On Christmas Day there will be a different way to watch basketball for the New York Knicks vs. San Antonio Spurs game. Airing at 12:00 PM ET on Disney+, ESPN2, and ESPN+, Dunk the Halls is an animated approach to the game. It is a real-time recreated animated broadcast of the game that won’t just see the players turned into animated characters. It will also see Mickey and his friends joining in on the fun. It is a broadcast that will bring fans of Disney and basketball together to enjoy this dynamic sporting event.
The premise behind this broadcast is that Mickey wishes for an NBA basketball game on Main Street, USA at Walt Disney World. He writes this wish down in the letter to Santa, who grants his wish! The result is a live recreation of the Knicks vs. Spurs game on Main Street at Magic Kingdom. Along with the animated version of the players, Daisy Duck will be a sideline reporter with Drew Carter as the play-by-play commentator with Monica McNutt. Carter and McNutt will also be animated in real-time. This will be “captured” by Santa’s elves running the skycam and some other fun bits of Disney holiday magic.
Throughout the game, fans will see Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, Goofy and Chip and Dale cheering on the teams. The characters will also be sharing some fun things about basketball. There will also be a slam dunk contest during halftime with all of these characters, which could prove to be quite amusing.
Ahead of this broadcast, Daps Magic was invited to sit down on Zoom with some of the creators of Dunk the Halls. This included ESPN Vice President of Production, Phil Orlins, ESPN Senior Director of Creative Animation, David Sparrgrove, NBA Senior Vice President of Broadcasting and Content Management, Paul Benedict, Chief Executive Officer of Sony’s Beyond Sports, Sander Schouten, and ESPN Play-by-Play Announcer, Drew Carter.
During the event, Paul Benedict was asked about the event and how the game was chosen. He replied saying that it seemed fitting for the Spurs-Knicks game as it follows “the Disney Parks Magical Christmas Parade Special.” He continued and said that “fans will get to experience a first of its kind, live, animated Dunk the Halls Alt Cast emanating from a virtual Main Street, USA in Disney Magic Kingdom on ESPN2, Disney+, and ESPN+. This special presentation will feature Mickey and friends. Some of whom you saw (referencing a video that was shown): Goofy, Pluto, Minnie, and others.”
He also acknowledged the two commentators Drew Carter and Monica McNutt will “really bring this to life.” He proudly said that the broadcast “will feature animated players from the Spurs and Knicks. First Alt Cast to feature customized player animation and driven by Hawk-Eye player tracking data to make this all really come to life.”
Phil Orlins hopped in to share about the challenges that the team faced when making this broadcast, from a technological standpoint. This included the animation, the tracking of the characters in the live game, recreating it into an animated form, and also making it all look right. After all, there are characters that are three feet tall to seven feet, which he estimated Goofy stands at.
“It’s really amazing, when you stop and think about it, the tracking and the fact that these players — these Disney characters can be on the court working off the data of 6-1/2 or 7-foot NBA player, and yet the dribbles and the jumping and the dunks and all that looks so authentic and real for an animated character. Again, this is happening in real time. This is taking data that is placing the ball where a 7-footer jumps to dunk that has to be recreated so Donald Duck with webbed feet can make the same movement. It’s really a magical thing they do,” Orlins said.
Sander Schouten took over the conversation and shared more about the process, particularly how much goes into making things work. He said, “our algorithms have to do a lot to overcome problems for a small character actually jumping really high. With the Simpsons Alt Cast, we had to make sure it ended up in their hands, but now we actually need to, in a believable way, in our algorithms make a small mouse get all the way up to the rim to make a dunk, if that happens in the real game.”
He concluded his thoughts by saying, “working with the Disney characters, I could say is a dream come true. Somebody earlier asked me if I had a favorite, but this is sort of all my favorites put together.”
Animation and storytelling were addressed by ESPN Senior Director of Creative Animation, David Sparrgrove. He shared about figuring out the “why” behind the game happening on Main Street and the story that developed from the initial premise. He also shared that there will be animated roll-ins with moments throughout the broadcast. This includes the Dunk Contest that will be held during halftime. There also will be moments that explain the game for those who may not know the ins and outs of basketball. This will be done in a fun and animated way.
Sparrgrove said, “We’re going to have ten of these that talk about different aspects of the game, and I think they’re really, really wonderful. It also kind of underscores the level of animation that the team uses to create these incredible kind of teaching moments.”
He wrapped up by talking about the amount of work going into making the animated characters look like their real-life counterparts. He also expressed the importance of the on air talent.
After finishing up his segment, he was asked about the castle in the background. He clearly was quite excited and proud about the environment that was created for this broadcast. “I should mention we fully built out Main Street, USA, so we have castle in the background on one end. We have the train station on the other. Then we worked with the Disney Parks to get accurate 3D models of all of the storefronts that are there, worked very closely with them to make sure that that area was represented well.”
He continued, “I mean, it just — I have to say that of all of the Alt Casts that I’ve worked on, this one is beautiful. It is just beautiful. From the work that Sander with Beyond Sports has done, all the animations. We worked very, very, very closely with brand marketing and the Disney animation team, worked with legendary animator Eric Goldberg, showing him animations and getting notes from him.”
He concluded by saying “It’s been a company-wide kind of collaboration, and it’s beautiful. The Alt Cast is going to be beautiful.”
The videos and photos that were shown during this event back that up. He later returned to the effort that was spent to recreating the characters and environment. This included even getting a lessons on the characters. He said about Eric Goldberg, “He gave us like kind of a tutorial of kind of dos and don’ts to look for.”
During the following Q&A part of the event, multiple questions about the broadcast were asked. From these questions and answers, it became clear that the alt broadcast experience is one that continues to grow and evolve for the better with each broadcast. This means better animation, better interactions, better technology, and better storytelling. The result is a better viewing experience.
Dunk the Halls will be broadcast at noon eastern time on Christmas Day on Disney+, ESPN+, and ESPN2. This looks like it will be a fun way to watch a basketball game for Disney and basketball fans alike. It also could continue to lead to bigger and better things in the future! It is quite possible that Dunk the Halls will be a slam dunk for ESPN.
