head and had ideas about while we were making the film and the other series, and we never really got to explore it in any real way. But Don Hall, creator of the show, found a way to make it work and find a way to make Baymax's primary function be entertaining. That's a remarkable thing, because you think of cartoons generally are mice hitting cats over the head with pool cues and this is kindness being really funny, which is great.
I find the way you infuse a personality into Baymax to be just fascinating, especially when his power is low. What that is like for you really finding that balance of robotic personality with an actual emotion for him?
Scott Adsit: Yeah, it's always kind of a debate is whether he's feeling anything or he's just kind of living through his programming. My take on it is that if he has those emotions, he can't quite express them the way you and I do, but they're probably in there. He just doesn't have the facility, because he doesn't have eyebrows and he can't cry and he can't laugh. But I think, I'm not gonna say this is official, but I think he's feeling a lot of stuff when he's interacting with people, so I have to ride that line between sounding too robotic and sounding too emotional. It's a process and I need direction sometimes, but I think I think I finally got it.
I think you nailed it in Big Hero 6 originally and have certainly maintained it since. Speaking of feeling, these shorts are so emotional, even with how fast they have to go through their stories in their runtime, which would you say was the one that moved you the most to read?
Scott Adsit: Oof, well that would be hard to say. There's one about a guy named Mbita who is running the family business now that his family's gone. There's a kind of responsibility he has to his legacy from his family and when he realizes he can't do that business anymore, he has to wrestle with that and Baymax kind of helps him realize that progress is good and you can honor the past and still move forward and realize aspects of life, which may be unfamiliar, still have value and make make your life even richer. I like that one a lot.
I think that and the young girl getting her first period were my favorite episodes.
Scott Adsit: That was great too, just because it's treated so normally. It's not treated in any way but to say, "Yeah, this is what happens and this is how you get through it."
Baymax! Synopsis
Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Baymax! returns to the fantastical city of San Fransokyo where the affable, inflatable, inimitable healthcare companion, Baymax (voice of Scott Adsit), sets out to do what he was programmed to do: help others. The six-episode series of healthcare capers introduces extraordinary characters who need Baymax’s signature approach to healing in more ways than they realize. Created by Don Hall and produced by Roy Conli and Bradford Simonsen, filmmakers behind 2014’s Oscar-winning feature Big Hero 6, the series’ episodes are directed by Dean Wellins (Eps 1, 2, 6), Lissa Treiman (Ep 3), Dan Abraham (Ep 4) and Mark Kennedy (Ep 5).
Baymax! is now streaming on Disney+.