The third season of Big Hero 6 The Series is set to debut next week. In advance of the debut, we had the chance to chat with Executive Producers Bob Schooley, Mark McCorkle, and Nick Filippi about what they are excited to share about the new batch of episodes.
Laughing Place:
After two successful seasons when you had the slate to fill for season three, what were your initial thoughts?
Mark McCorkle:
I think we all love Noodle Burger Boy so much that we decided to definitely put a bigger spotlight on him, and this notion of him having this void in his life where he feels he needs a family. There was something rich about that. But also because of Noodle Burger Boy, something inherently comedic. But we knew we'd have both, we'd have some emotion, but we knew that would be fuel for the comedy fire. So I think we're definitely diving into this, seeing it as an opportunity for the writers and artists to push the envelope in different directions than we did in the past.
Laughing Place:
I'm a big fan of Noodle Burger Boy. And one thing that I noticed in this episode, between Noodle Burger, The Hyper-Potamus Pizza-Party-Torium, and going back to Kim Possible with Bueno Nacho, you guys create the world's best fictional restaurants.
Mark:
Yes! Thank you. That's the greatest compliment we've ever received in our career.
Bob Schooley:
We spend way too much time thinking about fictional restaurants.
Mark:
Yeah, eatertainment. If this cartoon thing doesn't pan out, eatertainment is where I would be.
Bob:
I feel like we should have gotten some royalties on the Naco from somewhere, but never happened sadly.
Laughingplace:
One thing that I think has been a through-line through your entire run, I think this takes something from the movie but really puts a spotlight on it, is the line of family. And family in the broadest sense of the word. What made you guys decide to focus on that element?
Bob:
I think the movie definitely set that up as a theme, and it's obviously what Hero lost between his parents and Tadashi. So, that has an emotional through-line for the whole series, sort of searching for a new family; which is obviously what the team is. And then obviously with Noodle Burger Boy, and previously even with Trina, trying to create a family on the villain side. It seemed like just an interesting parallel.
Mark:
I think it truly is a universal something everybody can relate to; that you need that. You need that support system. I think it just rings true. Whether it's about the good guys or the bad guys, we all need family.
Laughing Place:
One thing we noticed in the episode listing is it looks like you guys are moving to 15 minute episodes combined into one 30 minute. What does that provide to you as storytellers and artists in the new format?
Mark:
Well, definitely allows us to shift our style and just sort of work some different muscles. The writers, and board artists, and the directors really embrace this. And even though there's a higher comedy quotient, at the same time whenever there is an action scene, our team was just so great. Is so great at executing these action scenes. We still have that cinematic quality with more comedy, so it's pretty cool.
Bob:
And it really allowed us to explore some stories that maybe weren't 22 minute material. For example, one that we'd been kicking around from the beginning because we had some really great singers in our cast, Jenifer Lewis and Maya [Rudolph], let's do an episode with singing, with karaoke. And we could never quite figure out how that could fill a 22 minute episode, but for an 11 it was a lot of fun.
Laughing Place:
Are there any other moments like that in season three that, just as a tease, that you think fans will be excited for that we might not yet know?
Nick Filippi:
I think our K-Pop band episode, I think that one is a lot of fun with a lot of fun songs.
Bob:
It's really fun to do music because we've been working with Adam Barry, the same composer since Kim Possible. So we have a really great relationship with him, of just hitting him with lyrics and him turning around a great song in a day or two, or something. So it was kind of fun to do that, and that the 11s allowed more music, and sillier comedy, and different… The board artists and the directors, we really gave them free reign to explore different ways to depict some of this stuff and use different techniques. So it has a pretty different feel. The [season premiere], the 22 minutes sort of intro to the new setup, is a little more of the traditional style. It was kind of a transition. It gets pretty wild in the 11s as we go along.
Mark:
But in terms of a few teases that I don't think are spoiling anything, because they're at the heart of what the episode's about without revealing surprises. But we do get to see a Fred romance episode, which was a lot of fun. For Go Go fans out there. If anyone has ever wondered what she would be like as a children's show host, we get to explore that. The 11s were a great way to put the spotlight on different characters that in a 22, you're hitting everybody briefly. But we got to… And we have an episode where Honey Lemon makes a very significant contribution to the mass transit system of San Francisco, so some real surprises. There's some pretty crazy stuff.
Laughing Place:
Do we get to see Baymax running on low battery more?
Mark:
We love it. The writers love it. Scott loves doing it. The only thing we have to do, I think, sometimes as showrunners is say, "We can't overplay that."
Nick:
But we do get it. He does run out of juice.
Bob:
And so does Mini-Max, which is equally entertaining.
Laughing Place:
So speaking of Mini-Max, he was a great innovation that was unique to the series. Can you talk a little bit about his… The inspiration in creating the Scrappy-Doo to Baymax's Scooby-Doo?
Bob:
The funny thing is the first time we introduced him when we were recording Scott, his first reaction was, "We're adding Scrappy-Doo?" So I think when we did… Maybe when we did the chibi shorts with Baymax. The idea of just a tiny Baymax was super cute. And I came up with the idea of that scale differences between the big round Baymax and this tiny little thing that can shoot around, and be so upbeat, and be sort of Fred's id.
Mark:
And I think tiny with Mini-Max, that he's so supremely confident in spite of his stature. He thinks he's Superman flying around.
Bob
Yeah, and I think that's the… I'm not sure that we had originally intended him to be as prominent as he is, but the design was so fun. And John Michael Higgins, who does the voice, is fantastic. And even, it's just a lot of fun to use.
Mark:
These 11s where the boarders and directors were doing some things visually, cinematically, that are a little more non-sequitur, pushing the cartoon limits. He's a character who lends itself to that very well.
Nick:
I think he is such a confident, intrusive character that it's hard to keep him out of moments, because he wants to jump in there and have his opinion on things.
Laughing Place:
People are now rediscovering Kim Possible through Disney+. Do you have any thoughts on, now that your shows are so accessible, you don't have to tune in on a certain time and people are able to rediscover it? Does that mean anything to you as creators?
Bob:
It's great to have a new generation discover it. Luckily Kim Possible was made in HD even before it could air in HD. So I think visually, in the design and everything, holds up really well. Other than the technology of everyone has a communicator now, it's not quite as special.
Mark:
That's the royalty I wish we were getting, forget the Naco.
Bob:
Even shows like Hercules that we always loved but didn't quite get the attention it merited at the time, I think, is on Disney+. So it's great to be able to go back.
Mark:
It's fun knowing that people can discover stuff again. But Sky High is another one. Sky High, every now and then I'll see a tweet, or something, where somebody is like, "Boy, I love this movie." And it's like, well, that means a lot to us. That something you worked on connected at the time, but can still connect to people. Or either someone new discovers it, or somebody has fond memories of it. I'll take either.
The third season of Big Hero 6 The Series debuts September 21st on Disney XD and the DisneyNOW app. The first two seasons, as well as Kim Possible, Sky High, and Hercules: The Series are available on Disney+.