Lisa Simpson as soon as mentioned throughout an episode of “The Simpsons:” What may very well be extra thrilling than the savage ballet that’s professional soccer?
On Monday night time, your entire Simpsons universe will get to expertise it in a manner not many might have imagined.
The prime-time matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys may also happen at Springfield’s Atoms Stadium as a part of “The Simpsons Funday Football” alternate broadcast.
The altcast will probably be streamed on ESPN+, Disney+, and NFL+ (on cell units). ESPN and ABC have the principle broadcast, whereas ESPN2 will carry the ultimate “ManningCast” of the common season.
The replay will probably be obtainable on Disney+ for 30 days. Globally, greater than 145 international locations could have entry to both dwell or on replay.
“We’re such huge football fans, and the Simpsons audience and the football audience, I feel, are like the same audience of just American families and football. And the Simpsons are so much a part of the DNA of the American family and culture that for us to, like, mush them together in this crazy video game, it’s so fun,” mentioned Matt Selman, government producer of “The Simpsons.”
Whereas the sport is the point of interest, the alternate broadcast, in some methods, will resemble a three-hour episode of “The Simpsons.” It begins with Homer consuming too many sizzling canine and having a dream whereas watching soccer.
Homer joins the Cowboys within the dream whereas Bart groups up with the Bengals. Lisa and Marge will probably be sideline reporters.
“That’s the beginning of the story, and the story continues through the entire game until Homer wakes up from his dream at the end of the game. It is like a complete story, and the NFL game will happen in between. It’s just going to be an amazing presentation with tons of surprises,” mentioned Michael “Spike” Szykowny, ESPN’s VP of edit and animation.
That is the second 12 months ESPN has performed an alternate broadcast for an NFL recreation. It used the characters from “Toy Story” for final 12 months’s Sunday morning recreation from London between the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars.
“The Simpsons” has featured many sports-themed episodes throughout its 35 seasons. Despite the fact that “Homer at the Bat” stays the consensus favourite sports activities episode for a lot of Simpsons followers, there have been soccer ones akin to “Bart Star” and “Lisa The Greek.” There additionally was a Tremendous Bowl-themed one after Fox’s broadcast of Tremendous Bowl 33 between Denver and Atlanta in 1999.
Despite the fact that “The Simpsons” stays a staple on Fox’s prime-time schedule, it’s a part of the Disney household after their acquisition of twentieth Century Fox in 2019. All 35 seasons are on Disney+.
The present’s creators have labored with ESPN and the NFL to verify the look and sound is unquestionably Simpsonsesque.
The theme tune is a mash-up of “The Simpsons” opening and “Monday Night Football’s” iconic “Heavy Action.”
There have additionally been pre-recorded skits and bits to make use of through the broadcast that includes Simpson’s legendary voices Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, and Yeardley Smith.
The telecast will probably be solely animated, with the gamers’ actions in sync with what is going on in real-time on the sector. That’s performed via player-tracking information enabled by the NFL’s Subsequent Gen Stats system and Sony’s Past Sports activities Know-how.
Whereas Subsequent Gen Stats tracks the place gamers are on the sector with a monitoring chip within the shoulder pads, there may be skeletal information monitoring and limb monitoring information — which makes use of 29 factors per participant — to get nearer to the participant’s actions.
The opposite information monitoring will enable Past Sports activities and Disney so as to add particular characters to the sport. For instance, there is perhaps a play the place Lisa catches the ball and goes 30 yards as a substitute of Cincinnati’s Tee Higgins.
“Lisa is much smaller than the rest of the players. So, in real life, the ball would go over her head, but now, with data processing, we can take the ball and make it go exactly into her hands. So for the viewer, it still looks believable, and it all makes sense,” mentioned Past Sports activities co-founder Nicolaas Westerhof.
The opposite main problem is making “The Simpsons” two-dimensional cartoon characters into 3-D simulations. Szykowny and his crew labored to make {that a} actuality over the previous couple of months.
“That’s a big leap of faith for them to say, hey, we trust you to make our characters 3-D and work with it. Our ESPN creative studio team has done a wonderful job,” Szykowny mentioned.
Lisa, Krusty, Nelson, Milhouse and Ralph will probably be with Bart and the Bengals; whereas Carl, Barney, Lenny and Moe be a part of up with with Homer and the Cowboys.
The published may also characteristic ESPN personalities Stephen A. Smith, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning.
ESPN’s Drew Carter, Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky will name the sport from Bristol, Connecticut, and likewise be animated. They’ll put on Meta Quest Professional headsets to expertise the sport from Springfield utilizing VR expertise.
For Kimes, being a part of the printed and being an animated Simpsons character is a dream come true. She is an enormous fan of the present and has a framed picture of Lisa Simpson — who she mentioned is a private hero and icon — as a part of her backdrop when she makes appearances on ESPN NFL exhibits from her house in Los Angeles.
“I didn’t have any input, and I didn’t see anything beforehand, so I wasn’t sure if it would look like me, but it kind of does, which is very funny,” mentioned Kimes, who drew Simpsons characters when she was a child. “To see the actual staff turn me into one was a dream.”
Despite the fact that the Bengals (4-8) and Cowboys (5-7) have struggled this season, Selman thinks each groups have personalities that attraction to “The Simpsons” universe.
“We were just so lucky also that the Cowboys are sort of like a Homer Simpson-type team, American team, and Mike McCarthy might be a Homer-type guy, one might imagine,” he mentioned. ”After which you will have Joe Burrow on the opposite facet who’s a cool younger, spiky-haired, blonde unhealthy boy — he’s like Bart. And that matches our character archetypes so completely.
“If Homer is mad at Bart and has a hot dog dream while watching ’Monday Night Football’, and then it’s basically McCarthy versus Burrow, Homer versus Bart, and that’s the simple father versus son strangling — Homer strangling Bart dynamic that has been part of the show for 35 years. I don’t know if that would have worked as well if it was like Titans versus Jacksonville. We would have found something. We would have made it work.”
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