Sunday morning’s NFL game between the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars was played inside of Andy’s room within the Toy Story universe. Not in reality, but in fiction.
The actual game was played in London. However, Disney saw the success of Nickelodeon’s slimetime broadcasts over the last few years and decided to emulate the general idea.
To do so, they turned the first international game of the year into a really cool animated secondary broadcast called ‘Toy Story Funday Football.’ There was a lot of buzz (pun intended) around the unique way to watch football in which every element of the game, including the players, were digitized.
Come kickoff, everything was in place.
ESPN’s Toy Story broadcast was an overwhelming success.
The players were ready to take the field in Andy’s room and Woody and his fellow toys were set up on the sideline to take in the action.
Although some of the toys were able to relax in the stands, others were put to work! The claw was in charge of spotting the ball.
Aliens were manning the skycam.
Rex, the dinosaur, and some of his friends were in charge of in-game breakdowns. Though they might have been pre-recorded segments.
Meanwhile, Drew Carter and Booger McFarland made the trip over to Andy’s room for the call.
Although there were a few technical glitches throughout the morning, the broadcast mostly went off without a hitch and did a great job of translating the real-life action into the Toy Story universe. Even the sack celebrations!
Here is how it looked when Trevor Lawrence got loose during the first quarter:
Here was Bijan Robinson’s nasty juke in real life:
Here is how it looked in Andy’s Room:
In both instances, Robinson and Lawrence scampered for first downs. Slinky Dog had to go to work!
As a chain-based toy, it only made sense that he picked up a shift as the chain gang. Slinky Dog was in charge of marking the line to gain in lieu of the big orange sticks.
He did a great job with the measurements. It was awesome.
Disney spent weeks, if not months, putting together all of the assets for the first-ever Toy Story Funday Football broadcast. The mouse nailed it, and Slinky Dog as the chain gang was the highlight of the morning.
It might be time to get him on the sideline of every NFL game moving forward!