"Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion." It seems like it was only yesterday when our favorite robot nurse was introduced and captured our hearts. After eight years of missing his gentleness, physically and figuratively, Baymax is back to extend his programmed goal—to help people and to improve the world's overall health condition.
Baymax! (2022) is the second animated spinoff series of the acclaimed movie Big Hero 6 (2014). It centers solely on the sweet, inflatable, and cute-looking robot, Baymax, as he patrols around San Fransokyo, attending to people who need medical attention. The series consists of six episodes, each lasting under 10 minutes. Each narrative is inclined to impart a little medical knowledge, but all the more comforting life lessons.
Baymax's re-entrance on the screen is just in time as the world continues to gripple around the burden brought by the COVID pandemic. From people's health declining to losing lives and dreams, that results in diminishing mental health. We are constantly facing societal issues: abortion, gun violence, and good governance, among others. Clearly, the current times are hard to get by, but fictional characters like Baymax offer a tiny consolation that we all could use from time to time.
BAYMAX! Episode Guide
Without giving too much away, in the first episode of the series, Baymax helps an elderly woman named Kiko who has a degradation of joint cartilage, but Kiko faces a deeper pain which is the loss of her husband. Grief is something we all share at this time of pandemic. Some of us are afraid to walk forward because we feel like we are leaving our dead loved one behind, but little did we know that we can still honor their memories while not losing our capabilities to make new ones. We just gotta stop beating ourselves up.
Episode 2 focuses on Aunt Cass, the owner of The Lucky Cat cafe, who sprains her ankle and has to take time to recover while Baymax runs the business. The major problem is Aunt Cass's inability to let go of responsibility and ask for help. We all feel that right now, we fear asking for help because we feel like no one will do the job better than us. We are afraid of failure and the terrifying ordeal of getting left behind, which eventually affects our mental health, or worse, our physical condition.
We all know how Baymax gives his medical advice. First, he will scan the person and ask them, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?" This is a fundamental question because only when we acknowledge that we are feeling something and accept that it could be intense, can we begin to know how we can cure it. This question is also an assurance that it's okay if it hurts. It's okay to acknowledge your pain and its intensity because you need to attend to the wound as soon as you can, because the pain you're feeling deserves to be lessened. No one deserves to go wandering in this world feeling something heavy just because they are afraid of acknowledging it and asking for help.
The minisodes are for everyone
Another aspect that makes the miniseries Baymax great is its diversity because some episodes include transgender and gay characters. It also normalizes discussing topics that make people uneasy, like menstruation. Baymax assures the audience that menstruation is normal because it is biology, and little girls having it should not see it as something that will take their childhood away because they are still children who need help dealing with such situations.
As we all go through our rough places, may we never forget to accept consoling on-screen characters like Baymax, because it's also a way of teaching ourselves to welcome real-life people who bring the same compassion. It's safe to say that the gratitude goes to the writers, board artists, animators, directors, and everyone involved in making the story for giving back Baymax at this time when he is most needed.
All six episodes of Baymax are currently streaming on Disney+.
