Key Points from the Article
- ESPN, The Walt Disney Company, and the National Football League have collaborated to create Toy Story Funday Football, a unique football game presentation featuring characters from Pixar Animation Studios.
- The Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars game at London’s Wembley Stadium will be presented live in a full animation setup, replacing human players with Toy Story characters in real-time.
- The presentation is a part of ESPN’s innovation strategy, marking its latest effort to provide alternate telecasts of key events for a bigger audience.
- Technology such as state-of-the-art tracking and Beyond Sports is utilised to animate each action and move of the football game into its Toy Story version.
- In addition to the animated gameplay, the project will also feature other game elements like the announcers, the graphics, the scoreboard, and penalty announcements in Toy Story style.
- Fans can watch the special halftime show, featuring Duke Caboom’s daredevil motorcycle jump!
- A replay will be available in the U.S. after the game ends on Disney+ and NFL+ for a limited time. Globally, it will be available in over 95 markets live and/or on replay.
- Michael “Spike” Szykowny, Senior Director, ESPN Creative Studio, revealed the back-end process, including how the project was built upon previous presentations and the challenges in animating football actions compared to hockey.
- Michael acknowledged that such alternate broadcasts are significant for expanding the audience and engaging the casual viewer, citing examples from the audience’s reaction to their previous event, Big City Greens.
- The successful collaboration between ESPN, Pixar, and the NFL intends to create more such novel broadcasts in the future where they can make the most impact.
The Realist’s Take
Without missing a beat, ESPN, Disney, Pixar and the NFL have pulled a “Buzz Lightyear” and gone to infinity and beyond with a project that, at first glance, seems more like a fever dream than a Monday staff meeting. But we live in a world where the impossible happens before breakfast, so why not replace hulking football players with cute animated toys? The Toy Story Funday Football sweeps us off our feet, really, not unlike how Woody sweeps Bo Peep off hers! The audacious leap to create a fully-animated, real-time, football game in the chaotic world of Andy’s room is nothing less than a touchdown in imagination. And let’s face it, we all need some intoxicating software-laden wizardry after watching grown men in helmets crash into each other. In a universe where originality is harder to locate than a parking spot at the mall on Black Friday, we applaud this heartfelt and hilarious fusion of sports and beloved characters. And if all else fails, there’s always Duke Caboom’s halftime spectacular to keep the adrenaline pumping.
https://d23.com/an-animated-behind-the-scenes-look-at-espns-toy-story-funday-football/
