His story may have been a bit like Batman, but the story was all Marvel. After Hiro Hamada’s brother Tadashi dies in an explosion caused by an evil scientific mastermind, he uses his brother’s large inflatable health aid and his friends to fight crime and find the kabuki mask-wearing villain. That’s what happened in 2014 in Disney’s blockbuster Big Hero 6. Now, in the semi-minimalist animation style of their recent movie and series comebacks, Disney XD brings back these familiar characters. 

Upon starting college, Hiro (Ryan Potter) finds Tadashi’s lab, immediately finding a way to bring back Baymax (Scott Adsit), his inflatable friend and superhero buddy. Meanwhile, the school’s new dean, Professor Granville (Jenifer Lewis), has her own ideas about education, and those don’t include freshmen using upperclassmen labs for their own projects. Then again, the only way Fred’s plan to get the gang together to be superheroes again will be to build a new body for Baymax.

The pilot movie of the Big Hero 6 series returns with the same charm of all the movie’s characters, all voiced by their original actors. Despite the drop in funds from the movie to TV, this aspect of the story helps transition smoothly from big to small screen without losing the audience. All of this, plus much more, including Fred (Brooks Wheelan).

If for any reason you haven’t seen the movie, or even worse have skipped out on post-credits material, you will have missed the amazing reveal that Fred’s dad, who had been on vacation throughout the film, was once a superhero also. Even more, his dad is Stan Lee (Did you expect anything else from a Marvel movie?). While he is not seen in the pilot movie, Stan Lee will make an appearance later in the new series, this time possibly even being part of the story rather than a side character.

While the regular series doesn’t return until next year, starting this weekend a new short will premiere on TV and online for 6 weeks. I don’t know what to expect from the full series or shorts, but based on this pilot, it will be on my list of series to catch up with weekly.