Walt Disney
‘Big Hero 6’ is heading to the small screen.
The upcoming Big Hero 6 episodic animated series is apparently so good that it’s getting a second season before the first episode even airs this fall on Disney XD.
The series picks up immediately after the events of the first film, as Hiro (Ryan Potter), Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez), Wasabi (Khary Payton), Fred (Brooks Wheelan) and Go Go (Jamie Chung) continue their collaboration as a would-be superhero team, along with Baymax (Scott Adsit). All of the core cast members of the animated feature, including Maya Rudolph, are back As I noted when the show was announced, serialized television is a good fit for a property like Big Hero 6.
As good as the movie is, the film’s first act, where Hiro meets his brother’s college-age pals and wows them with his scientific genius, is somewhat more engaging than the rather conventional superhero origin story stuff that follows. The main cast is so charming that I’d just as happily watch them try to win the science fair as save the world. And with a television show, you can do both. That’s the new conundrum when it comes to fantasy and superhero adventure. I’m not even talking about crime dramas, female-centric melodramas and other “Hollywood doesn’t make this kind of thing anymore” genres.
Twenty years after Buffy the Vampire Slayer invented (or perfected) the long-form television season structure, television still has the flexibility to tell long stories with subplots on the side, and the production values of series now nearly match their big-screen cousins. It’s no secret that the CW DC Comics shows are superior in some ways to the DC Films universe offerings, especially in terms of character development–although I still argue that the existence of Supergirl validates the alternative grimdark Superman as a “Yes, and” option.
BIG HERO 6 THE SERIES