The Greatest Power You Have Is Your Mind

During my recent press event in Los Angeles for the Disney*Pixar Coco event, I had a fun time at the Disney TV Animation building. We arrived bright and early, had some breakfast, and then were treated to a super special sneak peek of the one-hour TV movie “Baymax Returns”,” which premieres November 20, 2017 8-9 pm EST on Disney XD and Disney Channel.

The movie was amazing and serves as the pilot for the upcoming TV series. It is, once again, set in the fictional city of San Fransokyo, and picks up where we left off with tears at the end of Big Hero 6, the touching and groundbreaking feature film that won Walt Disney Animation Studios an Academy Award. It’s definitely a family favorite!

“Big Hero 6 The Series” continues the adventures and friendship of 14-year-old tech genius Hiro and his compassionate, cutting-edge robot Baymax.

Along with their friends Wasabi, Honey Lemon, Go Go, and Fred, they form the legendary superhero team Big Hero 6 and embark on high-tech adventures as they protect their city from an array of scientifically enhanced villains.

Hiro discovers the chip his brother Tadashi designed to create Baymax. 14-year-old tech genius Hiro begins school as the new prodigy at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology and sets off to rebuild Baymax, but his overconfidence and penchant for taking shortcuts lead him and the newly minted Big Hero 6 team – Wasabi, Honey Lemon, Go Go and Fred – into trouble.

After we saw Baymax Returns and clapped like crazy, we had a private Q&A with Emmy Award-winners Mark McCorkle, Bob Schooley and Nick Filippi, the team behind the global hit Disney Channel series “Kim Possible,” who is bringing the Big Hero 6 gang back. They were so gracious to answer our questions, give us a tour of the Disney TV Animation building, and even take a selfie with me 🙂 The walls are decorated with our favorite Disney characters, a timeline of our favorite Disney moments, and interesting trivia.

Even the wallpaper was a wondrous display of the magic and wonder of Disney. I think you can see jacquins from Elena of Avalor in this particular photo. And speaking of animation, Nick Filipi told us that though they really loved what they did with Kim Possible, they decided to do Baymax Returns “in traditional hand-drawn animation, where the feature was computer-generated 3D animation,” and they were referencing another one of our favorite features: 101 Dalmatians.

We chose to go with hand-drawn animation partially because we wanted to create a new world and look for the show. We wanted everybody to immediately recognize these characters, to embrace these characters that they fell in love with in the movie, but we wanted to have a fresh start on the show, so we chose hand-drawn animation similar to what Disney was doing in the 60’s…. Between our show, Tangled and DuckTales, I think there are three very good vital contemporary examples of how smart 2D art direction can make something a unique piece of entertainment onto itself.

I loved Baymax Returns because the characters stay true to the 2014 feature film, and we see the same heart of Big Hero 6, but we get to explore each character more in-depth and to see new themes and empowering messages to emerge. Ryan Potter affirms we will see more of his own true personality in Hiro because the series allowed him to collaborate more with the writers and creators.

“We don’t have to always stay true to the script.”

Mark McCorkle encourages people to chime in with ideas, ad-lib, or suggest what does or doesn’t feel right for a character. One interesting fact I learned is that everyone recorded their lines in different locations!

Mark McCorkle told us about the cast: 

“It’s probably the most varied on any show that Bob, Nick, and I have ever worked on”

He also said that they have a good mix with villains “on the gender front” and that we can expect new female villains in the series. Bob Schooley revealed that Katy Mixon is one of the series villains – and you know I love her on American Housewife. “We have really about half and half, male to female roles,” he said… and now I’m tempted to move to San Fransokyo LOL. And a varied cast makes for amazing characters!

You really get to feel like the characters and the actors are the same thing to a degree, you’re really writing for what you know they are.

When we asked the creators of Big Hero 6 The Series and Ryan Potter (the voice of Hiro), they all agreed their favorite is Honey Lemon! She seems to be everyone’s favorite, but if you love Marvel and comics, I suspect your favorite character will be Fred’s dad since it is voiced by Disney Legend and genius Stan Lee!

One of the things they talked about that I’m really looking forward to is learning more about Aunt Cass.

Maya Rudolph is super funny, super talented, but for me what was fun in that movie, the original movie, and we tried to carry it on. She’s a flawed caregiver. She’s not entirely confident, which to me is real. That’s how it is being a parent. You don’t have all the answers, so for us, that’s a really fun, rich character. And I think the relationship with Hiro in the movie, no offense (To Ryan) you’re a pretty bad kid.

This is totally relatable to us flawed moms with flawed kids. Hiro is a brilliant kid who makes bad choices, and I think we can all say that about our kids – and ourselves (although as women, we often don’t think of ourselves as brilliant and feel like we need to have all the answers before we can achieve that title).

Mark McCorkle tells us:

As soon as As soon as Bob [Schooley] and I first saw the movie on our way out, Bob turned to me and goes, it’s so refreshing to see science being positive, or being portrayed in a positive way. It’s nice that you have this group of kids that are all smart and being smart is cool.

I think this is a great message for our kids. I used to always be “the smart one” in my class and definitely NOT the coolest. For Elisha, being “the smart one” also meant being bullied. I’m really excited that Big Hero 6 The Series is communicating to us all that the greatest power you have is in your mind!

Ryan Potter: That’s one thing that’s never changed and I don’t think ever will change. At the heart of the story, it’s just a bunch of smart kids and every problem that they encounter, they tend to solve it with their wits.

Bob Schooley: … Other than Fred. Fred’s power is his imagination.

Ryan Potter:    It’s Fred’s instincts…

Mark McCorkle told us about a specific story they did with Hiro in which he feels like he doesn’t have a superpower:

…. and that’s the one where Stan Lee kind of gives him advice and he learns his superpower is his brain. Being smart is his superpower.

I don’t want to miss that one. Our kids need to feel that being smart, using your imagination, and following your instincts is something fun and cool.

But it’s all a balance, because as powerful as we may be, and a STEM prodigy or not, we all fail. There’s actually an episode that is personal to Mark McCorkle that teaches us that:

“We did an episode where Hiro graduated at the high school at the age of 13. He shoots from the hip and gets all A’s. And the first time he gets a failure, it’s tough and as a parent, you go through that with your kids. It’s the good stuff. It’s great when it’s all going great, but as soon as you have that first failure, you’re like ah, I want to magically fix this. So that to me is the part that seeps in.”

That last part hit me hard because I feel that way a lot. You have a four-year-old reading at a second-grade level and teens that are more accomplished than most adults and so it hits you and them hard when they make mistakes. And these are all good lessons we can all learn from as we explore the power that is our mind.

The Big Hero 6 The Series team is already producing the second season for this new series, they have 30 episodes under their belt so far. The regular episodes will begin airing early next year on Disney XD! 

So gather up the family and tune in on November 20 to watch Baymax Returns on the Disney Channel and Disney XD. Make sure to follow along with me on social media using Big Hero 6 The Series. Check out DisneyXD, Hashtag: #BigHero6 too!

What is the greatest power you have? I’m excited to hear all about it in the comments below.

Founder of the Positive MOM® and creator of the S.T.O.R.Y. System: a blueprint to craft and share powerful stories that will transform your results and help others do the same. Dr. Elayna Fernández is a single mom of 4, an award-winning Storyteller, Story Strategist, and Student of Pain. She’s a bestselling author, internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, and 5x TEDx speaker. She has spoken at the United Nations, received the President’s Volunteer Lifetime Achievement Award, and was selected as one of the Top Impactful Leaders and a Woman of Influence by SUCCESS Magazine. Connect with Elayna at thepositivemom.com/ef and follow @thepositivemom. To receive a gift from Elayna, click HERE.

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Stills courtesy of Disney XD