Funday Football Returns To ESPN+, Disney+; Brings Bengals-Cowboys To Springfield
Funday Football Returns To ESPN+, Disney+; Brings Bengals-Cowboys To Springfield
Project Arcturus may very well be reaching its next stage with this second NFL stunt
Nickelodeon’s football was good, but Disney’s football in the groin has a football in the groin! The Walt Disney Company, the National Football League and ESPN are bringing back Funday Football, as announced during Monday’s game between the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers. Funday Football was inaugurated last season on Sunday, October 1 during a Week 4 London game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Atlanta Falcons. It was an animated alternative broadcast on ESPN+ and Disney+ in the world of Toy Story, specifically Andy’s bedroom, aimed toward kids and families. This year, we’re several weeks past week 4, and it’s being taken to Springfield, the home of The Simpsons.
With all London games already over with, this Football Funday will be a “standard” Week 14 game with an actual home team. And this game? It will have a Cowboy, man. It’s Monday Night Football on December 9 between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys. In fact, the London games being over for the season caused the designation of an ESPN+-exclusive Monday Night Football game earlier in October, and turned out the lowest Monday Night Football ratings ever. The game’s Springfield location will be Atoms Stadium, and will be afforded the luxury that TAG-related productions like Nickelodeon’s NFL Nickmas and Super Bowl LVIII: Live from Bikini Bottom had but the inaugural Funday Football couldn’t being several weeks out from the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike: voice acting and general performance. Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner and Yeardley Smith, and reportedly more will lend their voices to prerecorded segments and skits written by the Simpsons production team. They will run before and during the game, some of which will involve involve players from each team and ESPN talent like Stephen A. Smith and resident alternate telecasters (and Simpsons guest stars past) Peyton and Eli Manning. The surroundings look to be the traditional 2D style while the characters are in 3D CG, at the very least resembling the models used for the “Toy Gory” segment of 2020’s “Treehouse of Horror XXXI” in season 32.
Ay caramba, Bart and Homer are picking sides, with Bart rooting for and joining the Bengals while Homer gets even closer to his dream of owning the Cowboys by playing with them. It’s nice at least that one of the teams here has some Simpsons relevance related to one of the many famous scenes over the show’s 37-year history as the main series celebrates its 35th anniversary on December 17. And yes, playing with them at key offensive and defensive opportunities, replacing a player at those times. Marge and Lisa will interview players during the game and Maggie will fly the SkyCam, which will allow the sight of numerous Easter eggs and references as the rest of Springfield surrounds the game. When Lisa isn’t working with her mother, she’ll be joining Bart, Nelson, Milhouse, Ralph, and Krusty(?!?) in rooting for the Bengals while Carl, Barney, Lenny, and Moe will root for Homer and the Cowboys. Once again, Harry Shearer is absent from festivities, just like he didn’t participate in The Simpsons Ride or the Family Guy crossover “The Simpsons Guy” which was the season 13 premiere. Alex Desert hasn’t been confirmed yet but Shearer’s billing a
On the telecast, each player will appear motion-enabled and animated and utilize state-of-the-art tracking technology enabled by NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Sony’s Beyond Sports, combined with Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations’ optical tracking. Sony’s Beyond Sports “makes it possible to combine two data sources, analyze, validate, enhance, translate to a 3D environment, and stream to a desired platform in real-time”. Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations’ optical tracking creates “dynamic player and character movement including detailed limb movement and mannerisms”. Drew Carter, Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky will be animated in the Simpsons style while calling the game, Carter as the play-by-play and Kimes and Orlovsky as analysts. They will wear ESPN Edge Innovation Partner’s Meta Quest Pro headsets to experience the game from Springfield thanks to VR technology and Sony’s Beyond Sports’ Virtual Commentator Technology, in contrast to Nickelodeon’s motion-capture. The regular broadcast will still be called by Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on ESPN, ABC and ESPN+, with the Manningcast led by the aforementioned Manning brothers on ESPN2 and on ESPN+.
If you’re wondering what this season’s going to look like for the NFL on Nickelodeon, well obviously they don’t have the Super Bowl because they just had it and it rotates away like normal. Unfortunately they’ve also lost Christmas to Netflix, but as of August they’ve also been assured they are keeping a Wild Card Game. The December 17 35th anniversary will see even more Simpsons content for Disney+, with the exclusive premiere of the double-length Christmas episode “O C’mon All Ye Faithful”. Watch the Funday Football promo below.
Source: The Walt Disney Company press release
Don't pimp my Springfield, Disney.