Scott Adsit

Baymax squeezes round a bedroom, knocks things over and puts them back, while Scott Adsit supplies a voice that remains courteous throughout. In Big Hero 6 (2014), the inflatable nurse has two dots and a line for a face, and Adsit does not try to compensate by making the voice busy. He keeps it flat and unhurried, as though this were a perfectly ordinary medical visit. It is a finely judged performance, and the clearest reason we have to seek out his work.

Before Baymax, Adsit was already doing several jobs in animation: he co-wrote, co-directed and co-produced Moral Orel (2005–2008) with Dino Stamatopoulos, as well as voicing multiple characters. 30 Rock (2006) gave him seven seasons as Pete Hornberger, producer and friend to Liz Lemon. We value that programme for its sharp writing and expertly judged foolishness, with Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin providing the workplace friction. Adsit's grounded, beleaguered presence fits an ensemble in which somebody needs to look as though this is still a job.

Big Hero 6 makes that conscientiousness the centre of a character. Baymax assesses human troubles, including grief, on a medical scale of one to ten, and Adsit never adds a knowing emphasis to tell us how funny this is. We laughed out loud at his low-battery slur, because the normally careful speech becomes so convincingly unsteady. The warmth depends on that earlier steadiness: his concern does not disappear when the film needs a joke. Our reservation is with the film around him, which becomes a familiar superhero exercise once it puts everyone in armour.

He returned to the part in Big Hero 6: The Series (2017–2021). The limitation elsewhere is how briefly many films use him: he plays a doctor in We're the Millers (2013), one of several supporting appearances. We would welcome more parts that let him sustain a character rather than make a short visit. There is no need to make him louder.