On the second episode of Big Hero 6: The Series‘ sophomore season, a not-so-mysterious thief was stealing valuable food from around San Fransokyo, including Fred’s mansion. Meanwhile, the whole team was struggling to adapt to Granville’s knowledge of their identities, as well as her hardly subtle attempts to help coordinate their activities. Fortunately, when the team get locked up in an “impantryable” pantry, it’s up to Granvile and Baymax to save them!
1. She’s Shady Alright
As I suspected last week, there’s something shady about Liv Amara, and the episode wastes no time from the start, revealing she’s in cahoots with Momakase, striking a deal with her to steal some expensive food – white cheese, truffles, and caviar – in exchange for genetic enhancements. I’m a bit surprised they revealed this so soon, which makes you wonder what other wheels they’ll spin for the rest of the season.
2. Toon City Animation
This episode was animated by a studio new to the show, Toon City, who are also based in the Philippines with primary production house Snipple. That’s great, as I was pretty critical of Danish studio Nørlum’s jerky work on the first season, and hopefully there’s more consistency between both groups of animators now that they’re basically working next door. Anyway, Toon City really bring a new dynamic edge to the fight scenes, with backgrounds turning into anime-inspired lines of speed, and moving the camera around like a steadicam too, especially during Granville and Momakase’s climactic bout.
3. Guess Who
Did you figure out who the “Seventh Wheel” was? Overall, this episode was a pretty obvious story of a group of friends having to deal with an overbearing mother figure who just wants to be in on the fun, and both parties realizing they mean well. It does lead to a lot of fun moments, like Granville using her scary security robots from last season to serve vegetables, and reminding the team to maintain their physical fitness. I thought Fred’s line about loving having Granville around to think for them was particularly great, as I reckon it’s very true for a lot of men.
4. Last Place You’d Suspect
The team realizing that Momakase’s restaurant was hosting the fancy dinner for Fred and his mom felt a bit predictable too, and it’s also pretty outlandish that she can just resume her day job after escaping from jail. That said, it does become the last place Big Hero 6 think to look, so it was a fun reminder that even a group as brilliant as our heroes can overthink things sometimes.
5. If Wolverine and Deathstrike Had a Kid
Momakase’s enhancements graft her incredibly sharp knives into her fingers, basically turning her into Lady Deathstrike from the X-Men franchise: in a sense, she is now the most blatant exported character from the Marvel Comics Universe. It also gives her enhanced senses with cat-like eyes, and at the end of the episode she finally transforms into a fanged furry monster. Gotta say, I’m a little sad to see that, she was a cool looking character and now she looks like a bad X-Men cosplay. (It’s also rather derivative of what Greg Weisman did to Wolf and Kraven in Gargoyles and The Spectacular Spider-Man.) Seeing her wolf out and leap away was an unintentionally hilarious way to end the episode too.
Bonus thoughts:
– Is Granville dating Warden Gary? They played saxophone music when she showed her photo of him, that always means they find each other attractive in a cartoon.
– How does Richardson Mole get an invite to such a fancy dinner?
– No mention of Fred’s dad (voiced by the late Stan Lee) beyond Fred wearing the Boss Awesome movie underwear.
– Low battery Baymax continues to always be hilarious: “Guys, I do not have a mouth. Weiiird.”
We’ll return next time for a look at season 2 episode 3, “Prey Date.”
