Attraction: The Happy Ride with Baymax
Park: Tokyo Disneyland
Debut: September 28, 2020
When The Happy Ride with Baymax opened at Tokyo Disneyland in September of 2020, it was just one more example of a whip-ride at a Disney Park. Attractions like Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree and Alien Swirl Saucers predated it, themed after the Cars and Toy Story franchises respectively.
What set The Happy Ride with Baymax apart was not only the fact that it was Disney’s first attraction themed to the film Big Hero 6, but it’s outstanding soundtrack. The attraction had a simple premise. As explained on the official Tokyo Disneyland page, “The brilliant young inventorHiro Hamada learned from his robotic personal healthcare companion Baymax that the first step in making people healthy is to make them happy, so he and Baymax developed this wild, musical ride that is sure to make everyone happy.” In keeping with the theme, each song on the soundtrack is an upbeat number that practically screams for you to get up and dance. If you weren’t so busy getting spun silly. The soundtrack featured six original songs:
- “B.A.Y.M.A.X”
- “A New Angle (New Perspective)”
- “Happy Song”
- “Ba la la la la la la la la”
- “Koo Loo Lee”
- “One Sweet Ride (Cool Ride)
Each track is so catchy and infused with so much energy that it would have been easy to gush about all six, but it didn’t seem like the best editorial decision. Forced with the painful task of selecting just one, I settled on “Happy Song” written by Matthew Tishler and Andrew Underberg.
A Canadian songwriter and producer, Tishler’s experience working with J-Pop and K-Pop artists made him a logical contributor to the project. Over the years he has worked with global sensations such as BTS, as well as pop stars like Olivia Rodrigo, Dove Cameron, and Nami Amuro.
His work with Disney includes credits on Disney Channel programs like Lemonade Mouth, Shake It Up, Austin & Ally, and others. Disney album credits include High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Descendants 3, and The Lodge.
Prior to his work on The Happy Ride with Baymax Soundtrack, Andrew Underberg had worked with Disney writing music for the Disney Channel comedy Bizaardvark. Outside of Disney, he has written songs for performers like JoJo Siwa and television programs like Team Kaylie.
Far from a one-off collaboration, Tishler and Underberg have also worked together on music for the Disney cartoon Hailey’s On It, the film The J Team, and music for various productions in the Barbie franchise.
In August of 2023, an instrumental version of song made its way to the United States as part of the ambient soundtrack for San Fransokyo Square at Disney California Adventure. Three other instrumental versions of songs from The Happy Ride with Baymax were also included: “B-A-Y-M-A-X,” “A New Angle (New Perspective” and “One Sweet Ride (Cool Ride).”
Make Mine Music 